1961: WW1 Veterans return to Ypres | Tonight | BBC Archive
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- Tonight's Alan Whicker travels with British World War One veterans on a pilgrimage to the Flanders Fields battlefields near Ypres. While there, they will meet with German veterans of the conflict.
Over 40 years have passed since they fought on these fields as enemies, how do they feel now?
Originally broadcast 10 November, 1961.
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Lovely seeing actual WW1 veterans singing pack up your troubles
It’s mad how these guys were fairly old in the 60’s, yet we only lost the last veteran in 2009. All of them are heroes.
Will The Champion of buses 32 how many of these world war 1 veterans had sons serve in world war 2
In a probably another decade or two at most , we are losing the ww2 veterans too , if you really think about it.
It was actually 2012, his name was Florence Green. Considered the last “confirmable” soldier of the Great War to have died.
With so many countries fighting, many not keeping the best regulations on the ages of soldiers, we never will know in many cases.
@@garystadler5583 My wife's Grandfather fought in both. His two sons in WW2. All passed now. RIP, god bless.
@@stevonwhite8933Florence Green was a nurse who died in 2014
Fine tribute to the humblest of gentlemen.
Old Tommy talking to his German adversary...
"I shot at you and missed, and I'm jolly glad that I did" 🖤
Bloody hell. As a young lad in the 80s I used to ask the last of the ww1 men about there war . Its impossible to do so now. I miss those old lads.
i asked ww2 men about theirs and now they're almost all gone, we're losing our last direct touch to the real horrors of great power wars
My great uncle was wounded in the face and captured by the Germans. He had surgery from a German doctor, after the war they kept in touch with each other.
Bless them, true heroes, none left now 😢
they finally rest..
My grandfather was wounded by shrapnel in 1915 and shot in the leg by a German three hours before the armistice. He was my hero as a small boy and in fact that generation all stood so tall that we, a much later generation, would have to lean backwards and crane our necks upwards to look them in the face. God Bless Them All. Those of us who remember them will never forget.
And just look at what we’ve got now. Sam Smith and his worthless woke ilk.
I have always wondered if they knew it was going to be an armistice in the trenches. Did he know when he was wounded?
It's the dignity of these men that shines through. All passed away now, including Alan Whicker who treats these heroes with such respect.
When I first visited Ypres I could shake hands with a veteran, this made it living history and I’ve been gripped by it ever since.
My late father told me that when he began work, it was not uncommon for WW1 veterans to be lead away from their machines suffering from the after effects of mustard gas. They were relatively young men themselves but their health was broken. In many ways WW1 marked the end of an older era, and the introduction of killing on an industrial scale.
"killing on an industrial scale" ooof thats hard to swallow
My great grandfather and great uncle joined the Australian Imperial Force in WWI. My great grandfather was awarded the MM and my great uncle, a Gallipoli veteran was later gassed on the western front. He never really recovered and died in his sixties.
I visited the battlefields in 2018 and there was a large crowd at the Menin Gate bugle ceremony.
When I was 8....." why does grandad walk with a limp daddy?".....he was born like it my dad said. Years later after my grandad had passed he told me the truth. My nan had told him and was also told never to mention it. It's how they were back then. RIP grandad xx
It's good to see old veterans like this talking about how they lived and survived the war all those years ago. 1961 was a long time ago, but for these veterans it was a living nightmare having to deal with the aftermath of one's conscious of what and how they did it. As the great Douglas Macarthur once said "old soldiers never die, they just fade away into history." RIP all you soldiers and lest we forget.
They shall not grow old. As we who are left grow old, age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning.
We will remember them.
Lest we forget.
My great-grandmother's husband was one of the many who never returned from Ypres. Men of infinite courage.
Those wonderful men from a bygone world. Both heroic and tragic all at once. What a fantastic piece of respectful journalism.
My great uncle George McCarthy died at Ypres,Bless him ,his name is on the Menin gate
RIP George.
@@pooooornopigeon thank you
i remember meeting some ww1 vets in the 1960s as a kid. Everyone treated them with respect and the kids were all awestruck. Back then children were raised to treat their elders with respect. Not like today.
Young people don't respect boomers because boomers are the most worthless generation that ever existed
@@chairmanlmao4482A puerile comment.
"I bloody missed you, and im jolly that I did".
I was eleven when this was made and can remember Alan Whicker on the TV, from memory it was a nightly show and I think Panorama with David Dimbleby was weekly, correct me if I’m wrong. My grandad and his two brothers were in the British Army at Ypres and the Somme, I’ve still got a copy of his war diary. Miraculously all three brothers survived. In the diary he made almost daily entries at the start and it seemed like one big party for the first few weeks, then the diary tailed off when the bloodletting started. I remember when I was a kid the WW1 veterans seemed like old codgers, and the WW2 veterans were just your normal adult.
My grandmother's uncle fought at Gallipoli.
I remember being told that they marvelled at the idea of travelling to far away, exotic places..
I thought about that when you mentioned that the first few weeks seemed like some kind of party.
Poor fellas.
David's father, Richard.
2:29, no idea why but when they both turned and pointed in the same direction together, made it real.
This is a fantastic piece of footage.
Lest We Forget. Their sacrifices will not be forgotten.
If they lived today they would surely weep at what has become of Britain and European countries!
Certainly 😢
@user-jr2fm1sg6b No. They see that the EU means that we won't be fightback other again.
@andylane247 lovely sentiment, my friend, but war is coming. Put your nose to the air and you will smell it too. God bless 🇬🇧
@@countryman5329
If Wetherspoons is open, the war will be delayed !!!
@@countryman5329
Not if Wetherspoons is open !!!
I've just returned from Ypres today. It's an incredibly sobering experience, and just beggers belief how those men coped and carried on. And how many stayed. God bless them all.
They had to cope. If you didn't then there was a good chance of being shot for cowardice...
@@paulleach3612 they were obviously built of stern stuff, and they believed in the cause.
Amazing to see Alan Whicker again.
Wonderful that this is available for us to watch. Great to hear the veterans interviewed by brilliant Alan Whicker
Man this is very emotional. Heroes😥
What dignity, humility and great singing voices!
What a fantastic video. Gracious and brave men of a bygone era
God rest those beautiful souls xx
They were a different breed to people today , always had maximum respect for the WW1 and 2 vets of my youth always took the time to speak to you if in uniform , we were professionals , but these men were a breed apart
I love that former enemies who tried to kill each other in every way they could think of can come together like that many years later
If anyone can access it there is an unbelievably good series on the *BBC i-Player* where actual veterans, of both sides, talk about their experiences.
Truly great piece of TV. 👍
So much to learn from these poor old souls.
Went to Ypres on a school trip and it was mesmerising, incredible place
So many brave men 😢
Amazing footage, Lest We Forget. Truly a bygone generation.
When I was a child growing up in a small, mining and textile village in Yorkshire there was a group of these men who used to meet one day a week in the centre of the village. They all wore flat caps and they just sat together talking and smoking. I only saw them oddly during the October half term holidays which of course now becomes more significant as it would be approaching Remembrance Day. They were all very dignified but seldom seemed to smile. I wish I could have interviewed every single one of them to ask them of their life experiences but at the young age I was then I had no idea of their importance and significance to history. Time seemed to stop as me and my mates used to watch them. We knew that they were important men but did not really know why.
Between three and four hundred went into the attack and only 48 came out alive. Jeez. This war was brutal.
Still, a better survival rate than Russian soldiers in Ukraine today.
I think it's a casualty number. 48 came out, the rest dead or wounded.
Humbling!
Fun fact, the canadian statue commemorating the gas attacks you can see at 7:25 is an anachronism. It commemorates an event that took place in april(1915) but the soldier wears a helmet that would see service in the commonwealth many months later(September I believe).
My great grandfather Sapper Thomas Turner RE was killed it Ypres and is remembered on Menin Gate. He never had the chance to see his children grow up or his grandchildren. He was young when he was KIA in 1917 and quite possibly would have met me as a child. Sadly we still remember him.
