The Old Front Line: Recent Episodes
Paul Reed
Walk the battlefields of the First World War with Military Historian, Paul Reed. In these podcasts, Paul brings together over 35 years of studying the Great War, from the stories of veterans he interviewed, to when he spent more than a decade living on the Old Front Line in the heart of the Somme battlefields.
How do you find the hidden story of the First World War landscape? In this special bonus episode of The Old Front Line, we explore the fascinating world of WW1 trench maps and discover how they can transform your understanding of the Western Front and beyond.
We begin by looking at the Blue Series IGN maps that first inspired a deeper exploration of the battlefields, before uncovering the remarkable trench maps created during the Great War. What were trench maps? How were they produced? Who used them, and why are they still such an invaluable resource for battlefield historians today?
The episode also tells the story of Lieutenant Colonel Evan Maclean Jack CMG DSO, one of the key figures behind the development of British trench mapping, and examines his lasting influence on military cartography.
Finally, we put theory into practice by studying three original trench maps from very different theatres of war: Richebourg on the Lys battlefield, Neuville Vitasse south of Arras, and the Salonika Front around Lake Doiran. Together they reveal how maps recorded trenches, strongpoints, roads, artillery positions and the ever-changing front line.
Main Image: Trench Maps of Arras, Richebourg and Salonika. The portrait is Lt Col Evan Maclean Jack CMG DSO, 'Maps' at GHQ (IWM archive)
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In this episode of the Old Front Line Podcast, we answer another fascinating collection of listener questions that explore the people, places and practical realities of the First World War.
We begin by asking why visitors can walk, play and live on some historic battlefields, such as the D-Day beaches, while places like Newfoundland Memorial Park on the Somme remain carefully preserved. What makes a battlefield "sacred", and who decides how these landscapes should be remembered?
We then untangle the mystery of First World War barbed wire. Discover how troops navigated their own defensive obstacles for raids, wiring parties, patrols and major offensives, and how carefully concealed gaps and communication routes balanced defence with the need to attack.
Next, we delve into the history of the King Edward's Horse, examining its formation in 1914, its links to men from across the British Empire, and why some recruits with no Dominion connections—including one listener's ancestor—found themselves serving in this unusual cavalry regiment.
Finally, we travel to the closing days of the war to explore what happened after the Armistice. From the emotional scenes of 11 November 1918 to the long process of demobilisation, the return of prisoners of war, encounters between former enemies in No Man's Land, and the immense task of clearing and rebuilding the shattered battlefields of France and Belgium, we trace how Europe emerged from four years of conflict.
Main Image: German barbed wire entanglements, known as 'knife rests' photographed in the Beaumont Hamel area, November 1916. (IWM Q1530). Image by Ernest Brookes.
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In this episode of the Old Front Line Podcast, we explore one of the most successful British attacks of the Battle of the Somme: the Dawn Attack of 14 July 1916. Launched before first light, the assault captured key objectives including Bazentin-le-Petit, Bazentin-le-Grand and Longueval, bringing British troops to the edge of High Wood and changing the course of the campaign.
We examine the battle in detail, explaining the careful planning, the surprise achieved by attacking at dawn, and why this operation succeeded where so many earlier assaults had struggled. Along the way, we tell the stories of two men who experienced the fighting from very different perspectives, one an ordinary soldier, the other an officer, bringing a personal dimension to one of the Somme's defining actions.
The episode concludes with a virtual battlefield walk, travelling west to east across the ground of the attack. From the British front lines through the captured villages and on towards High Wood, we explore what survives today and reveal how the landscape still tells the story of this remarkable day in July 1916.
Main Image: The 20th Deccan Horse, Indian Army, in the Carnoy Valley shortly before their unsuccessful attack at High Wood during the Somme offensive, 14 July 1916. (IWM Q823). Image by John Warwick Brooke.
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In this Questions and Answers episode we head beneath the battlefields to explore the hidden world of First World War dugouts and bunkers, asking whether the Ypres Salient saw more extensive underground construction than the Somme, and how geology shaped the way British, German, Australian and other armies built and occupied these remarkable underground shelters.
We also examine one of the most fascinating aspects of post-war battlefield recovery by looking at the concentration of casualties from High Wood into Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, and ask how the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission decided where recovered soldiers would ultimately be buried. Why were men from the same battalion sometimes reburied in different cemeteries years apart?
From there we consider the impact of mist and fog on the Western Front. Did poor visibility and weather bring fighting to a halt, or was it an opportunity for trench raids, wiring parties, patrols and surprise attacks?
Finally, we look at one of the 'what ifs' of the First World War. Following Russia's armistice in late 1917, how much artillery and equipment did Germany transfer west alongside its infantry? Could the Kaiserschlacht have happened without the collapse of the Eastern Front, and how might the war have unfolded if Russia had remained in the conflict?
Main Image: Battle of Albert, 1916. The steps leading down to a huge German underground shelter at Bernafay Wood, near Montauban, captured by the 9th Division. The picture gives a good idea of the size and depth of many German dugouts on the Somme. (IWM Q4307). Image by John Warwick Brooke.
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For our 300th Episode we reflect on six years of the Old Front Line Podcast and go back to where we started in March 2020 by retaking a virtual walk through the battlefields and village of Pozières on the Somme.
We start at the Pozieres British Cemetery and Memorial and then walk into the village seeing memorials, and discussing some of the 'characters of the Somme', walking up to Mouquet Farm and ending at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.
Main Image: Thiepval Memorial to the Missing under a summer sky. (OFL Archives)
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In this episode of the Old Front Line Podcast, we answer another fascinating selection of listener questions covering some of the most intriguing aspects of the First World War.
We begin by exploring the formidable German concrete fortifications of the Somme, including the infamous Quadrilateral. How were these massive bunkers and strongpoints constructed so close to the front line, and why were the Allies seemingly unable to prevent their development?
We then examine war expectations in 1914 including the belief that the war would be over by Christmas. What did Britain and Germany actually expect from the coming conflict? How did military planners believe victory would be achieved, and what political and territorial objectives were they hoping to secure?
The discussion then turns to the Hindenburg Line. How much of this vast defensive system survives today, where can visitors still see it, and why were the Allies caught off guard when German forces withdrew to it during the spring of 1917?
Finally, we tackle a practical but rarely discussed aspect of trench warfare: sanitation. Was toilet paper available to soldiers on the Western Front, what alternatives were used, and what can this tell us about daily life, hygiene, and disease in wartime conditions?
Main Image: Remains of a German trench in Gommecourt, showing a concrete dug-out entrance, March 1917. (IWM Q4913). Image by John Warwick Brooke.
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In this episode of the Old Front Line Podcast, we continue our exploration of the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916 by examining the southern sector of the British attack. Travelling across the battlefields of Mametz and Montauban, we uncover how some of the most successful attacks of the opening day unfolded and why this part of the front achieved results that proved elusive elsewhere.
We explore the plans, the units involved, and the fierce fighting that took place as British troops advanced against the German defences. Along the way, we examine the stories of the soldiers who fought here, the objectives they were tasked with capturing, and the cost of victory on the Somme's first day.
The episode also includes a virtual battlefield walk across the landscapes of Mametz and Montauban as they appear today, connecting the modern terrain with the events of July 1916 and highlighting key locations, memorials, and surviving traces of the battlefield.
