Veterans: The Last Survivors of the Great War

The 80th anniversary of the end of World War I is fast approaching, and the event will be commemorated by a special documentary on the BBC and Discovery Channel. We Shall Remember Them is the official tie-in to the series. The book and series will be a social history rather than a military account, concentrating on the British experience of the war. Great Britain during the years 1914-1918 was still a society of rigid classes, and a nation whose people still maintained many distinct regional variations in speech and personality. All the classic "types" of wartime Britain, both civil and military, are examined in detail. Men from different classes and regions served in the trenches, and most individual regiments had their own distinct character. The Great War was also the first in modern times to affect the home front. Women left the home to work in factories and the Land Army, and the English Channel proved to be no defense against German Zeppelins and the world's first aerial bombardment.…