Respect.
All school children should see these films
I don't agree about force-feeding kids history. If you are interested in it, you are interested in it and will gravitate towards it anyway. I didn't learn anything about WWI (or WWII) when I was at school in the 90s but I got fascinated myself and have studied it ever since. There is nothing worse than going to Tyne Cot Cemetery and having coach loads of bored school kids dicking about and getting in the way. You can't force a kid to 'care' about history.
@@leod-sigefast In the 70's and 80's it was taught in schools, it should be taught today Kids today cannot even be disciplined, this is why they misbehave in cemeteries et al..
They [Young People] have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things -- and that means having exalted notions. They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: Their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning -- all their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently. They overdo everything -- they love too much, hate too much, and the same with everything else.
(Aristotle)@@pooooornopigeon
@@pooooornopigeonThe world is passing through troublous times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behavior and dress."
(From a sermon preached by Peter the Hermit in A.D. 1274)
@@pooooornopigeon "I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise [disrespectful] and impatient of restraint".
(Hesiod, 8th century BC)
Alan Whicker wrote a book about his WW2 experiences and also made a TV series- Whicker's War- the book's name which is on YT and it makes for very interesting viewing. He was always well worth watching and the Tonight programme this was taken from was a springboard for his amazing Whicker's World programmes. It's not many TV icons who got such a memorable Monty Python skit, either!
The Great War,
"The war to end all wars."
what a glorious mustache
Fascinating and very moving.
Both my grandfathers served in WW1 and both survived.....
Hence your ability to write this message . Lucky for them, lucky for you!
Lord this did my heart good. ❤️🙏🏻
Beautiful singing!
Have been to visit battlefields and cemeteries very moving just standing in the places where these brave men fought we should never forget
Very touching, especially when meeting their former counterparts. I have seen similar clips of the American civil war veterans, meeting and shaking hands in the late 1930s, of which my great grandfather was one. Ten million dead in the Great War - "The war to end all wars". Yeah, right...
This is truly amazing
Great video. Thanks for posting
Excellent and very moving. The human beings come shining through across the gulf of a lifetime. Pack up yer troubles......
I am still ashamed today that the country where fate placed my birth started both world wars. I am so grateful to the peoples who were opponents of the Germans at the time that they were able to forgive at all. That was neither to be expected nor demanded. I will never forget that, even though I was born 21 years after the end of World War II.
Germany didn’t start WW1, or why would you think so?
@@UWfalcin Well, I think indirectly it did, because Kaiser Wilhelm might have prevented it if he hadn't given Count Hoyos the so-called blank check for a war against Serbia. In any case, Germany had a greater share in the outbreak of the war than the Allies. Can we agree on that?
you're a nice guy! glad we were born when we were
@@stevenkarras3490 Thank you Steven! Appreciate that.
I'm British and there should be no shame. The wars and their consequences were nothing to do with you. I personally think that WW1 was a collective mistake. Did Germany make mistakes? Yes. Were they alone in doing so? No. The French had the biggest military in Europe, they were gagging for a fight. Which is to say nothing of the mistakes made by the British. We had no obligation to protect Belgium, who were hardly entirely innocent themselves. Which is to say nothing of the Balkans and Russia. It was all a collective mistake. Blame for the second world war can be laid at the door of Germany, the treaty of Versailles was perhaps unfair but compared to what was metered out to Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, it wasn't. Yes, we can blame Germany for it. But the Germany of then couldn't have less in common with the Germany today. What's important is we all learn the lessons of the horrors and brutality of war. If only the Russians had.
They are all gone now there pain and suffering goes with them what they leave behind should inspire you there loyally and love for our flag made them go over the top not because its a brave thing to do but its the right thing to do when Britain means everything to you feel there pride feel there passion feel the same yourself to you albert and Edward just two young lads like many who never came home from that war
2:34 guy on the far right still has great posture
My great uncle was machine gunned in the stomach during WW1, and is buried in Ypres. These men could have been serving alongside him. I found out relatively recently that my paternal grandfather was an ambulance driver. He never, ever told his children - my late father only found out a few years ago after decades of meticulous family history research. It explains my paternal grandfather's alcoholism; he probably saw some terrible things. These days, he'd probably have had a diagnosis of PTSD.
“I think a curse should rest on me - because I love this war. I know it’s smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment - and yet - I can’t help it - I enjoy every second of it.”- Winston Churchill letter to a friend
These are the men that gave everything for us, not necessarily willingly but they had to.
They fought to protect family, friends and country.
Today we are handing over the country to foreigners that have no business here. it's not ours to give away.
Heartbreaking.
What a great video. I have read many books about the men in ww1. I would like to see this video in colour.
I’m Māori. What a site to see two great peoples. Imagine the UK and Germany as allies back then ww1 or ww2 Love and respect sirs
I'm 67 now and worked with a WW1 veteran (yes it's possible, I did the maths!) He was at Ypres and as a 15 year old in 1972 I wasn't interested in his experiences. Oh how I regret that now, my advise to young people of today is speak to the older generation, they all have stories to tell.
I shed a tear when he said "The Kaiser's soldiers"
They went through such horrors, then just 20 years later we had to do it all again.
I wonder what these old soldiers felt about that.
Very intense footage.. war begats war May there finally be peace upon the Earth I pray.. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall inherit the earth.🙏💕
I wonder what they would think of England now in 2023?
The saying "they don't make em like that any more" has never been so apt
A war to end wars it was sadly not to be but I certainly wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for our brave young soldiers, many of them not to return to see the freedom they gave to us, our country and the world 🇬🇧
All fought and died for nothing with the state of the country today
Totally agree. Both wars with Germany were suicidal for us in the long run. Britain, now swamped with foreign barbarians is entering it's death throws.
They weren't fighting for us.
It is a far better society now than then.
If you knew how WW1 actually started you wouldn’t say that, WW1 was a complete waste of life.
Yeah. The public is still treated as subjects instead of civilians. The country voted to leave the EU, and we have the tory party in charge, protesters not able to protest with a king in charge and get sent to prison. Going back to the ways before WW1.
But for what did they fight? Why? Most men went over thinking it’d be fun.
How would they feel about the state of the UK now?
When this was made, WW2 had been finished just 16 years before.
I’ll bet after ten pints of Stella, they started fighting again. Old soldiers never die!! Ireland 🇮🇪 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇫🇷
Very sad 😢
Between 1955 and 1957, 65 (in the Ypres Salient alone) German military cemeteries were decommissioned and the graves concentrated in two German war cemeteries. An irreparable historical loss !
And look what we've allowed to happen to that world they fought and died for.
What a brilliant documentary. Alan Wicker was top draw.
My english grandad's brother was killed at Ypres
1'07" what a moustache
On a much more serious note, one of the reasons that WWI soldiers were so close (as well as being together for such long periods) was because of the PALS regiments. They were serving alongside many men from their town/village.
I'm sure that made the loss of life even more difficult to bear.
I don't think that there was a town or village (nevermind the cities) that got all of it's soldiers back safely.
Our war memorial has members of the same family inscribed upon it; the devastation must have been hard enough for those losing one member of their family - for those losing more must have been so incredibly hard to bear.
An important clip to watch - thanks for posting it.
I seem to remember watching this program when it was first broadcast. How better programs were in those days than today. I remember talking to Uncle Tom. A roundish shortish but very strong man. Uncle Tom when through the Boer War, the real war that separated the ' good old days' from today's mess, as orwell reminded us. 'Good old days' was a very common phrase still being used in the 1960's.
Unbelievably there are a few people alive who can remember ww1, just about.
those glasses are sooo amazing
See, ordinary people are not enemies, its the knobs at the top playing power games with our lives
I wonder if these old guys knew what Europe would become would they even have bothered?
I wonder what these gallant men would think of what the UK has become?
Blimey, most of those vets would have been around 65 when it was filmed. Shows you how hard a life they must have had, because most men at 65 today look a lot younger than they did.
The veteran seen at 1:01 looks just like harry patch
Most striking is that trench. Still got those helmets as if the boys who wore them would be coming back. Of course they never did.
In that moment in the video at 4:32 -
I can't even begin to understand what this true warrior went through to have a look like this in his eyes in such a moment as that where everything is supposed to be cheery and cordial. I guess that is a fine example here of British politeness, coming from an American. It seems like he is nice and kind to the Germans on the outside. But on the inside, even in that wheelchair, you can see that he probably wanted to slap them to the ground down to his level from how they treated him in the war and after he was captured by them. I find it interesting how contrary the behavior of the Germans is, that they seem to have forgotten all of their past, at least in the same manner as by not showing it at all on the outside, but knowing it within, but being much more cheerful and outgoing and almost happy to meet the British in that moment. But you could see the tremendous pain and reflections of memories so horrendous to even think of for any normal person in his eyes and in his soul. He may have been older, but the wherewithal and the passion, as well as his fight and wit was still very much with him.
Keep in mind that I paused the video at that exact moment and wrote this comment above, not knowing after I wrote it that he smiled to the German veteran just a second after the timestamp 4:33. Well, it almost goes along with what I believe he was thinking. He wanted to seem nice on the outside, but in his mind, he couldn't stand being there, even behind that cheeky smile.
09/18/2023, 10:05am. God bless all of those soldiers, even on both sides. And let's hope that another global war like this doesn't happen again. At least not for a couple hundred years or so, that's the best I can hope for.
The Brandenburg Gate badge was interesting, was it a East-German thing?
Old men, who knew each other, and could have avoided this slaughter, sent young men in their stead to kill other young men they didn't know..the awful, bloody waste, the suffering and atrocity on ourselves.. What have we learned? Lest we forget.
World War One was a core subject in my History O Level back in the 80s.
I am glad when so young, I came to realise the utter madness of it all.
Basically Europe's ruling classes playing toy soldiers with real human beings and an uneducated/ill informed general population here who literally walked to their deaths.
The 'Treaty Domino's' that brought about the conflict should have been the ultimate lesson...the War to END all Wars they called it....well that went well didn't it?
Very interesting to see these men at this stage of their lives.
Just a colossal waste for all concerned....and for what?
20 years later it all happened again on an even bigger scale.
We are a very peculiar species.
The Great War for Civilisation, I didn’t believe in it then and I believe in it less so now
JRR Tolkien circa 1960s
❤️
Wonder how many of these men served in ww2
How would the Tommy's that fought and died in both wars react to what London has become. 😢
Rip
My great grandfather was in WW1 and my great uncle was killed when the troop ship he was on was sunk by a German U-boat, the SS Tuscania.
I went on a battlefield tour recently the Belgian guide lost relatives executed by the Germans in WW1 we went to a German cemetery and I had a quick chat with some German visitors the guide gave me a black look but I don’t regret it it was over 100 years ago RIP all
Love how this lot don't want to meet up with the Jerries; usually we talk about the 2nd world war and you get people saying oh they weren't all Nazis most were decent people like our blokes. But this lot from the Great War have a different perspective and good on them, they were there, that fella was taken prisoner and he knew what the Hun were all about from how he and his pals were treated.
And now Europe is fighting a completely different war. There are no bombs or bullets being fired in this war. Yet this time we might just get wiped out for good, culture and all.
What do you mean? And what culture?Europe has many. Not trying to be rude. Just genuinely don’t understand.😊 Thanks!
It was fine when Europe were using bombs and bullets throughout Africa and Asia to start countless wars and wipe their cultures out though right?
@@Youruso I'll be very clear so there is no misunderstanding. Europeans are rapidly being ethnically and culturally replaced on their own continent.
I walked through the city centre of my home city today and I can’t help but feel like the nation these men died for is all but dead. Our leaders have betrayed the English people.
Oh granddad time for bed.
Apparently you haven't even realised there is an actual war on European soil with trenches and tanks as we speak.