04/08/2014 South Today


04/08/2014

Similar Content

Browse content similar to 04/08/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

On this very day, 100 years ago Britain stood on the brink of war.

:00:19.:00:21.

It would change this countrx and the rest of the world for ever.

:00:22.:00:26.

The way wars were fought would change.

:00:27.:00:29.

Millions of people would did. It was the war that was meant to bd over

:00:30.:00:41.

But the guns wouldn't fall silent for more than four ydars

:00:42.:00:59.

Thousands gathered here this morning at the Tank Museum in Bovington

:01:00.:01:20.

each one paying their own tribute to the courage and sacrifice of

:01:21.:01:25.

ceremony, as over a million poppies burst into the air to rain down this

:01:26.:01:32.

Arena. Welcome to this spechal programme as we mark the molent when

:01:33.:01:37.

Britain declared war in 1914. It is fitting to be here in this place,

:01:38.:01:41.

because First World War soldiers trained here on these secret,

:01:42.:01:47.

brand`new fighting machines, what we know of course as the tank. We have

:01:48.:01:54.

a replica here, this is the type of tank that would be used most in the

:01:55.:01:59.

First World War. And this is a replica of a German tank. 100 years

:02:00.:02:07.

on, tank training still takds place here, and the sorts of things they

:02:08.:02:14.

are using at the Challenger, the latest of the hi`tech tanks that can

:02:15.:02:21.

trace its history back to this `` First World War through. 3,400

:02:22.:02:23.

people were here earlier today re`enactment of the First World War

:02:24.:02:30.

battle. people who have gathered today to

:02:31.:02:37.

pay their respects. in a moment of commemoration. But

:02:38.:02:47.

first, a report on a day of reflection here in Dorset.

:02:48.:02:54.

100 years ago, servicemen wdre absorbing the news that we were at

:02:55.:03:01.

war. Today, it is important not to forget. I would not have wanted to

:03:02.:03:07.

go through those days. One of in my little suit across to the continent

:03:08.:03:10.

and get blown to pieces. We are still making the same mistakes, but

:03:11.:03:18.

hopefully people might start to learn and just remember thehr

:03:19.:03:23.

great`grandfather is in France in a cemetery. I served 22 years in the

:03:24.:03:30.

army, so it is poignant for me to come here.

:03:31.:03:42.

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

:03:43.:03:48.

have been like. A fledgling are caught to the conflict to the skies.

:03:49.:03:56.

Tank technology spelt the end of the cavalry charge. And trench warfare

:03:57.:04:00.

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

:04:01.:04:06.

sun and in the morning, we will remember them.

:04:07.:04:30.

You've got to remember all the lives that were given, and just rdmember

:04:31.:04:43.

that this is two, Murray at a really special piece of history. `` this is

:04:44.:04:45.

to commemorate. Their weapons and hardware `re

:04:46.:04:50.

museum pieces, but they mark a new error of warfare. With them, they

:04:51.:04:56.

analyse one, but paid a terrible price. `` they are liars ond.

:04:57.:05:05.

`` the Allies. What would you have felt? Scared

:05:06.:05:12.

that I might not see tomorrow. Elsewhere, many people have been

:05:13.:05:16.

gathering across the south for moments of silence, for church

:05:17.:05:18.

services, and to lay wreaths. David Allard reports

:05:19.:05:21.

on how the region has marked Village, town, city `

:05:22.:05:22.

the war affected every commtnity. Each is marking the centenary

:05:23.:05:29.

in its own way. They were my great uncles, `ll would

:05:30.:05:44.

been. `` or would have been.

:05:45.:05:48.

Every wooden cross planted in Caversham cemetery remembers a

:05:49.:05:50.

At Wimborne Minster, hundreds gathered to pay their respects

:05:51.:06:07.

My father was in the First World War because `` because he had bden

:06:08.:06:24.

gassed, he died of asthma was 56. So my children do not have a

:06:25.:06:29.

grandfather on Others came to pray and reflect

:06:30.:06:31.

at Salisbury Cathedral. And new memorials to honour

:06:32.:06:32.

the fallen were unveiled. A plaque for each of the eight men

:06:33.:06:35.

from Carterton who lost thehr lives. The role of animals in war larked

:06:36.:06:38.

by this sculpture in Arundel. And at Fratton Park in Portsmouth,

:06:39.:06:46.

a memorial to the Pompey Pals. In 1914 the men of the city thought

:06:47.:07:01.

it their duty to do something. They set up a recruitment stand to target

:07:02.:07:07.

men and boys going to matchds on a Saturday. Unfortunately, thdy died

:07:08.:07:14.

in their numbers. In West Sussex, a new church bell

:07:15.:07:23.

inscribed with the villagers' names. `` inscribed with the names of the

:07:24.:07:26.

villagers who perished. August 4th 1914 may be a dax

:07:27.:07:30.

beyond living memory. But today people across the South

:07:31.:07:32.

ensured the significance As we saw there, a great many

:07:33.:07:34.

services have already been held But even more are taking pl`ce

:07:35.:07:45.

tonight, in a special nationwide To tell us more,

:07:46.:07:47.

let's join our reporter Tom Turrell who's at Dunsden Parish Church

:07:48.:07:52.

near Henley in Oxfordshire. We are around about three hours away

:07:53.:08:07.

from this candlelit village `` vigil. A very special event this

:08:08.:08:15.

evening, because there is one person they want to mark, and that is

:08:16.:08:24.

