IRSAC & IWM London present
Jean Moorcroft Wilson & Max Egremont
on Saturday 9 November 2013 at 2.30 p.m.
at The Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ
Max Egremont
Max Egremont
THE LAST THROW – THE GERMAN OFFENSIVE MARCH 1918
In the war’s last years, there was a transformation, from Haig’s spring message that the British had their ‘backs to the wall’ to August 8 when Ludendorff spoke of ‘the black day of the German army’. Did the startling first successes of that spring bring the Allies near to defeat? Was it a humiliation in particular for the British? Or were the attacks doomed before they began, as American troops started to come across and the Central Powers faced economic pressure and crumbling morale?
Jean Moorcroft Wilson
‘THROUGH THESE PALE COLD DAYS’ TO ROSENBERG’S DEATH
When the poet Isaac Rosenberg enlisted in the British Army in October 1915 it was not, he insisted, ‘for patriotic reasons’. And his experiences as a private at the Front in France, from June 1916 to his death there during the German Spring Offensive of 1918 did little to change his mind. It did, however, have a profound effect on his poetry, which gives eloquent voice to the ‘poor bloody Tommy’ and is among the greatest of the First World War. With originality of language, thought and technique he penned some of the most devastating, yet humane words about front-line experience ever written.
Tickets £10 Available from IWM London at 01223 449 353 or www.iwm.org.uk
