The First World War is extremely well resourced and the internet is an excellent place for students to deepen their understanding of this complex conflict. The BBC is, as ever, a good place to begin your search. Their site at www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/ is an excellent platform from which to start. It covers both the fighting in France and trench warfare, with strategy games for students in the schools section (www.bbc.co.uk/schools/worldwarone/hq/games.shtml). It also deals with how the war was perceived at home in Britain, on the Home Front. There is plenty of material about it at www.bbc. co.uk/history/british/britain_wwone/ and an excellent collection of letters from the Home Front at www.bbc.co.uk/schools/worldwarone/sister/.
The fighting on the Western Front gave rise to a huge amount of written material, from diaries to poems. One of the most impressive resources on the First World War is Oxford University’s Poetry Digital Archive. This can be found at www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/. First, the archive contains the complete poems of many important poets, such as Wilfred Owen, here www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/. There is a vast amount of incidental material from exhibits collected from the public at www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa as well as plenty of material collected for schools and students at www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/education/. Vera Brittain’s work is included on the site and gives us the perspective of someone involved not in the fighting but in the care of the wounded. She lost her fiancé, her brother and his best friend in fighting on the Western Front: www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/brittain.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe
