04/08/2014 BBC Oxford News

stood on the brink of war. Ht would change this country and the rest of

the world for ever. The way wars were fought would change, the

weapons of war change and mhllions of people would die. The war to end

all wars. It was meant to bd over by Christmas but the guns wouldn't fall

silent for more than four ydars A century on, we remember.

Thousands gathered here this morning in this arena at the Tank Mtseum in

Bovington. Each one paying their own tribute the courage and sacrifice so

many has over a million poppies burst into the air to rain down

Welcome to the special programme as we mark the moment that Britain

declared war in 1914. And it's fitting to be here at Bovington

because First World War soldiers trained here on these secrets,

brand`new fighting machines, what we know as the tank. Behind me we have

a replica of a Mark four, the type of tank that would have been used

most in the First World War and across from me, this is a rdplica of

the German a seven B. 100 ydars on to this day, tank training still

takes place here and the sort of things they are using are the

Challenger two, the latest of the high tech tanks that can tr`ce their

history back to the First World War. 3500 people were here darlier

today for the service of relembrance and a re`enactment of the Fhrst

World War battle and many others have gathered together across the

south to pay their respects. Tonight many will join in a moment of

commemoration for the speci`l lights out services and we will have more

on that in a moment. First, Caroline Richardson reports on a day of

reflection in Dorset. 100 ydars ago today, servicemen were absorbing the

news that we were at war. They end the young men who way to sign up had

no idea what was ahead of them. Today we do know and it's ilportant

not to forget. I wouldn't h`ve wanted to have gone through those

days, gone off in my suit to the continent and get blown to pieces,

no chance. It's incredibly portly, we're still making the same mistakes

but hopefully people might start to learn. Maybe they're great

grandfather is in a cemeterx in France. It's poignant to me, I

served 22 years in the Army. If I have been a young man 100 ydars ago,

it would have been very different, would have been short lived.

Thousands came to the Tank Luseum to see what a World War I battle would

have been like. A fledgling a court took conflict to the skies. Tank

technology spell the end of the cavalry charge. And trench warfare

became a byword for futilitx and attrition. After going down of the

and in the morning, we will remember them.

We have got to remember all the lives that were given and jtst

remember that this is to rate a really special piece of history that

shaped our lives `` to commdmorate. The weapons and hardware ard museum

pieces but they marked a new era of warfare. With them, the Allhes won

but paid a terrible price. We are lucky to have been born when we are.

Can you imagine what it might have been like if you were a young man

100 years ago? Scared, worrhed, I might not see tomorrow. A young man,

thinking what it might have been like in the great War. Across the

south there have been wreath`laying services, church services, loments

of silence. We report on how the region has marked today's

anniversary. Village, town, city. The war affected every commtnity,

each is marking its centenary in its own way. They were my mother's

uncles. My great uncles. Evdry wooden cross planted in Cavdrsham

Cemetery remembers a relative who fell. Blown to bits. All of them,

actually. Two on the Battle of the Somme.

At Wimborne Minster, hundreds gathered to pay their respects at a

service of remembrance. My father was in the First World War because

he had been gassed, he died of asthma when he was 56. So mx

children don't have a grandfather on that side of the family. Matters

came to pray and reflect at Salisbury Cathedral. And new

memorials to honour the fallen work on bail. A plaque for each of the

eight men from Carterton who lost their lives and the role of animals

in war, marked by this sculpture in Heron Dell. At Fratton Park in

Portsmouth, a memorial to the Pompey Powles. In 1940, `` 1914, the men

thought it was their duty sdrvice set recruiting stand specifhcally to

target men and boys going to matches on a Saturday and they did hn their

numbers. Unfortunately, thex died in their numbers as well. In Wdst

Sussex, a new church bell, hnscribed with the names of the villagers who

perished. This will be a grdat testimony to the whole vill`ge, to

have this bell in this church, ringing out. August of fourth 1 40

may be beyond living memory but today people across the South

ensured the significance of the date was properly respected `` Atgust

four, 1914. Let's just for ` moment look ahead to tonight, becatse there

is a very special event happening, it is called lights out. Our

reporter is near Henley. We are round about three hours awax from

this vigil, this candlelit vigil at this church, a very special event

this evening because there hs one person they want to mark, an extra

special person, and that is Wilfred Owen, the great War poets who has

very close connections to this church. For a start, he was a lay

assistant here in 1911 to 1813, and also his family lived nearbx, they

are buried in the cemetery outside, his sister and both his pardnts But

it's in this church, in just three hours time, that the congregation

will line the pews and the choir will stand at the top of thd church,

giving their performance, a special performance which incorporates the

poems of Wilfred Owen. I'm joined by the producer of that show. Just tell

us about this performance. Ht's a concert vigil, light into d`rkness,

darkness illumined. The chohr, a 40 voice mixed group, will be singing

ten Coral anthems but the atdience and congregation will participate

fully. They are hymns, Scriptures, prayers and readings. It's ` balance

of performance and the disshpation. Talk to us about the candlelit

vigil. It is structured arotnd seven sequences. Remember, recall,

reflect, Revere, concepts wd can explore together. At the end of each

sequence, lights and candles will be extinguished so we begin in full

light and at the end of the service, we will be incomplete darkndss. I

think you can tell, this is going to be a special performance and vigil

here, they will of course bd remembering the war dead gave their

lives or the rest of us. But one man in particular, the War poets, the

great Wilfred Owen. A very poignant evening there. It will be poignant

right across the South, manx of these services are going on, it s

not too late to find out how to get involved. You can insert on that

website, put in the nearest place and find out the nearest evdnt. With

me throughout the programme is the curator of the Tank Museum here in

Bovington. It has been and still is an emotional, poignant day. I think

so, you think about what we are looking back to, August four, it's

the beginning of the period for a country where at the end of it, we

have lost a million lives, ` staggering number. So for us to be

able to have a look at this period, see what it meant to this country

and what changes are brought to this country, really important. This is a

war that we are learning from history books. It has gone from

living memory now. It is peculiar as well, because so many of those

veterans, even they said it went into black`and`white in the 193 s.

For us now, we can learn a huge amount more about it. Is th`t

important for the future? Wd have to learn the lessons from that war it

also how it changed this cotntry, in enormous ways, militarily, socially,

and over the next four`year period will be able learn an awful lot

more. You are the creator of the Museum, `` curator of the mtseum.

The tank just changed everything in terms of machinery and warf`re,

didn't it? In its infancy in World War I, it was early, it was a

British invention, there to save British lives. We were the ones

having to push the German army out of occupied France and Belghum. It

makes no end of a contributhon and for the Germans, it's a frightening

weapon but them to face. We are to talk a lot more now about t`nks In

the last few years, there h`s been renewed interest in uncoverhng

stories of soldiers who fought in the First World War and havd been

forgotten. Remarkable tales of courage and heroism. Things to an

open day at a church in Poole, we have discovered the story of one

particular soldier who fought in the very first ever tank battle.

Cyril Coles was a Sunday School pupil in Poole in Dorset. A few

years later he swapped his civilian clothes for a uniform, and was then

trained to use the most important British secret weapon of thd First

World War. The tank. He took part in the first t`nk

account `` attack in 1916. He was christened in this church in 18 3,

and before he joined the Arly he worked in the mill with his father.

Sarah learned about several's involvement thanks to an opdn day at

the church. My sister came across this

photograph of a battle this chap had been in.

Several did his training at Surrey and East Anglia. But as the number

of tanks group, more space was needed. So the War office ddcided to

mark `` move training here to Bovington. A branch railway was

built to move the tanks to the camp. They need somewhere away from the

public eye, and quite a bit of land. Dorset, fine. Not many people here.

They have also got a railwax line they can bring the tanks down on the

railway line, offload them there so that Bovington becomes the hdeal

place to train those first tank soldiers.

Back in 1916, civil and his colleagues were stopped in their

tracks by a German shell. Hd was shot as he tried to escape.

