The latest series of videos from the 'I Was There!' project has just been published. In these videos we are 'voicing' the original magazine articles from the 1939 publication 'I Was There!' in which personal accounts of those 'who were there' were published over hundreds of instalments.
The original publication grouped these accounts into chapters, which we are replicating on the WFA's Youtube channel as 'playlists'.
The latest 'playlist' is entitled Gallipoli - The Last Days, August 6, 1915 - January, 1916
In this chapter we will be publishing a total of eight videos. This group of readings commenced with an account of the landings at Suvla (6-7 August 1915) by actor, political activist and broadcaster (and member of British Intelligence) Compton Mackenzie. His account "Dark Night of the Suvla Landing" is well worth watching.
Also recently published in this chapter is How I Won My VC on Hill 70, by Trooper Frederick Potts. For nearly fifty hours Trooper Potts remained under fire with a severely wounded comrade, "although he himself could have returned to safety," says the official record. This is an account of his ordeal.
The most recent recording is I Had to Shoot my Friends - Carnage on a Gallipoli Farm. This is an account supposedly told by 'Digger Craven' but research leads us to believe that 'Digger Craven' is a fictional character invented by W.S. Blackedge*. In this Episode this ANZAC private relates how, in order to save his wounded friends from a horrible death in the blazing scrub, he was compelled to shoot them. Although the character may be fictional, the account is based on events that did take place.
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The videos are being grouped (following the format in the original magazine) into 'Chapters' (on YouTube these are 'playlists') and can be seen here:
- The War Clouds Break: July 29 - Aug 9 1914 Chapter/Playlist 1
- Mons: The Going Up to Battle: August 9 - August 23, 1914 Chapter/Playlist 2
- Mons: The Fighting Retreat: August 24 - September 6, 1914 Chapter/Playlist 3
- The Marne and the Aisne: September 5 - September 22, 1914 Chapter/Playlist 4
- The Antwerp Adventure: September 25 - October 13, 1914 Chapter/Playlist 5
- The First Battle of Ypres: October 14 - November 11, 1914 Chapter/Playlist 6
- Last Days of the Year: November - December 1914 Chapter/Playlist 7
- Winter and Neuve Chapelle: January 1 - March 13 1915 Chapter/Playlist 8
- Gallipoli: Bombardment and Landings: March 17 - April 27 1915 Chapter/Playlist 9
- Ypres: The Second Battle: April 22 - May 7, 1915 Chapter/Playlist 10
- Gallipoli: Summer Interlude: May - July, 1915 Chapter/Playlist 11
- The Western Front: Summer 1915 May 9 - August 13, 1915 Chapter/Playlist 12
- Home Front, First Bombs on England: May 31 - October 12, 1915 Chapter/Playlist 13
- Loos: Ill-starred offensive: September 25 - October 19, 1915 Chapter/Playlist 14
- Gallipoli: The Last Days: August 6, 1915 - January 1916 Chapter/Playlist 15
Searchable Magazine Archive
I Was There! magazine was originally published in 51 weekly issues between 1938 and 1939. The Western Front Association has undertaken a long-term project to digitize and narrate these historical accounts. The digital scans are available to members as PDF files in the Searchable Magazine Archive.
Not a member? Join us and get access to a wealth of digitised resources.
Footnote:
* W. J. Blackledge was a journalist by the name of William James Blackledge. He was born in Bolton in 1886, appears not to have served in the Great War, and married in Liverpool in 1920. The articles which appear in IWT are either an extract or summary taken from his book ‘Peninsula of Death’, published in 1937 by Samson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd. London, the frontispiece inscribed ‘as told to W. J. Blackledge by Digger Craven’. This book appears in a list of WW1 Adventure Novels on wiki.fibis.org, and is classified both as fiction and biographical.