World War One (experiences of war)

Where can I find information about experiences of war during World War One?

(Years 7-10)

1916 black and white photo of Irish soldiers resting in a trench during the Battle of the Somme (a major conflict in WW1). — Image: Royal Irish Rifles ration party Somme July 1916 Collection: Imperial War Museum. IWM Non-Commercial Licence. Image cropped.

Entry last updated: 24/11/25

Introduction

World War One was an international conflict that took place from 1914 to 1918, and was also known as The Great War. It began in Europe and involved over thirty nations around the world. More than thirty million people lost their lives, and many more were affected in different ways. This entry has resources that highlight the experiences of people involved.

General sites

People's lives changed greatly during World War One. Those on the front line like soldiers and nurses could experience shell shock, now known as post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Others suffered from poison gases used in chemical weapons. With many of the men away fighting on the battlefield, the traditional roles of women changed as they had to do the work that was usually done by the men in their community. Some communities experienced air raids and having food rationed.

BBC Bitesize KS2 History

The BBC has a website for school students which has some excellent resources about British history and what life was like in Britain during World War One.

Look down the page to WWI.
Choose from the topics listed.
Read answers to questions like What were air raids like in World War One? and What did people eat during World War one?

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 BBC Learning page on this website. That can tell you what the company’s mission and values are.

The British Imperial War Museum

This site is a good place to explore the objects, documents, photographs, and film from its collection. There is also a search engine you can use to find information about anything specific.

From the homepage go to Objects and History and choose Stories and Videos.
Look for the heading First World War and then select More First World War stories.
There are interesting stories from everyday people in the series Voices of the First World War
e.g. Voices of the First World War: Life on the Home Front.

The Long, Long Trail

This site is by a military historian and focuses on information about the British army in the First World War.

Choose Soldiers from the front page.
Select A soldier's life for a list of articles covering British soldiers, battles, and army life.

Tips: Some websites have .au, .uk or other codes in their url. This can tell you which country this website comes from eg .au is from Australia or .uk from the United Kingdom. You can check the ‘About Us’ link on the website for more information.

Great War Museum - Musée de la Grande Guerre

With collections reflecting the experience of mainland European countries during the war.

Open the area called The Museum's Collection.
Browse the images and select one to see more information.

Tips: Stories can be told in different ways. It’s a good idea to look at multiple information sources about a topic to help you put together your own narrative.

National WWI Museum and Memorial

The United States entered the war in 1917, and the official memorial museum has a large collection with lots of information about World War One.

Go to About WWI and choose Learn more.
Choose Military History to find out more about soldiers' experiences, or try Social Shifts to read about events and changes that were happening in the US and around the world.

Tips: Websites that have .org in the address can have good information, but you need to check how reliable it is. Look at the About us link on the website. That can tell you what the organisation's mission and values are.

New Zealand sites

Although most battles were far away, the war also impacted Aotearoa New Zealand. Around 100,000 New Zealanders served in the war in some way and nearly 60,000 were either killed or wounded.

NZ History

NZ History is an excellent website for information about New Zealand Aotearoa. It has useful and reliable information about the experiences of New Zealand soldiers and nurses in World War One.

Go to New Zealand at War from the front page.
Select the heading First World War to see all the different topics.
Choose a topic to explore, like New Zealand Army Nursing Service or Māori in the NZEF.
There is a section called Home front about people's experiences at home during the war.

NZ History also has a series of short videos called Great War Stories which tell the stories of New Zealanders who were involved in the war.

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 New Zealand government website was made as part of the World War One 100 year remembrance celebrations that took place 2014-2018. It has videos and audio clips depicting the lives of New Zealand soldiers fighting on the Western Front.

Select the The NZ at War tab to find out about daily life and the history of the First World War from a New Zealand perspective.
Choose from the articles, videos or audio clips. This site also has diary entries, letters, photographs, and personal stories.
You can also go to the menu on the left and select Personal Stories.

Tips: You can trust the information on this website because it is a government website. You can tell this because it has .govt in the web address.

DigitalNZ

DigitalNZ is a search site that focuses on all things New Zealand, especially history. It connects you to reliable digital collections (newspapers, articles, audio, video etc) from different websites.

Enter 'World War One' into the search box. You can also try adding the word 'experiences'.
Select the type of collection you want to see by choosing images, videos, or more to choose articles, newspapers, or books.
Each item has a description and a link to follow to read or view it.

Tips: Search words, or keywords, are the most important words in our question. You can leave out small words like ‘the’ and ‘of’ and just choose some main ones, eg World War One. We can always change our keywords or add more if we need to.

Auckland War Memorial Museum

This museum was built after World War One to honour those from Auckland who fought in the war. It has the Online Cenotaph database with information about soldiers from around the country. Some information has been turned into articles showing different experiences of the war.

Look under Paenga hira - War Memorial.
Go to Cenotaph Stories.
Select the topic WWI to see articles recording individual experiences during World War One.

Canterbury and World War One

This online exhibit from the Canterbury Museum was created as part of the World War One 100th anniversary. It includes stories and photographs of local people involved in or affected by the war.

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 page on the website if you can find it. That can tell you who the site belongs to and what their mission and values are.

World War I - Collections Online

This collection is from the Museum of New Zealand | Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington. It has photos and information about lots of different objects related to life during the First World War.

Select a topic from the list on the left, like Everyday reminders of World War One or
E P Cox Gallipoli Diary.
Scroll down the page to see related objects.

Tips: Historical sources like diaries, artworks and leaflets can be useful for finding different perspectives on a topic. Remember, stories can be told in different ways so it’s helpful to look at multiple information sources to find different perspectives.