Wilfred Owen, the Great War poet. He has very close connections to this

:08:25.:08:30.

church. For a start, he was a lay assistant here in 1911 to 1813, and

:08:31.:08:39.

also his family lived nearbx. They are buried in the cemetery outside,

:08:40.:08:44.

his sister and both his pardnts It is in this church in just three

:08:45.:08:48.

hours' time that the congregation will line the pews and the choir

:08:49.:08:51.

will And talk to us about the candlelit

:08:52.:09:39.

vigil element. It is structtred With me is the curator of the Tank

:09:40.:09:41.

recall, reflect, revere. Concepts With me is the curator of the Tank

:09:42.:10:51.

Museum. It still is a very dmotional day, isn't it? I think so. When you

:10:52.:10:57.

think of what know it is the beginning of a period

:10:58.:11:02.

where at a million lives, a staggering

:11:03.:11:08.

number. So for period, to see what it meant for

:11:09.:11:16.

this country and what We still have living testimony with

:11:17.:11:23.

the Second World War. This history books. It is gone from

:11:24.:11:30.

living memory with well, even they said it went into

:11:31.:11:40.

black and white in Is that important for the ftture? I

:11:41.:11:54.

think. ways. I think we will be able to

:11:55.:12:13.

learn a lot more over this four`year it? It was early, it was a British

:12:14.:12:32.

invention, it was Stay with us, because we will be

:12:33.:13:00.

talking a lot more now about tanks. years later he swapped his civilian

:13:01.:13:10.

clothes He took part in the first t`nk

:13:11.:13:39.

account `` worked in the mill with his father.

:13:40.:13:52.

Sarah learned photograph of a battle this chap had

:13:53.:13:58.

been in. and East Anglia. But as the number

:13:59.:14:05.

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

:14:06.:14:17.

mark `` built to move the tanks to the camp.

:14:18.:14:24.

They need somewhere public eye, and quite a bit of land.

:14:25.:14:38.

Dorset, fine. Not many people here. place to train those first tank

:14:39.:15:02.

soldiers. enough to escape and survivd.

:15:03.:15:26.

Cyril was just 23 secret that the residents wdre told

:15:27.:15:46.

to close the What I have done is gone inside and

:15:47.:16:03.

down a lot more about them. and looking up, and this mark one

:16:04.:16:10.

comes over the top. You seen anything like it beford. Just

:16:11.:16:20.

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

:16:21.:16:28.

World War, had eight guys crammed into this

:16:29.:16:37.

space. Charles Ironmonger had a lucky

:16:38.:17:17.

escape. As he abandoned his tank, he was hit by a bullet, but

:17:18.:17:24.

looked at the impact and saved his life.

:17:25.:17:28.

Then there are these beautiful World War I silks, embroidered postcards,

:17:29.:17:37.

which the men would buy frol French women. They were

:17:38.:17:46.

something positive home that would attract from the horror the

:17:47.:17:54.

This says, happy New Year, `ll good things, your loving husband, Ted.

:17:55.:17:58.

Let us talk to the tank comlander the challenge you see up thdre. What

:17:59.:18:07.

is today means for you? Massive I think if we

:18:08.:18:14.

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

:18:15.:18:19.

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

:18:20.:18:25.

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

:18:26.:18:31.

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

:18:32.:18:35.

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

:18:36.:18:37.

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

:18:38.:18:46.

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

:18:47.:18:50.

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

:18:51.:18:58.

years of commemoration. What hoping we will understand and

:18:59.:19:05.

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

:19:06.:19:18.

in the First World War. What that They named their tanks, didn't they?

:19:19.:19:41.

Do you still do that? Yes, helping to train tens of thousands

:19:42.:20:03.

of pilots, from all over thd world, shoulder. It must have been absolute

:20:04.:21:07.

chaos. As they lodge themselves off, the

:21:08.:21:13.

Observer had to plot where the pyrotechnics went off. `` l`unched.

:21:14.:22:16.

His plane nosedived to the ground in Wiltshire. He was 21 years old.

:22:17.:22:18.

You can hear more stories all this week on your BBC local radio

:22:19.:22:34.

station. There is a specially extenddd late

:22:35.:22:43.

news at 10:25pm, reporting on the services

:22:44.:22:50.

Some of those will involve services at war memorials,

:22:51.:23:00.

stopped in front of many of these war memorials and wondered `bout the

:23:01.:26:14.

showers today but through the course of tonight, they will gradu`lly ease

:26:15.:26:19.

and

:26:20.:26:30.

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS