Warfare in News

A poignant new BBC 2 documentary will be shown tomorrow night, Friday, 14 March at 9pm, featuring first-hand accounts from First World War soldiers of all nationalities.

The previously unseen footage was made during filming for a 26-part BBC series in the 1960s, The Great War and shows men of all backgrounds recounting their front line experiences. More programme information can be found on the BBC website.

The programme will also feature photographs taken overseas on the battlefields, which have been digitally re-coloured by talented graphic designer Jon Wilkinson, of Barnsley-based history publisher Pen and Sword Books.

More colour images of the First World War can be found in the recently published The Great War Illustrated:1914- Archive and Colour Photographs of WW1.

One of the documentary's interviewees is the late Cecil Lewis, author of First World War aviation memoir Sagittarius Rising (Frontline Books, 2011), which was described by George Bernard Shaw as:

'A book everyone should read. It is the autobiography of an ace, and no common ace either. The boy had all the noble tastes and qualities, love of beauty, soaring imagination, a brilliant endowment of good looks... this prince of pilots... had a charmed life in every sense of the word.'

A poignant new BBC 2 documentary will be shown tomorrow night, Friday, 14 March at 9pm, featuring first-hand accounts from First World War soldiers of all nationalities. The previously unseen footage was made during filming for a 26-part BBC series in the 1960s, [i]The Great War[/i] and shows men of all backgrounds recounting their front line experiences. More programme information can be found on the [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03y76xl"]BBC website[/url]. The programme will also feature photographs taken overseas on the battlefields, which have been digitally re-coloured by talented graphic designer Jon Wilkinson, of Barnsley-based history publisher Pen and Sword Books. More colour images of the First World War can be found in the recently published [url="http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Great-War-Illustrated-1914/p/4169/"]The Great War Illustrated:1914- Archive and Colour Photographs of WW1[/url]. One of the documentary's interviewees is the late Cecil Lewis, author of First World War aviation memoir [url="http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/sagittarius-rising-paperback/p/1923/"]Sagittarius Rising[/url] (Frontline Books, 2011), which was described by George Bernard Shaw as: [i]'A book everyone should read. It is the autobiography of an ace, and no common ace either. The boy had all the noble tastes and qualities, love of beauty, soaring imagination, a brilliant endowment of good looks... this prince of pilots... had a charmed life in every sense of the word.'[/i]