On such a day, there are lots of late night programmes about WW1 and WW2.
Last night I stayed up to watch, again "They Shall Not Grow Old" a documentary made by Peter Jackson(Lord of the Rings) using old film and photographs and colorising them, plus having experts "lip read" the comments made by the people filmed and spoken by actors.
It doesn't hold back. There are some pretty bloody images of the dead and injured, and first hand stories of survivors.
My maternal grandfather once told me that he was in the army before 1914 and was in the trenches throughout and was finally stationed in Germany. "all the bloody way - that was my punishment for not getting shot!" was his summary.
What came across was that those who went and experienced the slaughter and appalling conditions returned to a Britain which simply did not understand what they suffered.
In fact even considering the enormous losses of manpower - most returned to unemployment and even a common reluctance to employ ex servicemen.
Therefore it was generally decided never to speak of their experiences or of the horrors.
I so wish that as a child, I;'d asked more questions of him, but I remember my mother (his daughter) telling me in a rather dismissive way "oh he went of to war and when he came back didn't seem to want to bother to work again".
An illustration perhaps that his four/five years or terror, cold, mud, rats, dead bodies, lice, disease, gas poisoning, and killing - could simply not be understood.
I recommend that those who would like to understand seek out that film.
https://youtu.be/IrabKK9Bhds?list=PL...akyGUn0Bn3Wsg7