The rest of the crew were ltcky enough to escape and survivd.

Cyril was just 23 when he dhed. One of the pioneers of a new form of

fighting machine that would revolutionise the way battlds are

fought. 100 years ago, the tanks were so

secret that the residents wdre told to close the curtains so thdy would

not be able to see exactly what was going by. And now, here we `re at

the tank is Ian, which has the world's largest collection of tanks.

What I have done is gone inside and down a lot more about them.

Imagine that you are in the trenches and looking up, and this mark one

comes over the top. You havd never seen anything like it beford. Just

how terrifying that must have been. This was the main tank of the First

World War, and yet you would have had eight guys crammed into this

space. Charles ironmonger Lucky escape

Just as he abandoned his tank he was hit by a lid but is not booked the

impact and saved his life. `` his notebook took the impact. Then there

are these beautiful World W`r I embroidered postcards, which the men

would buy from French women, they were hand`stitched to order. It was

way for the men to censor bding positive home that would detract

from the horror they were f`cing. `` send something positive homd. This

one says, Ted. Let's come rhght up to date now and talk to Corporal

Kevin Roberts. the challenge you see up thdre. What

is today means for you? Massive I think if we forget what people did

before us, then we just forget who we are. So it is massively hmportant

to remember them, especiallx today. And particularly in the rold you

play. These were the first tanks. So different from today. Can you

imagine what that must have been like? If they hadn't gone through it

before us, we wouldn't have had a stepping stone to go from. From what

they have been in, to where we are now is absolutely massive.

How many do you have in this tank? Four. Still very secret, sole of it?

Secret `` some of it. David, this is the beginning of four

years of commemoration. What are you hoping we will understand and

appreciate at the end of it? That we have much picture of what h`ppened

in the First World War. What that generation went through. And the

next time we walked past ond of those war memorials, we will realise

they are real people. They named their tanks, didn't they?

Do you still do that? Yes, this is mega Tron. So the tradition is kept

going. Thank you for being with us.

Reading may be famous for its beer, bulbs and biscuits.

But few people know about the crucial role the town played in

helping to train tens of thousands of pilots, from all over thd world,

Nikki Mitchell reports from Reading University's Wantagd Hall.

The hustle and bustle, the clanking of glasses. Crammed in shoulder to

shoulder. It must have been absolute chaos. They would launch thdm off so

they could practice their observational skills from the ground

was covered by a scale model of a French village with pyrotechnics for

a did effect. As they launch themselves off, the Observer had to

plot where the pyrotechnics went off, where the light bulbs flashed

in the houses to simulate shells and artillery fire. As the flying school

expanded, and Aerodrome was built, and a growing number of Reading s

residents to win the war effort The only woman in this photograph is

Elsie Taylor, her granddaughter Julia recently discovered she was a

fabric worker. These would have been my grandmother's notes. It dxplains

what order you have to do it in and the tautness things had to be, it

was important to get it correct because life could depend on the

tautness of the rigging. Elsie went on to live to 100, but around 1 ,000

of Britain's pioneering MEng were dead by the end of the war. More

than half of them, including Flying Officer Petit, were killed hn

training. His plane nosedivdd to the ground in Wiltshire. He was 21 years

old. You can hear more all this week on your local registration.

We will have the weather in a minute or two when we have finished this

programme. And there is a specially extended late news at 10:25 p.m , we

will be reporting on the lights out services across the South. H'm sure

you have stopped in front of many of these war memorials and wondered

about the names there, wonddred what their stories are, who thesd people

are. This is the memorial hdre at the Tank Museum. Tonight we're going

to leave you with a little bit more information about some of those

soldiers who fell in the First World War. Thanks for watching.

We saw a number of showers today but through the course of the nhght they

will ease and the skies werd clear. Temperatures will fall away into

single figures. The winds are fairly light and with the light winds,

there is the risk of one or two missed patches. A dry, sunnx day,

decent start but we will sed increasing cloud and the risk of a

shower from the North