Image caption,Recruitment drives were held in places like Trafalgar SquareOnly men aged between 18 and 41 could become soldiers. (The age limit was increased to 51 in April 1918.)
Image caption,Men queued outside recruitment offices to join the armySome men failed the medical test. Others had ‘reserved occupations’, like working in coal mines, shipyards, munitions factories and farms, which meant they stayed in Britain.
Image caption,Younger teenagers tried to join tooThey wanted to be treated like men and thought war would be exciting. Many lied about their age. Some boys as young as 13 or 14 went to war.
1. Photograph of a man giving his name to an officer at a recruitment drive in Trafalgar Square during World War One, 3.Recruitment drives were held in places like Trafalgar Square Only men aged between 18 and 41 could become soldiers. (The age limit was increased to 51 in April 1918.)
The Government wanted as many men as possible to join the forces willingly.
But in 1916 a law was passed to say men had to join whether they wanted to or not. This was called conscription.
During World War I, Britain primarily sourced its food through imports from its empire and other countries like the USA and Canada, as it only produced 40% of its food domestically. When German U-boats threatened these supply lines, Britain implemented a strict rationing system and a national propaganda campaign to increase domestic agricultural production, urging farmers to plow up more grassland and grow more cereals to feed the nation.
Dependence on Imports
Pre-War Dependency:Before the war, Britain relied heavily on imported food, with roughly two-thirds of its food supply coming from overseas.
Key Imports:Major food imports included wheat from the USA and Canada, meat from Argentina, and dairy products from Australia and New Zealand.
Impact of War:The war effort required vast amounts of food for the civilian population and fodder for the large number of horses used for transport.
The German Threat
Battle of the Atlantic:Germany aimed to starve Britain into submission by attacking Allied shipping, particularly in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Food Shortages:These attacks led to increased shipping costs and food shortages, causing prices to rise rapidly, which resulted in panic buying and public discontent.
Government and Public Response
Ministry of Food:A Ministry of Food was established to control prices, introduce rationing, and manage food distribution.
Rationing System:A coupon system in ration books was introduced, requiring individuals to register at specific shops to purchase limited amounts of essential foods like sugar, butter, tea, and jam.
“Dig for Victory”:To address food shortages, the government launched a propaganda campaign, including the “Dig for Victory” campaign, to encourage citizens to grow their own food to dig up their gardens etc
Increased Domestic Production:Farmers were encouraged and incentivized to increase domestic food production by converting grassland to arable land and cultivating more cereals to feed the nation.
Land usage – every garden or piece of land was used to produce food for the masses to help farmers add to the food supply.
Alfred was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian of Portuguese descent who served with the British Army during the First World War.
He fought for two years in Flanders and was awarded the Military Medal for bravely putting his own safety at risk to locate and rescue injured soldiers across No Man’s Land at the Battle of Passchendaele in mid-1917.
Due to his short stature, Alfred Mendes was often used as a messenger, having to brave No Man’s Land’s horrors and hazards.
Alfred recorded one incident in his autobiography.
On the morning of October 12, 1917, Alfred’s company received orders to “go forward to meet him with fixed bayonets”, if the German Army were encountered. Alfred’s C Company had lost contact with A, B and D Companies. Alfred, highly aware of the dangers sending a lone messenger into No Man’s Land brings, immediately volunteered to find the missing companies.
“The snipers got wind of me, and their individual bullets were soon seeking me out,” wrote Alfred, “until I came to the comforting conclusion that they were so nonplussed at seeing a lone man wandering circles about No Man’s Land, as must at times have been the case, that they decided, out of perhaps a secret admiration for my nonchalance, to dispatch their bullets safely out of my way.”
Alfred managed to find the wayward units and spent two days carrying messages between the companies. He returned “without a scratch but certainly with a series of hair-raising experiences that would keep my grand-and great-grandchildren enthralled for nights on end.”
In an interview with Variety, Sam Mendes said he had a childhood memory of Albert sharing a story about a “messenger who has a message to carry through”. “It lodged with me as a child, this story or this fragment, and obviously I’ve enlarged it and changed it significantly,” Mendes said.
Ultimately, the story Sam Mendes told in 1917 of the pair of Lance-Corporals is fictional, insofar as there was no specific mission undertaken by Blake and Schofield to halt an attack on German lines on 6th April 1917.
However, the look and feel of the film 1917 is such, coupled with the urgency of the cinematography and performances, that it feels sufficiently authentic, as much as the popular image of World War One is often depicted.
But what about 1917’s historical accuracy? The movie strives for authenticity in the action and imagery it offers, but are the events depicted in line with the British or Commonwealth soldier’s experiences on the Western Front?
What is historically accurate about the movie 1917?
Sam Mendes employed historical and technical advisors Andrew Robertshaw and Paul Biddiss to work on the film. Their knowledge helped ground the actors in the physical and historical context of that specific period.
One of the key plot points is the sudden German withdrawal from the section of the line near Ecoust, northern France. The British Army had been caught unawares and the retreating Germans had left a blighted, scored land, stripped of resources and infrastructure, for the British to navigate.
This has a strong basis in reality. On 5th April 1917, the Imperial German Army completed Operation Alberich: a strategic retreat aimed at shortening the German line and strengthening new positions across the newly built Hindenburg Line.
The devastation wrought during Alberich was huge. Anything the Allies could use (pipes, cables, roads, bridges, tunnels, and even entire villages) was smashed to pieces.
Image: A mine crater in Athies, Pas-de-Calais, blasted to impede any British advance following Operation Alberich (Wikimedia Commons)
1917 also depicts many black and Sikh soldiers on the frontline to show this “wasn’t a war fought just by white men”.
The First World War was truly a global conflict, bringing in people and cultures from across the world to fight. Mendes is entirely right to point out this wasn’t simply a white man’s war, but the manner in which soldiers are presented is inaccurate.
Tens of thousands of black soldiers served with the British Army and many hundreds of thousands of black Africans served as part of the labour corps during the war. For instance, the British West Indian Regiment sent 15,000 men from the Caribbean to Europe to serve but their roles were restricted to support and logistical duties.
Likewise, Sikh and Indian personnel fought across the battlefields of the Great War. More than 74,000 Indian personnel of World War One are in Commonwealth War Graves’ care.
In the case of the movie 1917, however, the Sikh regiments had long since transferred away from the Western Front. After fighting in the brutal campaigns of 1915 at Neuve Chapelle, Ypres, and the Somme, the Sikhs had taken major casualties and transferred to other theatres of conflict.
At the time of 1917’s fictional story, no Sikh soldiers would have been in France or Belgium, and it would be unlikely to see a single Sikh soldier mixing in with British units as shown in the movie 1917.
Another inaccuracy is the care of wounded troops.
In 1917, as casualties mount, wounded men are taken to a casualty clearing station, just metres from the frontline. Medical tents spread out over an open field as surgeons do their level best to aid their injured comrades.
The reality of getting wounded treatment was significantly more complex. Sometimes, depending on the nature of the battlefield, aid posts could be on the frontlines.
It is very unlikely, however, that they would set up a major medical hub so close to the front with little to no cover as depicted in 1917.
These places were hugely important but vulnerable, so would be built in abandoned buildings, underground bunkers, and even shell craters. Keeping them out in the open would present unnecessary danger.
Returning to 1917’s historical accuracies, it’s worth highlighting the touching interaction between Schofield and a French civilian nursing a baby amid the rubble of a shattered Ecoust. While this scenario is fictional it has its roots in reality.
One of the objectives of Operation Alberich was to ensure as many French and Belgian refugees stayed in the Allied sector as possible.
Why? Extra mouths to feed. More civilians in Allied care meant more resources diverted to feed, clothe, and house them. In a conflict such as the First World War, any way to disadvantage your opponent must be explored.
The devastation wrought on Ecoust is accurate too. Towns and villages across Northern France and Flanders were obliterated wholesale. Look at Ypres for example.
The city was reduced to rubble and had to be built from the ground up post-war.
Overall, 1917 veers towards historical accuracy but many liberties have been taken to tell the story Sam Mendes wanted to tell. This is often the case.
Take for instance the film’s final British charge.
Once the whistle blows, the British infantry stream over the top in a solid mass with little attempt at unit cohesion. There’s no artillery support either, indicating this attack really would have been suicidal if Schofield hadn’t completed his mission.
In reality, all along the front Officers and Non-Commission Officers would be amongst their men, keeping them together, and guiding the attack. World War One infantry assaults were not simply picking up a gun and running at the enemy as presented in 1917’s climax.
How accurate were the trenches in 1917?
Trenches are probably the first thing people think of when they think of the Western Front.
Hundreds of miles of trenches were dug across the war, stretching from Calais in Northern France to the Swiss border (although not in one continuous, unbroken line).
1917 presents trenches in different states.
We start with a British reserve trench in good condition, topped with sandbags and well-ordered dugouts. Troops mill to and forth on their way to their reserve areas or to move onto the frontline.
Elsewhere, we get a glimpse of British frontline trenches, replete with shell damage, puddles of mud, hungry opportunistic rats, and exhausted soldiers sheltering and snatching sleep while they can.
We see abandoned German trenches too: deeper, sturdier with large-scale bunkhouses, kitchens, and storage sections.
As a war film, 1917 presents an accurate portrayal of trench life. The rear communication and transport trenches are in better condition than the more robust, damaged frontline trenches.
One thing you may notice about the frontline troops is the boredom. 1917’s crew charged the extras with taking on soldiers’ daily routines to add to the sense of monotony many at the front experienced.
Fighting was only a small part of trench life. 1917 shows this by showing soldiers inspecting their clothes for lice, cleaning their boots, scooping mud, and water out of the trench, playing games like chess or cards, reading novels, or simply trying to sleep.
The historical context of WW1
1917 was a tumultuous year for the Allies.
February saw the German Navy recommence unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic. Any ship crossing the ocean was fair game for German submariners. Over a million tons of Allied shipping was lost in February 1917 alone.
On the real April 6, 1917, the date on which the film’s fictional events take place, the United States declared war on Imperial Germany. This would have major consequences for Germany, as it was now facing the prospect of millions of fresh, well-equipped troops being sent to the Western Front.
Major offensives that took place in 1917 include the Battle of Arras in April 1917, which included the stunning Canadian victory at Vimy, but the year is mostly dominated by Passchendaele.
The Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele, took place between July and November in the Ypres Salient in Belgium, Ypres.
Passchendaele is one of the defining battles of the First World War. It drew in millions of men on both sides, resulting in hundreds of thousands of casualties and deaths. Soldiers attacked through the churning bogs of No Man’s Land to be cut down by determined defenders.
Ultimately, the British Army advanced five miles and captured the important high ground around Ypres. Casualties were still shockingly high for such a comparatively small gain.
1917, the war film, really takes place in the opening stages that would go on to be a pivotal year in the course of the First World War.
Remembering the fallen soldiers of World War One
While the trials and tribulations of Lance-Corporal Blake and Schofield across 1917 are fictional, they draw heavily on the reality of the war. And for many, the Great War’s reality was also tinged with finality.
At the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, we are charged with caring for the Commonwealth’s war dead in perpetuity.
An interesting production quirk of the 1917 film was all the extras playing British soldiers were given a real-life soldier to inhabit. Many of these men would not survive the war.
Commonwealth casualties of the First World War are instead commemorated in our war cemeteries.
For instance, 1917 showcases the Devonshires charging into battle, with troops cut down by machine-gun bullets or artillery blasts.
But did you know the Devonshires have their own small war cemetery maintained by Commonwealth War Graves?
Image: Devonshire Cemetery, Mametz
Devonshire Cemetery, Mametz, marks the spot of the 8th and 9th Battalions of the Devonshire Regiment’s positions on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. 153 Devonshires are buried in the cemetery to this day.
If a casualty fell during the World War One but has no known war grave, they would be commemorated on a WW1 memorial, such as the Menin Gate or Thiepval Memorial.
1917 may have been fiction but our mission is very real.
Do you have a Blake or a Schofield in your family? If they fell in the First World War, they are commemorated by us, and we can help you uncover their story.
Use our Find War Dead tool to uncover their stories. Search by name, rank, country commemorated in, and many more fields designed to make your casualty search as smooth as possible.
James Burns was born in Newcastle in 1897. He had 8 brothers and sisters and his eldest sister Mary who was 18 years old took care of the family as their parents had died very young. There was not alot of money as their was no welfare state then. They did have aunts and uncles who helped them.
James lied about his age to join the Army and said he was born in 1896 which made him 18 but he was actually only 16 because his birthday was not till the September. So when world war one came in August 1914 he could join up to the Army and not be a burden to his family. He would have somewhere to lay his head and be fed three times a day.
They were dark days and he was given the role of a gunner in the Northumbria Fuseliers. The big guns which were pulled by horses. So the gunners had to look after the horses as well feed them take care of them and get them water to drink.
The men had to created latrines for the men each time they decided their base for operations. Set up a food station and a medical tent. Alot of soldiers worked in wet mud most of the time and suffered from trench foot. Fleas had to be burned out the the seams in their uniform which came from the rats looking for food which lived in the trenches with them. A candle was run up the seams to kill the fleas but it was just as bad the nest day.
Many a time the food run out because of war supplies were often cut off from the front line. The red cross used to give the men tins of corned beef to survive on and many said they would have starved if the Red Cross had not been so brave and kind.
Dysentry was also a problem because of the filth not being able to wash your hand before eating or after going to the toilet. Germs passed from one person to another.
James was wounded and had a metal plate in his head after an explosion and was also gassed in the trenches. The guns were targetted by the Germans who tried to blow them up with mortar shells and bombs.
James met Agnes Elizabeth Todd born in August 1901 in Newcastle where she was in service to a Lord and Lady when he was 25 years old and she was 21 years old. They married in 1922 and had three children two girls and a boy. James first in 1925, Mary in 1927 and Agnes in 1928.
James died in 1953 of stomach cancer form the gassing but he did get to hold his grand daughter before he died. The only grandchild born from Mary his daughter. His son James died aged 47 years in 1975 after suffering for many years from Epilepsy endured in a fall as a trainee plumber by falling off a roof. He married but had no children.
Agnes died aged 60 years in 1989 from complications of medication for Rhematoid Arthritis which she developed in her 20’s. She married but had no children.
James wife Agnes died in 1988 aged 87 years of heart problems after a life of hard work and looking after a wounded husband.
Mary their daughter lived to a great age of 97 years she too worked hard as a tailoress and was widowed at 35 years. Her husband was a carpenter and was working away from home and died in a car crash.
Nothing is known of the 8 brothers and sisters James Burns had and nothing is known why his parents died so young, but the spanish influenza took many in the early days of the century. Many children did not live passed the age of 5 years as chicken pox, measles, whooping cough, influenza, was rife with no immunisations available in those days.
For weary refugees and prisoners of war, treasure was a bar of soap and a handkerchief.
Volunteer Ann Curtis, from Suffolk, knew a lot about this kind of treasure. She put in 88 hours of needlework to create individual treasure bags.
“About 1200 officers and men arriving in Switzerland for internment from Germany were provided with chintz treasure bags containing washing materials, handkerchiefs etc, which were very popular,” reported the Red Cross.
“Indeed, many of the bags were recognised three months later at the general repatriation doing duty as hand luggage.
“About 3,000 of these fitted bags were handed to the prisoners passing through Switzerland on their way home from Germany after the Armistice.
“Another 550 were given to civilian refugees passing through from Austria, Poland, Hungary, etc and were quite invaluable to the women, many of whom were accompanied by small children.”
The organisation relied on hundreds of volunteers like Ann to stitch, sew and knit products for prisoners of war and hospital and wards.
The Red Cross issued material and standard patterns to follow. Hour after hour, knitting needles clicked and scissors snipped in communities across the UK.
When she wasn’t sewing treasure bags, Ann Curtis made hot water bottle covers.
Eighty-three-year-old volunteer Martha Antobus in Cheshire knitted 40 pairs of woolly socks.
And Mr Stevenette, described as “an old gentleman of over 80, knitted 44 mufflers – his knitting exceeded all other workers.”
There was such huge demand for these items that in 1915 the Red Cross set up the Central Work Rooms. Throughout the war over 1,200 women worked in these London offices. They produced 705,500 bandages and 75,530 garments ranging from hot water bottle covers, pyjamas, dressing gowns and kitbags to pants, surgeon’s gowns, socks and pillow cases.
They used flannel, sheep’s wool and even some dog’s wool made from long-haired breeds such as Pekinese and Pomeranians.
Sewing all these garments was not without its perils. VAD nurse Helen Beale wrote to her family:
“We are very pleased this evening as the pin that the girl swallowed on Wednesday last has just emerged safely – she has been having cotton wool sandwiches and suet pudding etc. It really is rather wonderful to think that it has travelled so far inside her without pricking!”
Sometimes ‘doing your bit’ meant getting your feet wet.
During both world wars you could find children and adults doing their bit by getting muddy and wet in peat bogs. They were collecting sphagnum moss, a small, bright green plant that was often called ‘bog moss’. It was a time-consuming, cold and uncomfortable job.
The moss was harvested and dried on an industrial scale, particularly during the First World War. In those days, before antibiotics, this moss was mildly antiseptic and could soak up a lot of fluid.
In short, it was a brilliant wound dressing.
In Ireland, Red Cross sphagnum moss centres were set up in every county. Women volunteers collected enough sphagnum moss to make close to one million dressings.
Ethel Adams was one of these women. Volunteering in County Tyrone, Ethel gathered sphagnum moss almost full time. She picked, gathered and dried the moss, sending it off to the Red Cross depots in Belfast and Armagh. She paid for the postage herself as another way to support the cause.
“In County Tyrone, sphagnum moss depots did continuous work from 1916 to October 1918,” recorded the Red Cross journal.
“Sending their supplies to Derry and Belfast, they were manufactured into dressings, the moss from this county having been considered of exceptionally good quality.”
Ethel did not just collect moss on her own – she organised a local group to gather as much as possible.
As if that wasn’t enough, she then volunteered at the Belfast moss depot. Here she clocked up 100 hours of volunteering in just three months. Ethel received a war workers badge in recognition of her efforts.
If you think hospital food is bad today, spare a thought for patients during the First World War.
Hospital caterers had a budget of just 20 pence per day to cook up a varied diet for one patient. Anything more expensive was considered an extravagance.
Then food shortages began in 1917. By this time the Red Cross was running temporary hospitals across the UK. Known as auxiliary hospitals, they treated injured servicemen – but they also had to feed them. We worked with the Ministry of Food and the War Office to ensure our patients had enough to eat.
Anne Auden was a Girl Guide who volunteered in the kitchens of Brookdale Red Cross hospital at Alderley Edge, Cheshire. For more than two years she popped in every week to roll up her sleeves and peel hundreds of potatoes.
The Red Cross produced a cookery manual suggesting different ways to cook potatoes for patients (boil, stew, bake and fry in ‘ribbons or ‘straws’).
Many favourite foods – sugar, tea, meat, margarine, butter, cheese, fish, suet, golden syrup and jam – were all in limited supply. Bacon was off the menu as it was sold at double its pre-war price.
Breakfast in a Red Cross hospital was, therefore, porridge, cold boiled ham or fishcakes.
Dinner might be stewed tripe, boiled mutton, tapioca and savoury hash – no doubt made from some of Anne’s peeled potatoes.
For afters there were baked jam rolls, rhubarb and custard or bread and butter pudding. But some cooks struggled to get the recipes quite right…
One woman volunteered at a Red Cross hospital as a kitchen maid. In the topsy turvy world of the war, old class divides were often blurred. Women from rich families volunteered alongside working class women and girls.
This particular woman found herself serving as a kitchen maid to her own cook. But she did not share her cook’s expertise.
The Red Cross journal from 1916 reports that this woman “had been in trouble several times for her incompetence, and was passing a sleepless night of worry in connection with a lemon sponge.” It had not come right, and she knew what awaited her in the morning.
“Suddenly she had an idea. Rising from her bed, she crept to the kitchen… What exactly she did will never be known, but a message of thanks came down from the ward next day, with the comment that it was the best bread-and-butter pudding the patients had ever tasted.”
We are starting to organise our show at Whitley Bay Playhouse which will be in June 2026. The show will be a big mash up of different songs from musicians, and each group can choose their own songs to perform. We are going to use Doctor Who’s Tardis to link each musical so you can choose any song you would like to do and we try to incorporate them all into the story line.
We are hoping to get initial ideas from groups about whether they would like to perform in the show and also which song or musical you would like to do. If your group would like to be part of the show please return this slip to Hilary in the next few weeks so we can make a start planning the script.
The wait is over – A massively famous sight across the UK, we’re finally welcoming in the Class 220 Voyager to your TSW collections!
Born to suit the growing needs of the longest and busiest services across the UK, the sleek BR Class 220 has travelled all across England and Scotland over the 20+ years of service it’s had on the rails.
In Train Sim World 6, be a driver or conductor aboard busy CrossCountry services along the scenic Riviera Line. Accelerate out of Exeter and race by on express services to Plymouth, crest over the Devon Hills and hurry past the Dawlish Sea Wall.
Get ready for your own voyage across the UK with Free Roam, presenting many opportunities across a huge collection of UK routes available in TSW, being able to pick-up and bring the BR Class 220 Voyager on your journeys across the UK.
And of course, enjoy this selection of images, with many thanks to our wonderful beta team for helping us source the screenshots!
Here more about the Riviera Line and the XC Class 220 Voyager directly from our teams in the Train Sim World 6 UK Dev Diary:
Who’s ready for a trip across the Dawlish Sea Wall? Bathe in the beauty of the South Devon Main Line between Exeter St Davids across the Plymouth, featuring the picturesque Riviera Line branch to Paignton in this new route coming with Train Sim World 6!
Famous for the red-coloured cliffs, this scenic adventure brings us to Devon for the first time in TSW, with wonderful views that will keep you locked in Photo Mode for hours capturing the best screenshots possible.
And what’s that we spot on the camera? It looks like the return of the beloved GWR license! We’ve very proud to officially represent the trains included on the Riviera line in their GWR liveries, for both the new, dual-powered BR Class 802 and the Class 150.
Tranquil hills, cliffs and ocean waves are a perfect setting for a brand new challenge, as this line will feature steep gradients, sharp up/downhill banks and constant winding tracks throughout, keeping you on your toes across the mainline.
This route is packed with history, originally built in the 1840s by Isambard Kingdom Brunel as an atmospheric railway, and later transformed to standard traction – it’s significance to the region is paramount.
Have a look at these fantastic screenshots!
Back with the release of the Class 170 from Rivet Games, we brought the Cross Country livery to TSW! Of course, with this new brand, we had to bring in the…
Before the Great War, a woman’s role was considered to be within the home. Public life, including politics was widely seen as for men only. It was believed that women involved in politics would neglect their responsibilities at home.
There had been progress towards a change in this attitude to women. A number of laws were passed to improve their standing. Women had increased rights over property and children within marriage, and divorce. They were also receiving more education and could be involved in local politics. All of these laws paved the way for further reform in favour of women’s position in society.
Women had become more involved in ‘white-collar’ (professional) jobs by the turn of the century.
Involvement in the war effort
Image caption,Women working at the Gretna munitions factory
During the war the biggest increase in female employment was in factories, particularly in munitions. Previously, fewer than 4,000 women worked in heavy industry in Scotland.
By 1917 over 30,000 women were employed making munitions in Scotland.
Nationally, by late 1918, 90 per cent of the workers in the munitions industry were female.
Women also worked as conductors on trams and buses, and as typists and secretaries in offices and factories.
Thousands worked on farms in the ‘land army’.
Others filled more traditional jobs such as nursing, becoming important role models for women eager to feel they were ‘doing their bit’ for the war effort.
During World War One, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) stopped its political campaign and offered its full cooperation to the government.
Meanwhile, the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) became a patriotic movement during the war. It promoted male enlistment and encouraged women to become involved in what was traditionally seen as male employment.
Impact of the war on the position of women
At first, men working in factories were worried about their loss of status and the threat to their wages. The problem was called ‘dilution’. It was seen as an issue because unskilled workers were being employed in skilled jobs.
Eventually an agreement was reached – women could only be trained to a semi-skilled level and had to work under supervision. This meant that the men would not feel that their status as skilled workers was undermined.
The Great War is often seen as a major turning point in the role of women in British society. However, when the war ended the majority did not keep their wartime jobs:
The Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act meant that returning soldiers were given their old jobs back
Closure of most munitions factories meant women workers were no longer needed.
Within a few years of the end of the war, over 25 per cent of all working women were back in domestic service.
Image: A section of flooded British trench (© IWM E(AUS) 575)
Weevles Updates Disabled Bloggers Team 