:00:19. > :00:21.On this very day, 100 years ago Britain stood on the brink of war.
:00:22. > :00:26.It would change this countrx and the rest of the world for ever.
:00:27. > :00:29.The way wars were fought would change.
:00:30. > :00:41.Millions of people would did. It was the war that was meant to bd over
:00:42. > :00:59.But the guns wouldn't fall silent for more than four ydars
:01:00. > :01:20.Thousands gathered here this morning at the Tank Museum in Bovington
:01:21. > :01:25.each one paying their own tribute to the courage and sacrifice of
:01:26. > :01:32.ceremony, as over a million poppies burst into the air to rain down this
:01:33. > :01:37.Arena. Welcome to this spechal programme as we mark the molent when
:01:38. > :01:41.Britain declared war in 1914. It is fitting to be here in this place,
:01:42. > :01:47.because First World War soldiers trained here on these secret,
:01:48. > :01:54.brand`new fighting machines, what we know of course as the tank. We have
:01:55. > :01:59.a replica here, this is the type of tank that would be used most in the
:02:00. > :02:07.First World War. And this is a replica of a German tank. 100 years
:02:08. > :02:14.on, tank training still takds place here, and the sorts of things they
:02:15. > :02:21.are using at the Challenger, the latest of the hi`tech tanks that can
:02:22. > :02:23.trace its history back to this `` First World War through. 3,400
:02:24. > :02:30.people were here earlier today re`enactment of the First World War
:02:31. > :02:37.battle. people who have gathered today to
:02:38. > :02:47.pay their respects. in a moment of commemoration. But
:02:48. > :02:54.first, a report on a day of reflection here in Dorset.
:02:55. > :03:01.100 years ago, servicemen wdre absorbing the news that we were at
:03:02. > :03:07.war. Today, it is important not to forget. I would not have wanted to
:03:08. > :03:10.go through those days. One of in my little suit across to the continent
:03:11. > :03:18.and get blown to pieces. We are still making the same mistakes, but
:03:19. > :03:23.hopefully people might start to learn and just remember thehr
:03:24. > :03:30.great`grandfather is in France in a cemetery. I served 22 years in the
:03:31. > :03:42.army, so it is poignant for me to come here.
:03:43. > :03:48.Thousands came to the Tank Luseum to see what a World War I battle would
:03:49. > :03:56.have been like. A fledgling are caught to the conflict to the skies.
:03:57. > :04:00.Tank technology spelt the end of the cavalry charge. And trench warfare
:04:01. > :04:06.became a byword for futilitx and attrition. At the going down of the
:04:07. > :04:30.sun and in the morning, we will remember them.
:04:31. > :04:43.You've got to remember all the lives that were given, and just rdmember
:04:44. > :04:45.that this is two, Murray at a really special piece of history. `` this is
:04:46. > :04:50.to commemorate. Their weapons and hardware `re
:04:51. > :04:56.museum pieces, but they mark a new error of warfare. With them, they
:04:57. > :05:05.analyse one, but paid a terrible price. `` they are liars ond.
:05:06. > :05:12.`` the Allies. What would you have felt? Scared
:05:13. > :05:16.that I might not see tomorrow. Elsewhere, many people have been
:05:17. > :05:18.gathering across the south for moments of silence, for church
:05:19. > :05:21.services, and to lay wreaths. David Allard reports
:05:22. > :05:22.on how the region has marked Village, town, city `
:05:23. > :05:29.the war affected every commtnity. Each is marking the centenary
:05:30. > :05:44.in its own way. They were my great uncles, `ll would
:05:45. > :05:48.been. `` or would have been.
:05:49. > :05:50.Every wooden cross planted in Caversham cemetery remembers a
:05:51. > :06:07.At Wimborne Minster, hundreds gathered to pay their respects
:06:08. > :06:24.My father was in the First World War because `` because he had bden
:06:25. > :06:29.gassed, he died of asthma was 56. So my children do not have a
:06:30. > :06:31.grandfather on Others came to pray and reflect
:06:32. > :06:32.at Salisbury Cathedral. And new memorials to honour
:06:33. > :06:35.the fallen were unveiled. A plaque for each of the eight men
:06:36. > :06:38.from Carterton who lost thehr lives. The role of animals in war larked
:06:39. > :06:46.by this sculpture in Arundel. And at Fratton Park in Portsmouth,
:06:47. > :07:01.a memorial to the Pompey Pals. In 1914 the men of the city thought
:07:02. > :07:07.it their duty to do something. They set up a recruitment stand to target
:07:08. > :07:14.men and boys going to matchds on a Saturday. Unfortunately, thdy died
:07:15. > :07:23.in their numbers. In West Sussex, a new church bell
:07:24. > :07:26.inscribed with the villagers' names. `` inscribed with the names of the
:07:27. > :07:30.villagers who perished. August 4th 1914 may be a dax
:07:31. > :07:32.beyond living memory. But today people across the South
:07:33. > :07:34.ensured the significance As we saw there, a great many
:07:35. > :07:45.services have already been held But even more are taking pl`ce
:07:46. > :07:47.tonight, in a special nationwide To tell us more,
:07:48. > :07:52.let's join our reporter Tom Turrell who's at Dunsden Parish Church
:07:53. > :08:07.near Henley in Oxfordshire. We are around about three hours away
:08:08. > :08:15.from this candlelit village `` vigil. A very special event this
:08:16. > :08:24.evening, because there is one person they want to mark, and that is
:08:25. > :08:30.Wilfred Owen, the Great War poet. He has very close connections to this
:08:31. > :08:39.church. For a start, he was a lay assistant here in 1911 to 1813, and
:08:40. > :08:44.also his family lived nearbx. They are buried in the cemetery outside,
:08:45. > :08:48.his sister and both his pardnts It is in this church in just three
:08:49. > :08:51.hours' time that the congregation will line the pews and the choir
:08:52. > :09:39.will And talk to us about the candlelit
:09:40. > :09:41.vigil element. It is structtred With me is the curator of the Tank
:09:42. > :10:51.recall, reflect, revere. Concepts With me is the curator of the Tank
:10:52. > :10:57.Museum. It still is a very dmotional day, isn't it? I think so. When you
:10:58. > :11:02.think of what know it is the beginning of a period
:11:03. > :11:08.where at a million lives, a staggering
:11:09. > :11:16.number. So for period, to see what it meant for
:11:17. > :11:23.this country and what We still have living testimony with
:11:24. > :11:30.the Second World War. This history books. It is gone from
:11:31. > :11:40.living memory with well, even they said it went into
:11:41. > :11:54.black and white in Is that important for the ftture? I
:11:55. > :12:13.think. ways. I think we will be able to
:12:14. > :12:32.learn a lot more over this four`year it? It was early, it was a British
:12:33. > :13:00.invention, it was Stay with us, because we will be
:13:01. > :13:10.talking a lot more now about tanks. years later he swapped his civilian
:13:11. > :13:39.clothes He took part in the first t`nk
:13:40. > :13:52.account `` worked in the mill with his father.
:13:53. > :13:58.Sarah learned photograph of a battle this chap had
:13:59. > :14:05.been in. and East Anglia. But as the number
:14:06. > :14:17.of tanks group, needed. So the War office ddcided to
:14:18. > :14:24.mark `` built to move the tanks to the camp.
:14:25. > :14:38.They need somewhere public eye, and quite a bit of land.
:14:39. > :15:02.Dorset, fine. Not many people here. place to train those first tank
:15:03. > :15:26.soldiers. enough to escape and survivd.
:15:27. > :15:46.Cyril was just 23 secret that the residents wdre told
:15:47. > :16:03.to close the What I have done is gone inside and
:16:04. > :16:10.down a lot more about them. and looking up, and this mark one
:16:11. > :16:20.comes over the top. You seen anything like it beford. Just
:16:21. > :16:28.how terrifying that must have been. This was the main tank of the First
:16:29. > :16:37.World War, had eight guys crammed into this
:16:38. > :17:17.space. Charles Ironmonger had a lucky
:17:18. > :17:24.escape. As he abandoned his tank, he was hit by a bullet, but
:17:25. > :17:28.looked at the impact and saved his life.
:17:29. > :17:37.Then there are these beautiful World War I silks, embroidered postcards,
:17:38. > :17:46.which the men would buy frol French women. They were
:17:47. > :17:54.something positive home that would attract from the horror the
:17:55. > :17:58.This says, happy New Year, `ll good things, your loving husband, Ted.
:17:59. > :18:07.Let us talk to the tank comlander the challenge you see up thdre. What
:18:08. > :18:14.is today means for you? Massive I think if we
:18:15. > :18:19.before us, then we just forget who we are. So it is massively hmportant
:18:20. > :18:25.to remember them, especiallx today. And particularly in the rold you
:18:26. > :18:31.play. These were the first tanks. So different from today. Can you
:18:32. > :18:35.imagine what that must have been like? If they hadn't gone through it
:18:36. > :18:37.before us, we wouldn't have had a stepping stone to go from. From what
:18:38. > :18:46.they have been in, to where we are now is absolutely massive.
:18:47. > :18:50.How many do you have in this tank? Four. Still very secret, sole of it?
:18:51. > :18:58.Secret `` some of it. David, this is the beginning of four
:18:59. > :19:05.years of commemoration. What hoping we will understand and
:19:06. > :19:18.appreciate at the end of it? have much picture of what h`ppened
:19:19. > :19:41.in the First World War. What that They named their tanks, didn't they?
:19:42. > :20:03.Do you still do that? Yes, helping to train tens of thousands
:20:04. > :21:07.of pilots, from all over thd world, shoulder. It must have been absolute
:21:08. > :21:13.chaos. As they lodge themselves off, the
:21:14. > :22:16.Observer had to plot where the pyrotechnics went off. `` l`unched.
:22:17. > :22:18.His plane nosedived to the ground in Wiltshire. He was 21 years old.
:22:19. > :22:34.You can hear more stories all this week on your BBC local radio
:22:35. > :22:43.station. There is a specially extenddd late
:22:44. > :22:50.news at 10:25pm, reporting on the services
:22:51. > :23:00.Some of those will involve services at war memorials,
:23:01. > :26:14.stopped in front of many of these war memorials and wondered `bout the
:26:15. > :26:19.showers today but through the course of tonight, they will gradu`lly ease
:26:20. > :26:30.and