The Great War, 90 years later

Three of the four surviving British veterans of World War I have helped mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the conflict.

Henry Allingham, 112, Harry Patch, 110, and Bill Stone, 108, represented the RAF, Army and Royal Navy respectively at a ceremony at London's Cenotaph.

They led the country in observing two minutes' silence from 1100 GMT.

From the BBC. Meanwhile, this article notes about the commemoration ceremony held at Verdun that not a single veteran of that battle remains alive.

One American photographer's effort to preserve the images and memories of the last few WW1 vets is reported here, at CNN:

Photographer David DeJonge plans to capture a vanishing bit of history Tuesday on a trip to Arlington National Cemetery near Washington.

There he hopes to photograph 107-year-old Frank Buckles -- one of the few men still alive who fought in World War I. Buckles will lay a wreath at the grave of Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, who led U.S. forces in Europe in World War I . . .

For DeJonge, it's a poignant reminder that time is running out in his quest to find and photograph the few surviving veterans of the war, which raged from 1914 to 1918. . .

He has raced the clock for the last two years to photograph the dwindling number of surviving World War I veterans, a mission he embraces with a keen appreciation for the ticking clock: Eight of 12 veterans he has photographed in the last two years are now dead . . .

DeJonge knows of only 10 living veterans worldwide who fought during World War I.

Four live in Britain, two in Australia, two in France and two in the United States -- Buckles and 108-year-old John Babcock of Spokane, Washington, who served with Canadian forces during World War I, DeJonge said.

Each week or month that passes, it seems, brings news of an aging veteran succumbing before DeJonge can find the time and money to photograph him.

Not long ago, he said, two Jamaicans who fought with the British during World War I died. The last known German, French and Austro-Hungarian veterans died in the last year as well . . .

He tried to interest a photography organization in a national project to document the remaining U.S. World War I vets -- about 600 were alive in the mid 1990s, DeJonge said -- but that didn't happen.

So he set out two years ago to try to do it on his own. DeJonge has received some financial help here and there, he said, but has paid most costs himself.

ALSO here is an article from the Telegraph on a recently published compilation of officers' field manuals from the Great War.

Posted by David on November 11, 2008 11:35 AM