A huge haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure has been found by a man with a metal detector in a field in the county of Staffordshire in England. Around 1,500 gold and silver pieces, including helmets, decorations, jewellery, coins and crossed which date from the 7th century were found by Tony Herbert.
For more on the find check out the BBC and the Guardian websites.
Harry Patch was the last surviving soldier living in Europe to have fought in the trenches of the First World War. He died in July this year. At the time of his death, aged 111. He fought at Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres) and was injured by a shell explosion on 22 September 1917 in an incident in which three of his comrades were killed.
Patch had refused to discuss his war experiences, but the realisation that he was part of a fast dwindling group of veterans of the Great War persuaded him to speak.
A fierce critic of war, Patch once said "...if any man tells you he went over the top and he wasn't scared, he's a damn liar."
The group Radiohead marked his death by releasing a song about Patch.
Here are the lyrics and Thom from Radiohead's comments about the song:
Harry Patch (In Memory Of) "I am the only one that got through the others died where ever they fell it was an ambush they came up from all sides give your leaders each a gun and then let them fight it out themselves I've seen devils coming up from the ground I've seen hell upon this earth the next will be chemical but they will never learn"
Recently the last remaining UK veteran of the 1st world war Harry Patch died at the age of 111.
I had heard a very emotional interview with him a few years ago on the Today programme on Radio 4. The way he talked about war had a profound effect on me.
It became the inspiration for a song that we happened to record a few weeks before his death. It was done live in an abbey. The strings were arranged by Jonny. I very much hope the song does justice to his memory as the last survivor.
It would be very easy for our generation to forget the true horror of war, without the likes of Harry to remind us. I hope we do not forget.
As Harry himself said: "Irrespective of the uniforms we wore, we were all victims".
In order to understand the atmosphere at the Paris Peace Conference after the First World War you need to be aware of the way the war had affected the continent.
Germany invaded Poland 70 years ago, an event that is usually seen as marking the start of the Second World War. Check out the BBC and the Guardian websites for a stack of information on these events.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain responded to Hitler's decision to invade Poland by declaring war on Germany on September 3rd, 1939. Here is an extract of the broadcast he made at the time:
