‘Unliterary’, vernacular poetry is an underrated source for working-class experience of the First World War & was an acceptable medium for men to describe their feelings. Wide variations of the same poems in private papers & newspapers indicate how far they were often shared orally.

Go on. You know you need to. #ww1 #genealogy #vlaanderen #wo1 uk.bookshop.org/p/books/from...

A few updates to this page today: www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/a-s... #ww1 #genealogy

This is so cool: the ‘Pragmatic Sanction’ (1549) issued by Charles V who decided that the Habsburg Netherlands can only be ruled by one monarch and cannot be divided (well, that did not work out). Photo shared by @karldrabbe.bsky.social

Twitter pays people based on engagement (views, retweets, comments, etc). It appears that many MAGA accounts are based abroad and they use AI technology to generate low-effort rage bait. My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.

A little graphic that you may find useful #ww1 #genealogy explains how a battalion was maintained in strength

The best view in WW1? An Austrian machine gun position on Lagazuoi Piccolo in the Dolomites.

I’ve been in a room with Putin. He calls Ukrainians “Russians with accents.” His real fear isn’t NATO expansion, it’s democracy expansion. It shatters his entire argument for dictatorship at home. Because if Ukrainians embrace freedom, Russians may demand the same.

Our new podcast launches on Wednesday! You’ve heard the pilot, now our patreon subscribers can listen to episode 1 early! In the meantime, give us a follow. Everything from the Holocaust to fake 80s rock bands coming up! @boneyabroad.com @15minutebook.club www.patreon.com/cw/15MinuteB...

@thegreatwargroup.bsky.social #FWWhist #History #1GM #FWW #Grande-Guerre #WW1

Interesting little piece on National Archives MH106 records. #ww1 #genealogy www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-...

In a special @oldfrontline.bsky.social Jon Gedling of the CWGC joins us to discuss the care of #WW1 cemeteries in France & Belgium: the “black spot” issue, evolving maintenance, recent findings & how visitors can help. oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/22/c...

Walking In Flanders Fields. #FWW #wewillrememberthem

Memory, let all slip (as seen in the Flanders Fields museum in Ypres)

🎧 " Nouveaux regards sur la Première Guerre mondiale" Le cycle de la semaine de l'émission "Le Cours de l’histoire " de @xaviermauduit.bsky.social Successivement : La sélection des soldats, la place des combats au corps-à-corps, la vie dans les usines, les traumas de la guerre ➡️ urlr.me/A9VXEq

🎧 Cette semaine @franceculture.fr reçoit les historiennes et historiens de la Grande Guerre 🎙️ J'étais hier au micro de @xaviermauduit.bsky.social, avec @lionelpabion.bsky.social, pour une passionnante discussion sur la préparation du soldat à la guerre et l'aptitude au combat

11.11.11

11 novembre : la Première Guerre mondiale a aussi eu des conséquences sur les prénoms donnés aux bébés. Par exemple, les "prénoms en déclin entre 1900 et 1925" voient leur part réaugmenter pendant la Grande guerre. Pourquoi ? 1/5

#1GM Découvert par hasard, un fonds dispersé de 400 photographies a été réuni et fait l'objet de recherches conjointes avec @thibval.bsky.social. En voici la présentation avant les articles sur un dépôt d'artillerie lourde de 1915 à 1917 et ses hommes. ⤵️ parcours-combattant14-18.fr/recherches/h...

Today marks the 107th anniversary of the moment when the Allied armistice with Germany came into effect and the First World War came to an end. Today, I examine what that felt like across the globe… achurchill.substack.com/p/article-ar...

Just passed 125,000 views on my YouTube channel! 🤯 Here are some of the most-watched videos👇 Locations to Visit on the Western Front ▶️ youtube.com/shorts/-fu8K... French Sectors: Then & Now ▶️ youtu.be/8v5E_a8Upfc?... Verdun: Then & Now ▶️ youtu.be/0ZpciGd6AXU?...

A friendly reminder if you’re visiting Bayeux from 1 September ⬇️

Reposting for new followers or for those who may have missed this. It’s La Toussaint here in France today and I’ll be heading down to Bulls Road Cemetery and A.I.F Burial Ground later today to lay some Chrysanthemums.

First World War Studies is very happy to finally have arrived on Bluesky! please follow for news on our publications and activities

@thegreatwargroup.bsky.social @alexchurchill.bsky.social @pikegrey1418.bsky.social @jellyjudith.bsky.social @louiseprovan.bsky.social @bartdebeer.bsky.social @bartparish.bsky.social

🚨The @chinookjustice.bsky.social petition calling for a public inquiry now has over 40,000 signatures. Are you listening Prime Minister? You promised transparency and accountability in public office. Please now deliver on that Please keep signing everyone www.change.org/p/justice-fo...

It's been too long. Back where it all started for me 20 years ago. People who now this affliction might consider to join @thegreatwargroup.bsky.social Such a shame Dave isn't here any longer to provide more useful insight. I miss you, man.

A closer view of the German bunker near the Dodengang. Even though well over a century has passed, it is clear this place took a lot of hits from the Belgians. W/ my bud @bartdebeer.bsky.social - Dodengang / Trenches of Death Diksmuide, Belgium 🇧🇪

Looking from Belgian bunker across the former No Man’s Land to the German bunker just a few dozen meters away. During the Great War the area where the two men were walking was a giant crater, blown by the Belgians to stop German raids. W/ @bartdebeer.bsky.social - Dodengang / Trenches of Death

An area that could serve as a kill zone for Belgian troops if the Germans seized the structure in this photo. - Dodengang / Trenches of Death Diksmuide, Belgium 🇧🇪 With @bartdebeer.bsky.social

Crude plaques left by Belgian units who served in the Trench of Death. - Dodengang / Trenches of Death Diksmuide, Belgium 🇧🇪

Inside a Belgian bunker at the very forward edge of the Trenches of Death. Anyone want to guess what the three shafts are for? Comment below. - Dodengang / Trenches of Death Diksmuide, Belgium 🇧🇪

Belgian graffiti engraved on a bunker facing the German forward positions. - Dodengang / Trenches of Death Diksmuide, Belgium 🇧🇪

@ri315e.bsky.social this is FANTASTIC. Listen, and listen again: youtube.com/shorts/niGmo...

The Trenches of Death, snaking right along the bank of the River IJzer. In these photos Bart and I are heading from the Belgian rear area towards the German lines. - Dodengang / Trenches of Death Diksmuide, Belgium 🇧🇪

These are the last Belgian trenches of the Great War, and while they’ve been preserved in concrete and have a fairly clean appearance you still get the feeling of what it was like to man this very forward position in the front line.

The floor of the museum by the Trench of Death is a map of the front line as it was during the Great War. The last photo shows the actual Belgian trenches, which are the only surviving ones left to visit. - Dodengang / Trench of Death Diksmuide, Belgium 🇧🇪

Right down the street from the Petroleum Tanks shown in the previous post is the Belgian Dodengang, or the Trench of Death. This Belgian helmet right here gives an idea of why the place was so named. - Dodengang / Trench of Death Diksmuide, Belgium 🇧🇪

We did make a detour… In honour of the first Frenchman killed on Belgian soil in #WW1. Poor chap was part of General Sordet’s Magical Mystery Tour, & died 111 years ago today. This French cavalry corps ambled round Belgium exhausting men & horses alike for no real gain in the first weeks of the war

At first I took this to be a modern-art inspired climbing structure for kids (thus betraying my working class Boston roots: “It’s wicked ahtsy lookin’, y’know?”).

New post up on Patreon for Patreon peeps: www.patreon.com/posts/other-...

Monuments and a demarcation stone around and near the memorial chapel in Stuivekenskerke. - Stuivekenskerke, Belgium

Old Stuivekenskerke, a tiny hamlet just now returning to life after the Great War. The bunker structure is the remains of Stuivekenskerke’s very tall-towered chapel, which became an observation post on the IJzer Front during the Great War. - Stuivekenskerke, Belgium

Commemorative plaque in Ramskapelle, Belgium remembering:

Ramskapelle’s old rail station, along what used to be the rail line and thus the front line on the IJzer front. Its ruins were fortified into a bunker by the defending Belgians. Then photo being held up by my friend Bart. - Ramskapelle, Belgium

Perhaps somewhere in the more than 400 unknown burials in Ramskapelle Military Cemetery lie the remains of Georges Spellier. A soldier in the Belgian 5th Line Regiment, Georges was killed on 31 October 1914 in the mud of the River IJzer. He may have been buried here as one of the unknowns.

The King Albert Memorial built by Belgian veterans of the Great War to honor their beloved king, Le Roi Chevalier (The Knight King). The memorial is located right next to the IJzer River locks, which the Belgians opened in order to flood the IJzer (Yser) front for the next four years.

The bricks of the King Albert Memorial are made from IJzer clay, with mud taken from the various sectors of the Belgian part of the Western Front. The mud was extracted in the 1930s, and veterans could claim that the blood of Belgian heroes was in that mud and thus, in the bricks and the memorial.