World War One

General websites

Here are some websites that have useful facts, images, stories and information about World War One, how the war began, major battles fought and what it was like for soldiers and other people involved.

Imperial War Museum

The Imperial War Museum in the United Kingdom collects objects, stories and experiences of conflicts from the First World War through to present-day conflict.

• Go to Objects & History from the top of the page and select Stories & Videos.

• Look down the page to First World War and find Read more.

• Find mini-guides, articles and images about World War One. These include How the world went to war in 1914, Pre-war alliances, The Gallipoli Campaign, images of trench art, recruitment posters and more.

Tips: Websites that have .org or .net in the address can have good information, but you need to assess how reliable it its. Check the About us link on the website if you can find one. That can tell you what the company's mission and values are.

BBC World Wars

This is a great website where you can search for information on the course of the war and individual battles.

• Go to the World War One section.

• Find a series of interactive guides presented by well-known historians and experts on world war one topics such as the battle of the Somme, the home front and war horses. These are being added to all the time.

Tips: Websites that have .com or .co in the address can have good information, but you need to assess how reliable it is. Check the About us page on the website, if you can find one. That can tell you what the company’s mission and values are.

Britannica School

Britannica School is part of EPIC, a collection of reliable databases covering lots of different topics and is put together especially for New Zealand school students. You may need a password from your school or local library to access it.

• Select the Middle level to begin.

• Enter keywords 'World War One'.

• Select the article World War I (1914-1918).

• Remember to explore the images, videos and related links. You can move up or down a level if you need to.

Tips: Search words, or keywords, are the most important words in our question. Usually it's better to leave out small words like the, a and of and just choose the main ones, eg World War One. We can always change our keywords or add more if we need to.

World History (Gale in Context)

This database from EPIC provides an overview of world history that includes World War One.

• Go to Browse Topics from the top of the page, then look down the page to find World War I.

• This page has links to videos, images, articles, biographies and primary sources.

Tips: To get to the EPIC databases you will need a password from your school librarian first. Or, you can log on to AnyQuestions between 1 and 6pm Monday to Friday, and one of the librarians can help you online. Some EPIC databases may also be available through your public library.

New Zealand websites

New Zealand was also involved in World War One. Here are some good places to find out about the war from a New Zealand perspective.

Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Te Ara is an excellent starting point for all questions about Aotearoa New Zealand. If we look down to the bottom of the page we can see that the website belongs to the Ministry for Culture & Heritage.

• Use your keywords 'world war one' to search.

• Select First World War from the results.

• This page will lead to information on why New Zealand joined the war, the campaigns fought and the impacts of the war at home.

Tips: We like sites like this because they're reliable. You can tell because of their web address - they have either .govt or.ac, meaning they are from government or educational organisations.

NZ History

This website has heaps of information on New Zealand’s involvement in World War One, as well as what it was like in New Zealand during the war.

• Choose New Zealand at war from the three links under the main introduction.

• Next, choose First World War.

• This page contains links to topics like the battles fought, the NZEF Units, the aftermath, commemoration and more.

Tips: If we go all the way down the page we can see that the website belongs to the Ministry for Culture & Heritage, so the information is well-researched and reliable.

WW100

This is a New Zealand government website dedicated to remembering Aotearoa New Zealand's participation in the First World War, one hundred years on. They have information on the commemorations around the conflict.

• Go to NZ at War from the top of the page.

• This will bring up facts and stories.

• There's also an interactive timeline of New Zealand's involvement.

Tips: We like sites like this because they're reliable. You can tell because of their web address - they have either .govt or.ac. They're also New Zealand sites, so relevant for us.

Topic Explorer

This is an online tool that has a wide range of quality resources for students in a range of formats (eg articles, books, images, videos, primary sources, sets, websites) on a variety of topics. These resources have been selected from reliable national and international sources.

• Go to the Filter by topic option and enter 'war'.

• Then select New Zealand and the First World War.

• From here you can select articles, images, videos, and more.

Books

There are many books written on World War One. Check your local public or school library to see what they have.

Some recommended titles are:

• A photographic view of World War One by Alex Woolf

• True stories from World War I by Peter Hepplewhite

• War horse by Michael Morpurgo

• The war to end all wars: World War I by Russell Freedman

• World War I by Simon Adams.

SCIS no: 1832730