A unique collection of historic recordings covering events from the last days of peace to the Christmas truce, 1914.

At midnight on 4 August, Britain had declared war on Germany. The pacifist Bertrand Russell was shocked by the pro-war euphoria on the streets, yet young men enlisted willingly because “it would all be over by Christmas”. It was not. Instead the opposing armies had become entrenched. It was the beginning of a long and bitter stalemate.

In this new audio compilation, troops of the British Expeditionary Force vividly recall the exhausting retreat from Mons, the success at the Marne, and the first battle of Ypres, where the Territorials arrived in bright red London buses. For reconnaissance pilots, the battlefield was defined by blazing villages, and fields alive with German troops.

Among the items which powerfully capture the mood of the time are an eyewitness account of the Kaiser’s reaction to the news from Sarajevo on 28 June; Margot Asquith, wife of the Prime Minister, remembering their despair at the inevitability of war; and the poignant reminiscences of civilians and soldiers.

A unique collection of historic recordings covering the events of 1915, from the first Zeppelin raids to the ultimate failure at Gallipoli.

In this selection of authentic eyewitness accounts, survivors describe the sinking of the Lusitania; the author Compton McKenzie remembers the Gallipoli disaster; and Violet Bonham Carter pays tribute to Rupert Brooke, who died en route to that campaign. In another poignant memoir, a close colleague recalls the last hours of the British nurse Edith Cavell, executed by the Germans for treason.

Women left at home talk about the hazards they faced taking over men’s jobs, particularly in munitions; but it is the troops speaking informally and candidly who convey the truly harrowing nature of the war. Whether helpless during a poison gas attack, or pinned down on the Gallipoli beaches, their memories are bleak. For one soldier, ordered to take part in a firing squad, there was a further horror: the prospect of shooting a comrade for desertion.

As the stalemate of the trenches continued, hopes for 1916 were focused on a radical new invention: the tank.

From the Russian Revolution to America’s declaration of war and the lasting horror of Passchendaele, this unique collection of historic recordings contains the voices of those who were there.

Among the memorable voices in this compilation are Commander William Ibbett, who experienced the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution at close quarters, Sir Edward Spears on the mutiny in the French Army and Royal Flying Corps pilots ­ whose life expectancy could be a low as a single day.

1917 was a year of decisive events. Germany raised the stakes at sea, America eventually declared war; the Nivelle offensive almost destroyed the French army; and, following two revolutions in February and October, Russian forces collapsed. For the Allies, despite their successes at Messines and Cambrai, the year was overshadowed by the losses at Passchendaele. Survivors recall their despair as men and horses drowned in mud: ‘a viscous, tenacious mud which smelt of death’.

In the Middle East, British fortunes changed with the capture of Aqaba and Jerusalem. General Allenby, Commander of the Palestine Campaign, recalls the vital, if unorthodox, feats of one officer in particular: Colonel TE Lawrence.

By December, troops on the Western Front were digging in for yet another winter. Victory now depended on the arrival of the Americans. Duration: 2 hours approx.

A unique collection of historic recordings in which the last brutal encounters of the war and the mixed emotions of the armistice are remembered by troops from both sides.

By the end of March 1918, Germany’s Spring Offensive had thrown British forces back over the old Somme battlefields. But this last push failed and with the stalemate of trench warfare broken, the Allies swept from near-defeat to victory. However, their joy was tempered by sorrow. Too many would not come home. For the Germans, the mood was despairing as their ‘endless columns rolled eastward’, the November fog and rain adding to their melancholy.

Memorable reminiscences include an evocative portrait of the poet Wilfred Owen by his brother Harold, American troops on their initiation into the horrors of battle and reflections on the controversial Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig by his contemporaries.

The war ended on 11 November 1918, but the Treaty of Versailles was not signed until 28 June 1919. By then, the German fleet had decided its own fate in one final act of defiance witnessed by a group of school children on an outing in Scapa Flow.

Durations: 2 hours 12 minutes