The
Power of Caring Series
William
Warren First World War Air Force Lieutenant 1918
A
young mans commitment to a people at war.
I
am the Grandson of William Warren who was born in 1900 and on
the 24th July 1918 entered the new established Royal Airforce
where he trained as a cadet. From a copy of his Air Force papers
gained through the National Archives on the 13 July 1918 my Grandfather
joined the RD unit as a cadet in the Y (O) Bofit Unit and he qualified
as a second flight lieutenant on 19 September 1918. The 9th to
11th November he attended The School G Theories and then from
the 16th September to 6th August 1919 served as Honorary Second
Lieutenant 2nd September He sat as a observer, night pilot.
Here
is the PDF which I created after carefully
scanning each of the pages of his note book which are in excellent
condition nearly 100 years later.
Here
is the typed version of the notebook which
I have created in pdf format.
Here
are some photographs of the notebook
and you will see that all is kept together by one of his boot
laces. It would be interesting to hear from anyone who knows the
history behind what I imagine to be a tradition at the time for
all cadets to do this or was it unique to my grandfather?
Below
are some pictures which are in my collection and which I have
often looked at over the years.
I
shall be preparing a series of recordings which focus on the first
and second world war poets as well as including recordings by
members of the British services who are currently enrolled. If
you would like to browse through some of the recordings then please
follow this link to the pages on my website.
Earlier
this year I made contact with The Imperial War Museum http://www.iwm.org.uk/which
is some five minutes walk from where I live here in London to
donate my grandfathers note book. To my surprise so much has been
prepared to remember. To
mark the First World War Centenary, Imperial War Museum is creating
Lives of the First World War. Read more about how we are working
together and their 'Lives of the First World War
To
find out more, watch their film
William
Warren aged 18 taken in 1918 whilst the First World War was closing
to its end.
Photograph
from my collection taken in 1918 (c) Steven Warren. 2013. All
rights reserved. Please
click the image to see a larger photo
Photograph
from my collection taken in 1918 (c) Steven Warren. 2013. All
rights reserved. Please
click the image to see a larger photo
Abandoned
boy holding a stuffed toy animal. London 1945 (Courtesy Imgur
albums
http://imgur.com/a/YiOLx
)
THE
HISTORY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
World
War I (WWI), also known as the First World War, was a global war
centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until
11 November 1918. From the time of its occurrence until the approach
of World War II in 1939, it was called simply the World War or
the Great War, and thereafter the First World War or World War
I. In America it was initially called the European War.
More
than 9 million combatants were killed: a scale of death impacted
by industrial advancements, geographic stalemate and reliance
on human wave attacks. It was the fifth-deadliest conflict in
world history, paving the way for major political changes, including
revolutions in many of the nations involved.
The
war drew in all the world's economic great powers, which were
assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the
Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and the Russian Empire)
and the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Although
Italy had also been a member of the Triple Alliance alongside
Germany and Austria-Hungary, it did not join the Central Powers,
as Austria-Hungary had taken the offensive against the terms of
the alliance.
These alliances were both reorganised and expanded as more nations
entered the war: Italy, Japan and the United States joined the
Allies, and the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria the Central Powers.
Ultimately, more than 70 million military personnel, including
60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars
in history.[12][13]
Although
a resurgence of imperialism was an underlying cause, the immediate
trigger for war was the 28 June 1914 assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary,
by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo. This set
off a diplomatic crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum
to the Kingdom of Serbia, and international alliances formed over
the previous decades were invoked. Within weeks, the major powers
were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world.
On
28 July, the Austro-Hungarians fired the first shots in preparation
for the invasion of Serbia. As Russia mobilised, Germany invaded
neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, leading
Britain to declare war on Germany. After the German march on Paris
was brought to a halt, what became known as the Western Front
settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that would
change little until 1917. Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, the
Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, but
was stopped in its invasion of East Prussia by the Germans. In
November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the war, opening fronts
in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. Italy and Bulgaria
went to war in 1915 and Romania in 1916.
The
war approached a resolution after the Russian Tsar's government
collapsed in March 1917 and a subsequent revolution in November
brought the Russians to terms with the Central Powers. After a
1918 German offensive along the western front, the Allies drove
back the Germans in a series of successful offensives and American
forces began entering the trenches. Germany, which had its own
trouble with revolutionaries, agreed to an armistice on 11 November
1918, ending the war in victory for the Allies.
By
the end of the war, four major imperial powersthe German,
Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empiresceased to exist.
The successor states of the former two lost substantial territory,
while the latter two were dismantled. The map of Europe was redrawn,
with several independent nations restored or created. The League
of Nations formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of
such an appalling conflict. This aim failed, with weakened states,
renewed European nationalism and the humiliation of Germany contributing
to the rise of fascism and the conditions for World War II.
To
mark the First World War Centenary, Imperial War Museum is creating
Lives of the First World War.
This
innovative, interactive platform will bring material from museums,
libraries, archives and family collections from across the world
together in one place, inspiring people of all ages to explore,
reveal and share the life stories of those who served in uniform
and worked on the home front.
Since
its foundation in 1917, IVM has continued to ensure that people
understand the impact of this global conflict and how it shaped
the world we live in today. By the end of the century we will
have built the permanent digital memorial to more than 8 million
men and women from across Britain and the Commonwealth and saved
their stories for future generations.
Supporters
A
growing list of national and international organisation that are
supporting IVM's Lives of the First World War -project
Academic
Advisory Group - A panel of experts convened by IVM to offer their
advice on the museum's First World War Centenary digital projects.
The group is chaired by Professor Richard Grayson, Head of History
at Goldsmiths, University of London.. www.194.org
Auckland
War Memorial Museum - The Museum tells the story of New Zealand,
its place in the Pacific and its people. The Museum is a war memorial
for the Provence of Auckland and holds one of New Zealand's top
three heritage libraries. It has preeminent Maori and Pacific
collections, significant natural history resources and major social
and military history collections, as well as decorative arts and
pictorial collections. www.aucklandmuseum.com
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