We’re here in London…
…visiting our good friends at War Child Headquarters.
With Armistice Day fast approaching,
our minds turn to those affected by conflict,
in particular children.
Before we hear more about the great work War Child do,
I’ll pass you over to the good people at Extra Credits,
for an insight into Armistice Day.
In our culture, in our films, television, books, and games,
we so often see the glories of war.
But sometimes, in doing so,
we miss the value of peace.
Today though is a day to celebrate peace,
to remember that it can be as heroic as any act in battle…
…and to remember that in the end,
it’s the greatest service we can do…
…for our men and women under arms:
to let them know they can come home.
But this day, whatever you call it
—Veteran’s Day, Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day—
has its roots in one specific armistice:
the end of the First World War,
on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month,
98 years ago.
And this particular war, and its particular peace,
leave us with a reminder:
a reminder of how important a true peace is;
how important it is to not simply continue hostilities…
…without bombs or guns;
how despite how hard it is…
…not to carry over our anger and resentment that comes with great loss of life,
it’s necessary that we let all that go.
Lest we render the sacrifices made in war…
…meaningless with our anger.
Lest we find ourselves…
…fighting the same wars in the same places,
10, 20, 30 years down the road.
Because in 1918,
as entente boots once again marched across the Passchendaele…
…and American tanks rolled through the Belgian frontier,
many at the highest levels of the German military…
…and the German government pushed for peace,
but they did so on an understanding.
They knew that any peace would be a surrender,
but they remembered the 14 points for peace…
…that the American President Woodrow Wilson…
had laid out in a speech the previous year;
it called for open trade,
reduced arms, self-determination,
an abolishment of secret treaties,
and freedom of the seas.
It called for a League of Nations…
…to band together to monitor all nations…
and to make sure that this Great War never happened again.
It called for many things,
but it did not call for Germany to be blamed for the War.
It didn’t call for Germany to be punished for its loss,
to be made to pay for a war that had already impoverished and isolated it.
So, as the Western Front began to collapse,
they reached out to Wilson,
asking for his guarantee…
…that these were the terms they would surrender on.
But Wilson pushed back,
demanding first that he deal not with a monarch or a military,
but rather with a democracy representing the will of the people.
This caused chaos at the highest levels,
but many scrambled to make this a reality.
For some though, even this was too much.
The Head of the German Navy…
…ordered a suicidal attack on the Royal Navy
with the remaining German fleet,
but this order was met with mutiny…
mutiny which turned into a revolution.
Fighting broke out in the streets,
and communism threatened to overwhelm the German state.
The war was truly lost.
And so, negotiations to surrender began.
An armistice agreement,
an agreement to ceasefire, was reached,
with the Germans still believing…
…that it would be along the lines of Wilson’s 14 points,
now that the republic, beleaguered and under revolt as it was,
was coming to be.
But those 14 points were not meant to be.
Woodrow Wilson fell ill…
…and could not pushNthe French and the British…
…to give up on reprisal for all that they had suffered…
…at the hands of the Germans.
And so, 20 years later nearly to the day,
the sons and daughters of those who had returned…
…from what had been the bloodiest war in human history,
the children of those who had made such great sacrifices,
were left to again fight the war that their parents…
…had won on the battlefieldNand lost in the peace.
We reflect this day on those sacrifices…
…and honour those who have made them,
not only in the First World War…
…but in all the wars that we have faced since.
And we give thanks this day,
not only for the ending of that war…
…but for every day of peace since.
And we remember:
as hard as it may sometimes be to act in peace…
…with magnanimity and kindness,
in a spirit of peace and not reprisal.
Because maintaining peace, real peace,
is the greatest way that we can honour those sacrifices.
We’re here with Rob Williams,
who is the CEO for War Child UK.
Can you tell us more about the work of War Child?
War Child focuses on what happens to children in conflict zones…
…and when they are pulled from the rubble.
Some might think that that’s the end of that child’s particular crisis,
but that’s the beginning of our work,
because children who've been through that experiences…
…will have huge trauma.
They may have lost touch with their family,
and they will need to get back to safety.
War Child’s centres provide protection;
and allow children to go through a psychosocial trauma counselling process,
and we help them to find their families again,
and if they have completely disappeared,
we will help them to find a foster family…
…or to get to another place where they can be looked after.
All children have the same issues,
you might think about children escaping from an ISIS area…
…as severely traumatised,
and now we deal with thousands of those children.
But if you’ve escaped from a burning village in Africa,
you will have the same problems,
War Child is there to make sure that children having been through a conflict situation…
…get back to a place of safety,
a place of normality, and back to their family life,
which might take a while, but that’s our job.
We are desperate to reach more children;
we would like to expand our work hugely…
…in the Middle East and in Africa,
so what I would say to players of World of Tanks is:
this isn’t a call to arms but a call to armistice.
You can help us to reach more children than ever before,
and now is the time when we really need to do that.
Thank you Rob. As a veteran and a father,
I feel passionately about the work of War Child.
If you want to support this great cause,
please buy one of the War Child emblems…
…available in the World of Tanks Premium Shop.
Purchase the War Child emblem Available in the World of Tanks Premium Shop