The Great War - World War I Series

Herein are 20 illustrations made during the winters at Ypres and on the Somme by Will Dyson, even though he was wounded in their making. Dyson (1880 – 1938)  the official illustrator for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). They reflect the misery and the depression of the material conditions of these campaigns than it does any of the soldiers exaltations or the typical cheerfulness which accompanied the Anzacs. It is always difficult for a creative person, like an artist, to remain positive when faced with the horrors of war, but especially the horrors that WWI, the first modern war, brought. However, it is the soul rather than the body that he has drawn here, drawn out in long fantastic lines. In any case the lightest, wildest or even crudest sketch scratched down by Dyson has always had more of the true grip of gravity than the whole of the Royal Academy. Indeed there is something significant in all that white light and sharp shadow which belongs to such dramatic scenes, and is so favourable to the art of black and white. There is even something of allegory in that awful and empty daylight in which armies live, so often without a stick of roof or a rag of curtain. All the soldiers in a great war are historical characters; but these are rather specially standing, not against court or camp, but only against the sky. They are under a light which will indeed prove eternal; even as compared with other historic groups their contribution has been written into the annals of history and will continue to be known forevermore. 10% of the net sale will be donated to charities by the publisher. ============== KEYWORDS/TAGS: Australia at War, Will Dyson, World War One, World War 1, World War I, WWI, WW1, official, illustrations, Australian Imperial Force, AIF, twenty, 20, Australian, ANZAC, New Zealand, Kiwi, Okker, Aussie, Bringing Up The Stew, Report,  Battery, Dead Beat, The Cook, Group, Looking For, Battalion, Mate, Tunnellers, Under, German Territory, Coming Out, The Somme, Ypres, Battle of, Labour Battalion Man, Back, Waggon Lines, Polygon Wood, Delville Wood, Lightly Wounded, Menin Road, Dressing Station, Stretcher-Bearers, Martinpuich, Peronne, Waiting For The Stew, food, hot, In The Tunnel, Hill 60, Fatalist, Outside, Pill Box, Hanging About, Down, The Ridge, France, Flanders, fields, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France

Herein are 119 satirical cartoons published in Punch between 1890 and 1915 which focus on the growing threat of war in the years preceding and during the first two years of the GREAT WAR. The cartoons are grouped into the following categories: The Days Preceding the War The Struggle Uncle Sam The Comedies of the Great Tragedy Women and Children First The New Rake's Progress—Unser Kaiser The Raider The Unspeakable Turk Italia! The cartoons encompass all the Allied nations and most of those aligned with the Central Powers. The sea war also features the antics of both navies and of course the sinking of non-military liners. During the war the media swung into action in effect becoming an Allied propaganda machine. In addition to Punch, Dutchman Louis Raemakers was also proactive in this media. Raemakers cartoons were so effective that he and his family had to flee the Netherlands when the German High Command offered a reward for his capture. Working in London he continued to publish his cartoons mainly in The Times and even went on a promotional tour of the USA. It was thought that his many works, which can be seen in the eBooks Raemakers Cartoons of WWI – vols. 1 & 2, was partly instrumental in changing the opinion of the American public towards involvement in the “European” war. The effect of these cartoons on rallying public opinion before and during the Great War was incalculable and the propaganda machine continued to play a major role in the conflicts following the Great War. ============ KEYWORDS/TAGS: Punch, Cartoons, Published, Louis Raemakers, , Admiral, Allies, Australia, Austria, BELGIUM, BELIEVE, Berlin, BLOCKADE, Boer, Botha, Britain, British, Brusilov, Bull, CALAIS, Camel, Canada, Captain, Chorus, Christian, Dame, dangerous, Delville Wood,, EAGLE, Eagle, Eastern, Emperor, ENEMY, Europa, Europe, FAIR, FOUL, FRONT, Gallipoli, General, German, German Headquarters, GOD, Grand, GREAT WAR, HATE, Holland, HONOUR, Hood, Imperial, India, Inter-Parliamentary, JACK-IN-THE-BOX, John, Kaiser Wilhelm, KING, Marne, Messines, New Zealand, Officer, Order, PARIS, Passchendaele, Photographer, Pilot, Prince, RAIDER, Red, Riding, RUSSIA, South Africa, South West Africa, Spring Offensive, STOP, Sultan, The Somme, Tipperary, Tirpitz, TRIUMPH, Turk, Turkey, Uncle Sam, United States of America, USA, Verdun, Western Front, WILLIAM, WOMEN, WWI, Ypres, Propaganda, media, newspaper, magazine

