One hundred years on, we are all connected to the First World War, either through our own family history, the heritage of our local communities or because of its long-term impact on society and the world we live in today.
Over the festive period, 5 live Breakfast teamed up with Imperial War Museums to bring some of the letters, diaries and memoirs of the men who were serving in the armed forces in December 1917. Unbeknownst to them, it would be the last Christmas of the First World War.
Fettle animated the words from a letter from Gunner Thomas George Edgerton about his time in Palestine in Christmas 1917.
We are delighted with the response on social media to this. It has been viewed over 800,000 times in just two weeks across BBC Breakfast, Radio 5 Live and the Imperial War Museum social media.
We used a very simple style of drawing and animation on this, and a limited colour palette and are pleased with the mood we’ve been able to evoke.
Some lovely comments:
“Thank you for posting this, how wonderful to listen to the words of these war heroes 100 years on.”
“Take 5 mins to listen and think “ How lucky are we today”.”
“So sad…weeping..to remember my Grandparents.”
“Brave men …”