HOW SOME DEVON NEWSPAPERS REPORTED THE LAST 100 DAYS OF WW1 By Robert Hesketh

ROBERT HESKETH: Speaker, freelance writer and photographer with a strong interest in local History, Robert has published over 70 Devon, Dorset and Somerset titles and written numerous illustrated articles for The Countryman, Dartmoor Magazine, Country Walking, Trail, Cornwall Life and other publications.

He offers guided history tours of Exeter and Bovey Tracey. TALK: This talk is based on a close study of Devon newspapers – mainly the Devon and Exeter Daily Gazette and the Western Times.

Beginning with the massive Allied attack on August 8th, 1918, it shows how the fortunes of war turned against the Central Powers and especially against Germany, which had made impressive gains on the Western Front during the spring with reinforcements released from the Eastern Front in a last desperate gamble to win the war before the mass arrival of American troops.

Through the use of new tactics and the “All Arms Battle”, the Allies won an unparalleled series of victories in only a hundred days to force the Armistice of November 11th – but at a terrible cost. Battle reports and editorials reveal the dramatic unfolding of events in what historians later called the “Last Hundred Days”.