By 1915 the trenches of the Western Front were in different states of repair, including the captured trenches, which had all but been destroyed as a result of shell fire. The countryside and villages were a scene of utter devastation, nothing but mud and mounds of rubble where communities and fields of wheat had once stood. The main battles during 1915 were Ypres, French Flanders, Artois, Aisne, Champagne and Vosges. During September and October 1915 an attack by French and British forces from Vimy Ridge to La Bassée, was called the Artois-Loos Offensive or the Third Battle of Artois. This novella by Patrick MacGill, the 5th of 20, is based on his experiences in the trenches of Loos during this period, which resulted in arguably his best book on World War One. A classic of war literature, The Great Push could be considered autobiographical in nature and is nevertheless a passionate and compelling book which describes the fear, resilience, humour and fatalism of those who fought in the raw edge of one of the most terrifying wars ever to have been waged. MacGill had somehow penned all but the last two chapters in the trenches of Loos before being wounded. He wrote the last two chapters while recovering in hospital in the latter part of 1915. =============== Patrick MacGill 1889 – 1963, was an Irish journalist, poet and novelist, known as "The Navvy Poet" because he had worked as a navvy before he began writing. During the First World War, MacGill served with the London Irish Rifles (1/18th Battalion, The London Regiment) and was wounded at the Battle of Loos on 28 October 1915. He was recruited into Military Intelligence, and wrote for MI 7b between 1916 and the Armistice in 1918. During his lifetime he penned 20 novels, 5 volumes of poetry and 2 plays.  

This collection of 17 Poems from the Great War represented the free offering of English poets to the cause of National Relief during WWI. Most of these poems appeared in the Press at the outbreak of WWI. Mr. Robert Bridges' (Poet Laureate 1913 – 1930) opening contribution, Mr. Henry Newbolt's, Mr. Maurice Hewlett's, Mr. R. E. Vernède's, Mr. Binyon's, were all printed in the Times during the few days immediately following the declaration of war, as also was the sonnet by Mr. William Watson. Sir Owen Seaman's poem came out originally in Punch, "The Hour" in the Daily Telegraph, "The United Front" in the Daily Mail. "We Willed it Not" is reprinted from the Sphere, "Duty" and "Commandeered" from the Westminster Gazette, and the poems by Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Cecil Chesterton from the New Witness. The New Weekly published the verses by Mr. John Freeman, and the Daily Chronicle those by Mr. Harold Begbie. The two hymns which close the collection are reprinted, by special permission of their authors, from volumes previously published. The original cover design, from which the current was developed, was contributed by Mr. William Nicholson (1872 – 1949). As the National Relief program was wound up in about 1923, the 33% of the net profit from the sale of this book will be donated to the Royal British Legion for their continued work with Returned Servicemen.

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier, is considered to be one of the greatest poets of WWI. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his mentor Siegfried Sassoon, and stood in stark contrast both to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Herein you will 23 find such poems, like “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” “Dulce et Decorum est.,” “Spring Offensive,” “Futility” and others that lament the passing of so many in such dire circumstances. “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” is one of the most perfectly structured of Owen’s poems, It convinced Sassoon in October 1917 that Owen was not only a “promising minor poet” but a poet with “classic and imaginative serenity” who possessed “impressive affinities with Keats.” Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918 during the crossing of the Sambre–Oise Canal, exactly one week (almost to the hour) before the signing of the Armistice which ended the war, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant the day after his death. His mother received the telegram informing her of his death on Armistice Day (11 Nov.), as the church bells were ringing out in celebration.