Whether you're researching the Battle of the Somme, planning a battlefield visit, or simply interested in First World War history, this episode provides an in-depth guide to one of the most important sectors of 1st July 1916.
Jonathan Porter’s Somme Books: Zero Hour Z Day website.
Main Image: Infantry from the British 7th Division advancing towards German trenches at Mametz, 7.30am on 1 July 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme. (IWM Q 89). Image by No 1 Printing Company Royal Engineers.
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On the morning of 1st July 1916, as whistles blew along miles of the Somme front, the men of the III Corps and XV Corps rose from their trenches and walked into the centre of one of the most catastrophic days in British military history.
In this second special episode of Old Front Line for the Somme 110th Anniversary, we focus on the brutal heart of the Somme battlefield, that stretch of scarred chalk downland running from the village of Ovillers, down through the fortress of La Boisselle, to the encircled ruins of Fricourt. This was the ground where some of the few remaining regulars alongside men of Kitchener's volunteer army, Tyneside Scots and Irishmen, Grimsby fishermen, South Yorkshire lads in the York & Lancs, and Green Howards among so many others, were sent against some formidable German positions on this central part of the Somme front of 1st July.
The podcast follows the 8th Division into the killing ground of The Nab and Mash Valley at Ovillers, where German machine guns on three sides made survival almost impossible. We stand at the edge of the Lochnagar crater and trace the advance of the 34th Division, all twelve battalions committed at once, nothing held in reserve, as the Tyneside brigades marched in waves across open ground toward a village that was ready and waiting for them. And we examine the bitter fighting around Fricourt, where the 10th West Yorkshire Regiment suffered the single greatest British battalion casualty toll of any unit in on The First Day of the Somme.
We end with a virtual walk across those battlefields today.
Jonathan Porter's Somme Books: Zero Hour Z Day website.
Main Image: Destroyed German trenches at Ovillers, looking towards Albert, July 1916. (IWM Q 4044). Image by John Warwick Brooke.
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In this latest Questions & Answers episode of the Old Front Line podcast, we tackle another fascinating collection of listener questions that uncover some of the lesser-known aspects of the First World War.
We begin by exploring the German tradition of Sterbebilder or Death Cards, the memorial cards issued to commemorate fallen soldiers. How were these cards produced, who organised them, and where did the photographs that often appeared on them come from?
Next, we examine the impact of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic on the armies of the Great War. As Germany's military fortunes declined during the final months of the conflict, how much of a role did illness play alongside battlefield losses, exhaustion, and dwindling resources? We also consider the wider effect of influenza on all the major combatant nations.
We then turn to one of the most familiar nicknames in British medal collecting: "Pip, Squeak and Wilfred". Where did these curious names come from, and how did they become attached to the 1914–15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal?
Finally, we look at trench warfare and ask how opposing armies managed to dig trenches in places where the enemy was often only a few yards away. How were these positions established under fire, and how did some sectors of the front evolve into landscapes where soldiers could hear conversations and even smell the enemy's cooking?
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In the first of a three-part series marking the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, we explore the fighting in the northern sector of the battlefield on 1 July 1916.
This episode examines the attacks at Serre, Beaumont-Hamel and Thiepval, where some of the most dramatic and costly actions of the opening day unfolded. We look at the ground over which the soldiers advanced, the plans behind the attacks, the units involved, and how the battle developed. From the struggles of the Pals Battalions attacking Serre to the devastating losses suffered below the heights of Thiepval, we trace the story of the men who fought there and assess the outcomes of their efforts.
Along the way, we examine the key commanders, the challenges posed by the terrain and German defences, and the human cost of the battle, exploring the casualties suffered and the legacy left behind on this iconic section of the Western Front.
The episode concludes with a virtual walk across the modern battlefield, following the route of the attacks and contemplating that story, that legacy of 1 July 1916 today.
Main Image: Troops waiting, some still asleep, in a support trench shortly before zero hour, Beaumont Hamel. (IWM Q64). Image by Royal Engineers No.1 Printing Company.
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For this episode of the Old Front Line podcast, we open the virtual mailbag once again for another Questions & Answers special covering some fascinating and lesser-known aspects of the First World War. From observation balloons hanging silently over the trenches to trench foot, white feathers and booby traps in No Man’s Land, this episode explores the realities of life on the Western Front beyond the better-known battles.
We begin by looking at the observation balloons - the so-called Balloonatics - that became such a familiar feature of the wartime landscape. Who manned these vulnerable aerial observation posts? What was life like for the crews suspended high above the battlefield? How many balloons lined the front by 1916, and were they more effective over the flat plains of Flanders than the broken ground of the Somme?
We also examine the infamous White Feather campaign and the pressure placed on young men to enlist, alongside the Derby Scheme which allowed men to attest for service before being called up later. How widespread was the practice, and what impact did it have on those who experienced it?
Inspired by an episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, we then investigate whether anti-personnel minefields really existed in the trenches of the Great War, and explore the grim world of booby traps and explosive devices hidden one the battlefield.
Finally, we answer a question from Australia concerning trench foot and the long-term effects suffered by soldiers who returned to duty after treatment. How badly could damaged feet affect a man’s ability to march, and what happened when he rejoined his battalion?
Join us for another deep dive into the forgotten details and human stories of the First World War.
The book mentioned in the introduction is Jon Woolcott's Tattooed Hills: Journeys to Chalk Figures published in 2026.
Main Image: The Medical Officer of the 12th Battalion ,East Yorkshire Regiment conducts a foot inspection in a support trench near Roclincourt, 9 January 1918. (IWM Q10622). Image by Thomas Keith Aitken.
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In this special edition of the podcast we explore a lesser-known theatre of conflict from the First World War in Northern Italy with historian Tom Isitt. Tom's new book - Thunder in the Mountains - follows a journey he made across those battlefields and with him we discover the unique challenges of mountain warfare, the diverse nations involved, and personal stories from the battlefield.
We examine the Battlefields on the Izonzo, discuss some of the highest points of the Great War in the Dolomites and move to the involvement of German troops in Italy, including Erwin Rommel at Caporetto in 1917, and the arrival of British forces who fought here until the end of the war.
You visit Tom Isitt's website and order the book here: Thunder in the Mountains.
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In this wide-ranging listener Q&A episode of Old Front Line, we dive into some intriguing and human questions thrown up by the Great War.
We begin with the fate of the missing. With hundreds of thousands of men listed as “missing” across the Western Front, is there any real evidence that some chose to disappear, seizing the chaos of war to start new lives elsewhere? We explore the realities of desertion, the systems used to record the dead, and whether the idea of men slipping away into anonymity holds up under historical scrutiny.
From there, we head to the contested borderlands of Alsace-Lorraine. Annexed by the German Empire after the Franco-Prussian War, the region produced soldiers who often found themselves fighting for Germany despite deep cultural ties to France. Were these men treated with suspicion? Were they deliberately dispersed among regiments, and how did questions of identity and loyalty shape their wartime experience?
We also turn to the modern landscape of the First World War, answering a question about relationships with landowners across the former front lines. What happens when cemeteries and forgotten sites lie on private land? Do landowners welcome visitors, and how connected do they feel to the history beneath their fields?
Finally, we tackle casualty comparisons. While 1 July 1916 stands as the British Army’s darkest day on the Battle of the Somme, what were the equivalent days of devastation for the French and German armies? From the Battle of the Frontiers to the Offensive in the Champagne, we examine when losses peaked and what that tells us about the wider war.
As always, this episode blends thoughtful listener questions with grounded historical analysis, uncovering the personal stories and bigger truths behind the conflict.
Research by David O'Mara: Casualties in 1914 and 1915.
315eRI on Substack: The Day Flesh Met Steel.
Main Image: The Dawn: Propaganda Poster During the First World War with Two Women Representing Alsace and Lorraine by Henri Royer.
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Step into one of the most chaotic and little-known battles of the First World War in 1916 with this episode of The Old Front Line, as we explore the Battle of the St Eloi Craters (March–April 1916).
Fought in the shattered landscape south of Ypres, this battle saw the devastating use of underground mines transform the battlefield into a nightmarish maze of mud-filled craters. We examine how British tunnelling companies detonated massive charges beneath German lines, and how the newly arrived Canadian Corps struggled to hold and understand the ground they had inherited.
At the heart of this episode are powerful first-hand accounts. We hear the experiences of Donald Fraser, whose vivid testimony captures the confusion and brutality of crater fighting, and Harold McGill, medical officer with the 31st Battalion, who provides a harrowing insight into the challenges of treating the wounded in such extreme conditions.
Main Image: Actions of St. Eloi Craters. Troops of the Northumberland Fusiliers, 3rd Division, wearing German helmets and gas masks captured at St. Eloi, 27th March 1916. Image taken by Ernest Brooks (IWM Q494)
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Step back from the battlefield and into the questions that bring the Great War to life in this special Q&A episode. Drawing on years of battlefield exploration and historical research, we tackle four fascinating listener questions centred on the Battle of the Somme and beyond.
We begin on the heights above the battlefield, exploring the idea of Bouzincourt Ridge as a “grandstand view” on 1 July 1916. What could be seen at 7:30am as the attack began? While no direct veteran testimony from that exact vantage point survives, we examine contemporary accounts, artillery observation points, and how the opening moments of the Somme were witnessed from the rear areas.
From there, we address a powerful and sobering question about the dead of the Somme. With so many soldiers listed as unidentifiied, how were remains recovered, identified, and buried? Could parts of the same individual have ended up in different graves, and how did organisations like the Imperial War Graves Commission ensure accuracy and dignity in commemoration?
Next, we break down the sheer scale of the Somme fighting. Was it a continuous daily offensive, or a series of smaller battles? We explain how the campaign unfolded between July and November 1916, highlighting key phases such as the Battle of Bazentin Ridge and the Battle of Flers-Courcelette to give clarity to one of history’s most complex battles.
Finally, we turn to literature, examining Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. How accurate is its depiction of trench life and tunnelling warfare? We compare fiction with historical reality, exploring where the novel captures the truth, and where it takes creative licence.
Main Image: Bouzincourt Ridge Cemetery during the Centenary in 2018 (Old Front Line Archives)
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With a special edition for ANZAC Day, in this insightful interview, playwright Arthur Meek discusses his project to bring to life the voices of Gallipoli veterans through oral histories and verbatim theatre. The conversation explores the power of personal stories, memory, remembrance, and the impact of war on individuals and collective memory.
A bonus for TOFL pod listeners - 50% off for the first 50 TOFL listeners with coupon: TOFL50
The Bad Luck Battalion | A Verbatim Anzac War Story - get the full story in audio + ebook formats here https://payhip.com/b/C9B6s
Website where folks can keep up to date about the projectwww.vog.care
www.facebook.com/voicesofgallipoli
Main Image: The Otago Regiment landing at Gallipoli 1915.
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In this in-depth Questions & Answers episode of The Old Front Line, we tackle four fascinating listener questions exploring the aftermath and realities of the First World War.
We begin in the Ypres Salient, examining how the Commonwealth War Graves Commission replaced thousands of temporary wooden crosses with the iconic headstones we see today. How was this monumental task organised? How many stonemasons were involved, and how long did the process take?
Next, we explore the often misunderstood concept of “machine gun barrages” during trench warfare. How did these indirect fire weapons work, and how effective were they on the battlefield? We also look at examples of the barrages and developing use of machine-guns on the battlefield.
We then move behind the lines to investigate burial practices at Casualty Clearing Stations and Field Hospitals. With thousands buried in short periods, what environmental and public health challenges arose, and did these cemeteries pose risks to local populations after the war?
Finally, we examine the complex issue of land ownership after 1918. Across former battlefields in France and Belgium, how were destroyed landscapes surveyed, boundaries restored, and compensation provided to those who had lost everything?
More on the Vickers Gun: Vickers Machine Gun Collection & Research Association.
Main Image: A Vickers machine gun team from the Machine Gun Corps (MGC) wearing PH Type anti-gas helmets in action near Ovillers during the Battle of the Somme, July 1916. (IWM Q3995)
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In this special episode with Professor Mark Connelly we explore the profound connection between landscape, memory, and national identity during the Great War, focusing on the significance of chalk landscapes in Britain and their influence on cultural memory and battlefield symbolism.
We dive into how the beautiful, chalky terrains of England shaped the identity of soldiers during the Great War. Many of them carried an intimate knowledge of these landscapes, a connection forged through literature and culture. When they found themselves on the battlefields of France, the familiar terrain sparked powerful memories and emotions, making the destruction all the more poignant.
This narrative goes beyond military history; it’s about identity, memory, and how we connect with the land we call home. The chalk downlands were not just a backdrop but a symbol of what they were fighting for, and losing.
And we ask, what does this mean for how we remember the war today?
Professor Mark Connelly's Tours: Mark Connelly - Connelly Contours
The book mentioned was 'England in France' by Charles Vince, illustrations by Sydney R. Jones (London 1919)
Main Image: A Grave and a Mine Crater at La Boisselle, August 1917 by William Orpen (IWMART2378)
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We are now 50 Q&As in, and the questions keep getting better, sharper, and more human! This milestone edition of The Old Front Line is built around four listener prompts that take us from the small, intimate scale of one soldier’s photograph to the vast, uneasy scale of a battlefield that never fully stops giving things back to the surface.
We start with the stories that first hooked me on First World War history: individual men whose faces, medals, and graves became “beacons” I return to again and again. From Ypres to Plugstreet to the Somme, we talk about why researching named soldiers and walking the Western Front still matters, and how personal connections can turn into serious historical work.
Then we shift into regimental identity and military tradition by unpacking what “Light Infantry” really means by 1914. Were these units deployed differently in the Great War, or is the name mainly heritage? We look at rifle regiments, status, old titles, and the sheer scale of their contribution across the war.
Finally, we zoom out to the landscape of memory itself: comparing American Civil War battlefields like Gettysburg with the old front line, touching on Franco-Prussian War commemoration, and finishing with the gritty reality of post-1918 farming, ordnance clearance, Graves Registration, iron harvest, and why reburials still happen today.
If you enjoyed this one, subscribe, share it with a fellow Great War traveller, and leave a review so more listeners can find the podcast.
Main Image: soldiers of the KRRC while in training c.1915 (Old Front Line Archives).
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In this episode of The Old Front Line, we explore the dramatic opening moments of the Battle of Verdun, focusing on the heroic stand of Lieutenant Colonel Émile Driant and his men in the Bois des Caures on 21st/22nd February 1916.
Commanding the 56th and 59th Battalions of Chasseurs à Pied, Driant faced the full force of the German offensive as it erupted with one of the most intense artillery bombardments of the First World War. Outnumbered and under relentless pressure, his lightly fortified positions in the Bois des Caures became a crucial early line of resistance. Their determined defence helped delay the German advance at a critical moment, buying precious time for French reinforcements to move towards Verdun.
We examine who Émile Driant was: soldier, politician, and writer. And ask why his leadership became symbolic of French resistance. Through on-the-ground exploration, we also walk the battlefield today, visiting the woods where his battalions fought and fell, uncovering traces of trenches, shell holes, and memorials that still mark this desperate struggle and visiting his symbolic command post.
Books on Verdun:
Alastair Horne - The Price of Glory
Christina Holstein - Walking in the Footsteps of the Fallen: Verdun 1916
Christina Holstein - Walking Verdun
Jacques Pericard - Verdun 1914-1918
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In this Old Front Line Q&A episode, we tackle a fascinating range of questions from listeners about life, death, and survival on the battlefields of the First World War. We begin by exploring whether veterans of the conflict were ever allowed to be buried within the official war cemeteries alongside the comrades who fell during the war, and look at the rules established by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission after the creation of the Imperial War Graves system. Did any veterans later return to the battlefields to be laid to rest where they once fought?
We also examine the shadowy world of sniping on the Western Front. How common were snipers, how were they selected, and what training did they receive as the war progressed? We discuss the evolution of sniping from the early dominance of German marksmen to the later development of organised British sniping schools.
From there we move to the mud of the Ypres Salient during the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, asking how stretcher bearers managed to rescue wounded men across the shattered and waterlogged battlefield.
Finally, we recommend some essential reading for anyone wanting to better understand the fighting around Ypres and the wider story of the Third Ypres offensive.
Main Image: Battle of Pilckem Ridge. Stretcher bearers struggle in mud up to their knees to carry a wounded man to safety near Boesinghe, 1 August 1917. (IWM Q5935)
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In this special episode of the Podcast, Paul Reed speaks with archaeologist and wargamer Alex Sotheran about his journey in battlefield archaeology and the evolution of wargaming. They discuss the significance of battlefield archaeology in understanding the human experience of war, the challenges faced in recovering human remains, and the impact of television on the field. Transitioning to wargaming, they explore its historical roots, modern developments in rules, and its potential as a therapeutic tool for veterans. The discussion highlights the social aspects of wargaming and the importance of community in this hobby.
You can follow Alex on Storm of Steel YouTube Channel and Bluesky.
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In this Old Front Line WW1 podcast Q&A episode, we answer listeners’ questions about the history of the First World War and the legacy of the conflict today. We begin by exploring British and Commonwealth war cemeteries, explaining how the headstones are kept perfectly aligned and why some graves appear in straight rows while others are spaced further apart, including the role of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission of how this was made permanent,
We then look at the huge stockpiles of artillery ammunition left at the end of the First World War, discussing how millions of shells were stored, disposed of, or destroyed after the Armistice of 1918.
Another question focuses on officers’ servants, often known as batmen, in the British Army during WW1: how they were recruited, what duties they carried out on and off the battlefield, and what their wartime experience was really like.
Finally, we examine salvage on the Western Front and ask whether the famous scene in All Quiet on the Western Front, where Paul Bäumer is issued a dead soldier’s tunic, could really have happened during the war.
The Killing Ground mentioned in the podcast can be found here: Killing Ground on YouTube.
Main Image: Tyne Cotts Pillbox. After capture it became important position and Company Headquarters. Top - Capt Cross MC, 33rd Battalion MGC with runner and batman. (IWM Q56253)
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Step onto the Western Front in Flanders as we explore the area near to Ypres known as The Bluff. In this episode we uncover the story of the fighting here in February-March 1916, when British and German forces struggled for control of the high ground overlooking Ypres. Using contemporary accounts and battlefield evidence, we explain why this small rise in the landscape mattered so much and how the battle unfolded.
The Bluff was created from spoil dug out during the construction of the Ypres–Comines Canal, forming an artificial ridge that dominated the surrounding trenches. In early 1916 German forces seized the position, threatening the British line south of Ypres. A determined counter-attack followed, with units of the British Army fighting bitterly through shattered woods and cratered ground to retake the heights. We look at how the battle developed, the tactics used, and the human stories behind the fighting.
Walking the ground today, we visit several evocative battlefield cemeteries that still mark the front line of 1916:
- 1st Battalion Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Cemetery – closely linked to the men who fought and fell during the struggle for the Bluff.
- Hedge Row Trench Cemetery – a small but powerful reminder of the trench lines that once crossed this area.
- Woods Cemetery – surrounded by the landscape that witnessed intense fighting in WW1.
We also explore the mine craters that still scar The Bluff and follow the line of the Ypres-Comines canal itself, where the battle-damaged locks remain as a rare survivor of wartime destruction here.
This episode combines battlefield history, on-the-ground exploration, and the stories of the soldiers who fought here, helping us understand how a small rise in the landscape became the focus of a hard-fought battle in the Ypres Salient.
Newspaper Articles About Richard Howard's Violin:
Remarkable story of Leeds violin maker killed in First World War remembered at central library
WWI soldier's violin played at his grave
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In this special Q&A episode of the Old Front Line podcast, recorded on location at Hooge, near Ypres, we answer questions about the battlefields of the Western Front and the legacy of the First World War.
We begin by exploring what happened to the woods and forests on the Western Front during World War One. Were they completely destroyed by shellfire? Did they naturally grow back after the war, or were they replanted? And more than a century later, have these landscapes ever truly recovered?
Next, we look at the remarkable rebuilding of Ypres after the devastation of the war. Who paid for the reconstruction of the city? Was it funded by the Allied nations, or did it come from German war reparations after 1918? We uncover the story behind one of the most famous post-war rebuilding projects on the Western Front.
We also discuss the history of German memorials built in Belgium after the First World War to honour their fallen soldiers. Do any of these memorials still survive today, and how were they viewed by local communities who had lived under German occupation during the war?
From there, we turn to Messines Ridge, examining the history of this important area of the Ypres Salient before the famous mines of June 1917 during the Battle of Messines. What was this landscape like earlier in the war, and why did it become so strategically important?
Finally, we tackle a question many people ask about the First World War: is there any genuine film footage of actual Western Front combat? We explore the challenges faced by wartime cameramen and why capturing real battle scenes during the conflict was far more difficult than many people realise.
If you’re interested in the history of the First World War battlefields, the Ypres Salient, and how the landscape of war still shapes the region today, this episode offers unique insights recorded right on the ground where history happened.
Walking The Trenches YouTube Channel - Ongoing Destruction: WWI didn't end in 1918: The Ecological Consequences.
Main image: Delville Wood in 1918 taken by a German soldier with a private camera. (Old Front Line archives)
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In this episode of the Old Front Line podcast, host Paul Reed is joined by military historians Charles Fair, Richard Hendry, and Dr. Tom Thorpe to delve into the often-overlooked history of the London Territorial Force during the Great War. The discussion begins with an exploration of the origins and purpose of the Territorial Force, established in 1908, which served primarily for home defense before the war. The historians highlight the unique characteristics of the London Regiment, which comprised numerous battalions, each with distinct identities tied to local communities, and how this diversity contributed to its prominence in the war effort.
As the conversation progresses, the historians discuss the evolution of the London Territorials throughout the war, noting how the composition of the units changed as conscription began and how the original local identities were diluted. They also touch on the social dynamics within the battalions, the challenges of equipment shortages, and the significant contributions of the London Territorials in various theatres of war, including the Western Front and Palestine. The episode concludes with insights into their upcoming book, "London Pride," which aims to provide a comprehensive study of the London Territorial Force's history and its impact on the Great War.
You can order the book here via the Publisher: London Pride The London Territorials in WW1
Main Image: Men of the 19th Battalion London Regiment digging trenches in England c.1915 (Old Front Line archives)
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In this latest First World War Q&A episode we tackle some of the most intriguing and overlooked questions about life, strategy and survival on the Western Front and after the guns fell silent.
Why did the British Army so often attack on ground not of its own choosing, at places like Loos and the Somme? If British commanders could have picked the battlefield, where might they have fought instead, and why?
We then explore the everyday realities of the British Army by looking at the role of regimental cooks: were they safe behind the lines, or did they have to fight as front-line soldiers too? And if so what examples do we have of this?
Moving beyond the Armistice, we examine what happened when civilians returned to their shattered towns and villages after the Great War. Did governments help rebuild devastated communities, or was the burden carried by charities and local people? How were homes, farms and businesses reconstructed across the former battlefields of France and Belgium, and who actually paid for the enormous clean-up of the Western Front? We look at unexploded shells, wrecked trenches, barbed wire and battlefield debris, and ask whether German reparations really covered the cost.
Finally, we investigate one of the visual trademarks of First World War battlefields: blasted woodland reduced to splintered stumps. If forests offered little cover and tangled roots made digging trenches harder, why were woods and copses fought over so fiercely?
A deep dive into strategy, soldiers’ daily lives, post-war reconstruction and the scarred landscapes of the Western Front, this episode sheds new light on how the First World War was fought and how its aftermath reshaped Europe.
Main Image: 'This Place was Hooge' - Provisional housing at Hooge in c.1919/20 (Old Front Line archives)
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In this episode, we explore the four brutal wartime winters in Flanders during the First World War, focusing on the Western Front around Ypres from 1914 to 1918. Beginning with the establishment of the British front line at Ypres in late 1914, we examine how soldiers endured cold, mud, and constant danger during the Great War’s earliest winter, including the famous Christmas Truce of 1914.
Using firsthand accounts, battalion war diaries, and casualty records, we analyse how Christmas on the Western Front in Flanders changed as the war dragged on, and why later winters were very different from the early months of optimism. We also uncover compelling evidence of a lesser-known second Christmas Truce in the Canadian sector in December 1915.
The episode concludes with Christmas 1918, as civilians cautiously returned to the shattered city of Ypres in the aftermath of the First World War, reflecting on loss, survival, and the long road to recovery in Flanders.
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In this latest Questions & Answers episode, we tackle some intriguing, and often misunderstood, aspects of life and fighting on the Western Front during the First World War.
Who actually decided what a battle was called? Did the ordinary soldier know, at the time, which battle he was fighting in – or even when one battle had ended and another begun, during almost four years of near-continuous combat? We explore how battles were named, dated, and defined, and what that meant for the men experiencing the war on the ground.
We also examine the introduction of the policy that 10% of a battalion was held back during attacks, particularly on 1 July 1916, the First day of the Battle of the Somme. When did this practice begin? Was it standard throughout the war? And where were these men actually positioned? Was it in support trenches, reserve lines, or further back with transport and logistics?
For those who engage with the First World War through the landscape itself, we answer a listener’s thoughtful question about walking The Old Front Line at Ypres. Thinking about the surviving terrain, memorials, and traces of trench warfare, we recommend one particularly powerful walking route in the Ypres Salient that still tells the story of the war in a way that just maps and books sometimes cannot.
Finally, we address a sensitive but important topic: did British Army officers really receive more leave than their men? If so, how was this perceived by the ranks, and what impact did it have on morale within the British and Commonwealth armies?
Main image: British troops arriving on leave at Victoria Station, London. (IWM Q30515)
The Battles Nomenclature Committee Report 1919: Naval and Military Press website.
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In this special episode, Paul Reed discusses the Ypres League's mission to preserve the history of the Ypres Salient and the significance of Demarcation Stones that mark the furthest advance of German forces during the First World War in 1918. Roger Stewart and Dr Dominiek Dendooven share insights into the history, design, and restoration efforts of these stones, emphasizing the importance of community involvement and funding for their preservation. The New Ypres League aims to foster relationships between different communities and ensure that the legacy of the First World War continues to resonate with future generations.
The New Ypres League: Join The New Ypres League Here.
Support the Demarcation Stones Project: Pledge Support Here.
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In this episode, we explore the role of British Army Chaplains during the First World War, examining who they were, what duties they performed at the front, and how effective they were in the brutal conditions of the Great War. We also ask whether chaplains are commemorated on their own permanent memorial today.
We then tackle a persistent myth of the First World War: were German machine-gunners really chained to their weapons, or was this story a product of wartime propaganda? Using historical evidence, we separate fact from fiction.
Next, we investigate why certain sectors of the Western Front were far more heavily mined than others, looking at terrain, strategy, and the evolution of trench warfare. Finally, we discuss how war graves were photographed by the Imperial War Graves Commission during and immediately after the conflict, and whether these powerful images still survive in archival collections today.
This episode delves into lesser-known aspects of the Western Front, combining military history, myth-busting, remembrance, and the legacy of the First World War.
Long, Long, Trail website: British Army Chaplains Department.
Book's on Army Chaplain's Department:
“Muddling Through: The Organisation of British Army Chaplaincy in World War One” by Peter Howson (Helion 2013)
“God On Our Side: The British Padre in World War One” by Michael Moynihan (Leo Cooper 1983)
Books on Wargrave Photography:
Photographing the Fallen: A Wargraves Photographer on the Western Front by Jeremy Gordon Smith (Pen & Sword 2017)
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Is the First World War slowly fading from public memory, or has our relationship with the Great War simply changed? In this episode, Are We Forgetting The First World War?, we explore how interest in WW1 has grown, shifted, and adapted over the last forty years, and what the future may hold.
We begin in the 1980s, with the formation and growth of the Western Front Association, a turning point that helped revive serious public interest in the First World War. From there, we chart the expansion of family history research, as available records and personal archives encouraged millions to reconnect with relatives who served. We also reflect on the passing of the last surviving First World War veterans, a deeply symbolic moment that changed how the war is remembered and commemorated.
The episode then examines the rise of battlefield tourism, local history projects, and public engagement that laid the foundations for the First World War Centenary (2014–2018), a period of unprecedented books, documentaries, exhibitions, podcasts, and community remembrance.
But what happened after the centenary ended? We explore the unexpected “Covid bonus”, when lockdowns sparked a surge in WW1 podcasts, YouTube channels, online talks, and digital history projects, bringing the Great War to new audiences in new ways.
Finally, we ask where we are today. Is interest in the First World War declining, fragmenting, or evolving? And crucially, what can historians, educators, content creators, and enthusiasts do to ensure the First World War is not forgotten?
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In this episode of The Old Front Line, we explore how individual lives and institutions reveal the human realities of the First World War.
We begin by asking why only three officers were Shot at Dawn during the war, and what this striking disparity tells us about military justice, discipline, and class within the British Army.
We then turn to the work of the Australian Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau, examining how its innovative and compassionate approach - under the leadership of Vera Deakin - sought to uncover the fate of the missing and bring answers to grieving families.
Next, we consider how the experience of war shaped the men who served in the First World War, and question whether their post-war identities and challenges were truly unique, or part of a broader historical pattern.
Finally, we analyse the Battle of Manchester Hill in March 1918, assessing its significance and discussing the possible fate of Lieutenant Colonel Wilfrith Elstob VC, who commanded the defence during the German Spring Offensive.
Shot at Dawn episode: Shot At Dawn - Old Front Line.
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We return to the subject of Forgotten Memoirs of the First World War and discuss The Years of Remembrance by Harold Maybury which was published in 1924. Maybury served in the ranks of the 2/4th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment in the 57th (2nd West Lancs) Division, on the Western Front in 1917 and 1918. We ask what the book tells us about the experience of the Great War and what value memoirs like these have to our understanding of the conflict.
Book: The Years of Remembrance by Harold Maybury (Published by John Walker & Co., Ltd.,, Warrington, UK, 1924)
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In this episode, we delve into a lesser-known but essential aspect of First World War life: the use and organisation of latrines on the battlefield. Where did soldiers actually go to the toilet, how were these facilities constructed, and did men really need permission to use them?
We then explore the history of the Military Police in WW1, from the Military Foot Police and Military Mounted Police to the Military Provost Staff Corps, looking at their varied roles — from traffic control and maintaining discipline to operating military prisons.
Next, we examine the long-standing question of German trenches on the Western Front. Were they truly deeper, stronger and more permanent compared to Allied positions, and what does the archaeology and evidence show?
Finally, we focus on the Boy Soldiers of the Great War — what happened when their real ages were uncovered, how the army dealt with them, and how to trace their stories in surviving military records.
A wide-ranging episode exploring the daily life, policing, engineering and human stories of the Great War.
Richard Van Emden's book: Boy Soldier's of the Great War (via Amazon).
Main image: Military traffic control signal post at Blendecques, 6 May 1918. Note signboard pointing way to No. 7 General Hospital. (IWM Q8802)
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In this episode we discuss the importance of oral history and what it tells us about the experience of conflict and the culture of the British military in the Great War, and we contrast two interviews I did with veterans in the 1980s: Jack Aston who served with 12th Squadron Royal Flying Corps and Aubrey Rose who was with the Queen's Westminster Rifles at Ypres and the Somme.
The image for this episode shows Aubrey Rose in 1914.
Aubrey Rose's officer killed at Gommecourt was: Captain Hugh Fenwick Mott.
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In this episode, we unpack the meaning and origins of the term Downland, and explore how this distinctive landscape helps us better understand the geography and terrain of the First World War.
We take a closer look at the Lewis Machine Gun, examining how it worked, how a Lewis Gun section operated in battle, and its role on the Western Front.
We also consider the influence of the Franco-Prussian War on both the military thinking and physical landscape of WW1, before turning to the decorations and medals awarded to British and Commonwealth soldiers, explaining how they differed and what they reveal about service and recognition in the Great War.
A wide-ranging episode connecting landscape, weaponry, military history, and remembrance across the First World War.
The Vickers Machine Gun Association: The Lewis Gun on the Western Front 1916-18.
Main image: German offensive on the Lys. A Lewis Gun-post in Marquois, 13 April 1918. (IWM Q6528)
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In this special edition, we’re joined by Jon Gedling, Director of Estates for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, to discuss the challenges and responsibilities involved in caring for First World War cemeteries in Belgium and France. We explore the history behind making these cemeteries permanent after the Great War, how maintenance practices have evolved, and the background to the so-called “black spot” issue. Jon explains what recent investigations have revealed, how the CWGC is addressing the problem, what the future might hold, and how visitors to the Western Front battlefields can support the Commission’s work.
If you want to report an issue in a cemetery you have visited you can contact the CWGC.
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In this 40th Questions and Answers episode, we explore some of the lesser-known battlefields of the Western Front, uncovering places where traces of the First World War fighting can still be seen today. We examine what really happened to trenches after they were captured in battle, discuss whether WW1 historians face a new challenge from Artificial Intelligence, and debate the nature of First World War generalship — were those in high command truly butchers and bunglers, or more capable than history has allowed?
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We travel to the area Behind the Lines of West of Arras, visiting cemeteries where Casualty Clearing Stations were moved back to in 1918, discuss a small village where WW1 meets WW2, discover some original Great War graffiti on a farm building wall and visit on the of the most important Arras cemeteries covering all four years of the fighting and seeing the grave of Canada's most decorated ordinary soldier.
Pte Claude Nunney VC DCM MM: Claude Nunney website.
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In this episode we ask what is the current size of the 'Zone Rouge' and are there plans to clear it? We then look at the use of morphine to treat pain and was this misused? We then look at when Steel Helmets were first issued to British and Canadian troops, and end by asking what WW1 slang words are still in use today?
The Old Front Line on YouTube: Old Front Line Channel.
The OFL episode about the Zone Rouge: The Myth of the Zone Rouge.
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In a special episode we are joined by Professor Peter Doyle who delivered this talk on Loos at a Podcast Supporters Evening for the 110th Anniversary of the battle last month.
Peter's new edition of is book is found here: Loos 1915.
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In this latest QnA episode, we tackle a fresh set of listener questions about the First World War, ranging from battlefield geography to the realities of supply and discipline at the front. We start with how hills and features were numbered along the front line—was there really only one “Hill 80”? Then we turn to the huge challenge of logistics, exploring how both sides managed to feed, arm, and move millions of men across the Western Front, and the massive impact this had on wartime economies. Next, we look at the organisation of the British Army, explaining how regiments could field multiple battalions fighting in different battles and theatres at the same time. Finally, we examine the controversial subject of discipline in action, asking who the so-called “whippers-in” were, whether men were ever shot for retreating, and what the consequences were for those who faltered under fire.
The BBC Documentary about Loos: On The Front Line.
To understand more about British Battalions in WW1: From Training to Trenches and What Is A Division?
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We return to the memories of WW1 veteran Malcolm Vyvyan MC, who served with 96th Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery on the Western Front from 1916, and then latterly the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force. We follow him from the Somme to Arras, until he leaves his Battery for flying training in 1918.
The previous episode covering Malcolm's memoirs: A Siege Battery Gunner.
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In this WW1 Q&A episode, we explore the lives and social backgrounds of British Army officers, ask whether First World War veterans hated their German enemies, and share the remarkable stories of soldiers who were discharged but re-enlisted to fight again. We also look at how people living on the Western Front battlefields today connect with the war, and whether interest in the Great War is fading—or still as strong as ever.
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What was the “Forgotten Front” of Northern France? In this episode, we explore the stretch of battlefield from Armentières on the Belgian border through La Bassée to the ground near Loos, scene of the Big Push of September 1915: fought 110 years ago this weekend. We uncover the history, walk the landscape, and share the stories of the men who fought and fell on this often-overlooked part of the Western Front.
The Road to La Bassée Poem on the Great War Forum: The Road to La Bassée
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In our first QnA Episode for Season 9 we look at what happened to the German forces when the guns went silent on 11th November 1918, discuss the use of poison gas and it's legacy on the battlefields today, examine if British and German dead were buried in the same trenches on the battlefield, and ask what happened to the horses used by the British Army when the war came to an end?
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In our first episode of Season 9, we walk the northern part of the Somme battlefield from Foncquevillers out to the ground before Gommecourt, and examine the attack here by the 46th (North Midland) Division on 1st July 1916. We examine the Court of Enquiry, the roles of the commanders Major-General Edward James Montagu-Stuart-Wortley and Lieutenant General Sir Sir Thomas D’Oyly Snow, and hear the voices of the ordinary soldiers who fought and fell at Gommecourt on the First Day of the Battle of the Somme.
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In our third and final Bonus Episode that brings Season 8 to a close, we have a live recording from the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, recorded while out leading a battlefield tour a few weeks ago. We reflect on the subjects we have covered on the podcast, on what the Menin Gate means to us, and how the whole subject of the Great War continues to develop.
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In this second Bonus Episode to end Season 8 of the podcast we look at the subject of Great War veterans and in particular Malcolm Vyvyan who served as a Siege Battery officer in the Royal Garrison Artillery on the Somme, Arras and Flanders, and was awarded the Military Cross in 1917.
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In the first of three Bonus Episodes of the podcast to end Season 8, we travel to Fricourt on the Somme and examine the journey to unveil a memorial to the 17th (Northern) Division in the church there in July 1938, just over a year before the outbreak of a Second World War. Who made that pilgrimage to Picardy, and what does it tell us about the experience of the Great War?
The image used for this episode shows men of the 17th (Northern) Division on the steps of a captured German dugout at Fricourt in July 1916. The image was taken by Ernest Brookes. (IWM Q 814).
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In the final episode of our Air War series we travel across the landscape of the First World War and discover what we can find that connects us to the story of the Royal Flying Corps and RAF in WW1, from memorials to cemeteries and sites of former aerodromes.
Along the way we examine the stories of some of the Aces from James McCudden VC to Manfred Von Richthofen - The Red Baron - to Bob Little from Australia and Major Lanoe Hawker VC, before seeing the battlefields where Albert Ball VC's war ended and the fields where Mick Mannock VC crashed in 1918.
We end at the Air Services Memorial at Arras which commemorates nearly a thousand British and Commonwealth aviators of the First World War.
Mike O'Connor 'Airfields and Airmen' books published by Pen & Sword:
- Airfields & Airmen: Arras (2004)
- Airfields & Airmen: Cambrai (2007)
- Airfields & Airmen: Channel Coast (2007)
- Airfields & Airmen: Somme (2001)
- Airfields & Airmen: Ypres (2000)
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In this special and extended QnA Episode we look at Parachutes in the Air Services in WW1, the Ground Crew who kept the planes in the air, what are the best RFC/RAF memoirs of WW1, how the filming of the Red Baron's funeral was received, and how men applied for transfers to the Air Services and what was the selection process for Pilots and Observers.
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In the second of our special interviews for the War in the Air series, we are joined by historian and broadcaster Josh Levine to discuss the war in the air in WW1, based on his best-selling book On A Wing and A Prayer.
Josh's book 'On A Wing and A Prayer' is now published in paperback at Fighter Heroes of WW1 ( Harper Collins 2011)
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For our 250th episode of the podcast, and as part of our continuing Air War series, we are joined by aviation historian and author Andy Saunders to look at the life, and death, of Edward 'Mick' Mannock VC DSO & Two Bars, MC & Bar and the search for his potential burial place on the Western Front. Is the grave of an Unknown Aviator at Laventie British Cemetery Mick Mannock's final resting place?
Andy's book: Mannock: The Life and Death of Major Edward Mannock VC, DSO, MC, RAF by Frank, Norman and Saunders, Andy. (Grub Street 2008)
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For the start of our War in the Air Month, we begin with a look at the real story of the 'Twenty Minuters', the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force in the First World War. We look at its history from formation in 1912, its role in the opening months of the conflict, and how the war on the Western Front changed military aviation forever.
A good overview of the Air War from the Imperial War Museum: What impact did the First World War have on aircraft and aerial warfare?
Photographs of some of the aircraft mentioned in the podcast can be found here: Old Front Line website.
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For our latest questions submitted by podcast listeners, we examine what my first visit to the battlefields of the Great War with my school meant to me, ask what the Wiltshire Regiment did in the First World War, what sources in English can we look at to understand the German side of WW1 and what did British veterans think of their German foe?
Brigadier E.A. James book - British Regiments 1914-1918.
Main image: Group portrait of officers of the 1st Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment, after their return from fighting at Thiepval, photographed at Bouzincourt, September 1916. (IWM Q1151 - photo by Ernest Brookes)
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Our latest questions from podcast listeners discuss what role German steel helmets, Stahlhelm, had on the First Day of the Somme, how did Great War veterans feel about WW2, how were women who fell pregnant from British soldiers treated during the conflict, and when we visit British and Commonwealth cemeteries are we walking over the graves of those buried there?
For more information on the Battlefield Tours I do: Leger Battlefields.
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As the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme approaches, we walk part of the battlefield across the iconic Mash Valley, visit Ovillers Military Cemetery and walk through Ovillers village to the far end of the valley facing the Pozières Ridge.
Alf Razzell discusses the burial of the dead at Ovillers: A Game of Ghosts.
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Our latest questions from listeners range from could Britain have stood back from conflict in 1914 and not been part of the Great War, how accurate was the final dugout scene in the film 1917, what duties did Royal Field Artillery Drivers have on the battlefields of WW1 and what was the story of the Canadian soldiers who rioted in Britain in 1919 while awaiting demobilisation?
The Old Front Line Youtube Channel: Old Front Line on YouTube.
Recommended novel on 1914: Robert Harris - Precipice (Penguin 2024)
Books on The Canadian Riots:
- The story of the Kinmel Park Camp Riots in 1919 by Julian Putkowski (1989)
- Riots Death and Baseball - Robert H. Griffiths (2019)
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In a Trench Chat special we speak to the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre Commemorations team - otherwise known as 'The MOD War Detectives' - who work to recover and identify the dead on the former battlefields of the Great War. Thanks to the Ministry of Defence for their help in making this possible, and special thanks to Rosie Barron, Nichola Nash and Alexia Clark who all appear in this episode.
The images used are Crown Copyright.
Discover more about the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre Commemorations team and visit their Facebook page.
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Our listeners have a few intriguing questions: Is there still live ordnance in the moat at the Ypres Ramparts? What exactly was the role of Inland Waterways Transport during the First World War? How would the French portrayal of the Last Hundred Days differ from the traditional British narrative? And finally, if you could take any piece of modern military technology back to the Great War, what would it be, and why?
You can watch the Old Front Line Youtube Channel here and remember to Like and Subscribe!
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In this episode we travel to the Arras Memorial to the Missing, where we explore the powerful story of over 35,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave. In this episode, we uncover the personal histories of men from the British Army, Royal Naval Division, and Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force, whose names are etched into the stone. We then walk through the Faubourg d'Amiens Cemetery, visiting notable graves—including those of soldiers Shot at Dawn. Discover the human stories behind the statistics in this compelling look at remembrance, sacrifice, and the legacy of the First World War.
On the Old Front Line YouTube Channel: The Arras Memorial to the Missing.
Articles on Identity Discs are found here: A Guide to Identity Discs by Dave O'Mara and Military Identification: Identity Discs and the Identification of British War Dead, 1914-18 by Dr Sarah Ashbridge.
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In this episode we discuss the improvised gas masks used by British and Commonwealth soldiers in 1915, the advancement in medical treatment during the Great War, whether soldiers were told in advance about the explosion of mines on the battlefield and the use of soldiers packs in WW1.
Our episode on Gas Warfare in WW1 is available here: Gas! Gas! Gas!
JD Hutt's YouTube Channel: The History Underground.
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In this episode we start a look at some of the Forgotten Memoirs of the First World War, starting with Percy Croney's 'Soldiers Luck' published in the mid-1960s. Croney was a 1914 volunteer who served with the Essex Regiment and Scottish Rifles at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, being wounded several times and taken prisoner in March 1918. We ask what the value of memoirs like this are to our understanding of the Great War.
Percy Croney - Soldier's Luck on Open Library
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In this episode of podcast listeners questions we ask: what Great War items would you take to a Desert Island, how was cause of death accurately reported or not by the military authorities, how did men on the front line get news of other fronts and their own, and were truces to bury the dead common on the Western Front?
Book Recommendation: Frederick Manning Her Privates We/Middle Parts of Fortune.
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In a special Trench Chat we speak to Philipp Cross who has written a superb book about his great-great grandfather's war as an officer in the German Army. Alexander Pfeifer served from the very beginning until the very end of the conflict on three fronts, and we discover how Philipp researched and wrote the book, and what it tells us about the Great War.
Buy The Book on Amazon: The Other Trench.
The Other Trench website: The Other Trench.
The Other Trench on Facebook: The Other Trench.
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In this episode we ask were there any 'Thankful Villages' in France where everyone came home, what was 'Camp Elisabeth' at Verdun as visited by Professor Richard Holmes in the 1990s, did Great War soldiers experience any spiritual or paranormal activity on the battlefields and how did the presence of British and Commonwealth soldiers impinge on life behind the lines in France.
BBC Report: France's Thankful Village With No War Memorial.
The Richard Holmes Episode mentioned in the podcast: Western Front Verdun 1916.
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In this episode we travel to the last major battlefield of the Great War on the Western Front - the Sambre Canal. Here we follow the story of the infantry and the engineers who attacked the Canal on 4th November 1918, including the 2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment. We also see what remains of the battlefield today.
The interview with Josh Grover MM is on the IWM website here: Josh Grover MM interview.
Recommended Book: Decisive Victory by Derek Clayton.
Thread on the Great War Forum: Royal Sussex Regiment at Lock No 1.
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Our questions and answers in this episode look at what happened to trench systems when they met a road, was the Battle of the Somme a victory, how France remembers the Great War, and the role of the Army Service Corps in the conflict.
Somme Book Recommendations: Gary Sheffield Forgotten Victory and also Paddy Griffith Battle Tactics on the Western Front.
Book Recommendations: Michael Young Postcards of the Army Service Corps and Michael Young Army Service Corps 1902-1918.
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Continuing our journeys along the roads which crisscross the landscape of the Western Front, we travel to Flanders in Belgium, and take the old Roman road between the city of Ypres and the town of Menin which follows the story of four years of conflict here in the First World War and discuss once more the 'culture' of The Old Front Line.
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This week we discuss the background to the names British soldiers gave their German counterparts - names like Fritz and Bosch - we examine the role Portugal had on the Western Front and discuss where they are memorialised, look out how modern development has changed The Old Front Line and who was Princess Patricia of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry?
You can find the Old Front Line YouTube Channel here: Old Front Line on YouTube.
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In this episode for the fifth anniversary of the Podcast we travel back to the Somme and look at the story behind the naming of Tara and Usna Hills overlooking La Boisselle, and discuss two First World War objects found in a Somme junk sale.
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In this episode we cover subjects from how the British and Commonwealth soldier named the 'Battle of the Somme' in 1916 to how Irish soldiers on the front line in France thought about the Easter Rising in Dublin in April 1916, to the flooding of the Yser Plain in 1914 and how infantry signallers went over the top in the Great War.
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From a recently recorded livestream on the battlefields of Ypres in Flanders, join us on a walk around the reconstructed First World War trenches in Bayernwald - 'Bavarian Wood' - called Croonaert Wood on the British trench maps.
You can watch the livestream from the Bayernwald Trenches on the Old Front Line YouTube Channel.
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This weeks subjects include how trenches in the First World War got their names, what happened to the pay of Missing soldiers and were men who were Prisoners of War paid at all, why did the Western Front stop at the Swiss border, and what happened to the soldiers and units positioned on the flanks of big attacks and operations?
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We visit the Hindenburg Line battlefields of 1917 where the Battle of Cambrai was fought. We see the battlefield around Metz-en-Couture, visit the cemetery here and grave of Patrick Shaw-Stewart, and then walk down in Gouzeaucourt seeing a rare British bunker from WW1 and a memorial to the 11th Engineers of the US Army, ending on the high ground where the Welsh Guards counter-attacked in December 1917.
The book mentioned was Children of the Souls by Jeanne MacKenzie.
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Our latest Questions and Answers cover the military importance of Ypres in WW1, the French Cemetery and Memorials at Notre Dame de Lorette in Northern France, weather on the landscape of the Western Front, and the role of Women in the British Army in France and Flanders.
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Our World War was a three-part BBC Drama series for the Great War Centenary in 2014 covering the fighting at Mons in 1914, the Somme in 1916 and the Battle of Amiens in 1918. It pioneered a new approach to film making about the Great War but a decade on is it still relevant and what does it tell us about the Great War?
The Paddy Kennedy interview is in the archives of the Imperial War Museum.
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In our latest round-up of Questions and Answers we look at Memorials to non-white soldiers on the Western Front, whether 'battle bars' were ever planned for WW1 British and Commonwealth campaign medals, the award of the 'Blue Max' to German soldiers, and were ordinary soldiers told about the explosion of huge mines like the one under Hawthorn Ridge on the Somme.
Reading List:
Kevin Brazier - The Complete Blue Max: A Chronological Record of the Holders of the Pour le Mérite
Erwin Rommel - Infantry Attacks
Ernest Jünger - Storm of Steel
Christina Holstein - Walking Verdun
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Is there a 'culture' surrounding The Old Front Line? One that helps define it and enables us to understand that landscape of the First World War? If so, what is it, and how can we understand it? In this episode we take a major pathway across the Western Front battlefields: the Albert-Bapaume Road on the Somme, and we discuss what the this 'culture' of The Old Front Line might be.
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In our first Questions and Answers Episode of Season 8 we look at 'quiet' sectors of the Western Front, whether civilians got near the battlefields, discuss the 'best' photos of WW1 and ask if Stretcher Bearers were easy prey on the front line doing their vital work.
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We begin Season 8 back on the Somme Battlefields of 1916 and walk the ground around the village of Mailly-Maillet, located just behind the British trenches in front of Beaumont-Hamel and Serre and later much closer to the fighting in 1918. We visit cemeteries, see original graffiti and end our walk close to the final approach to the battlefield.
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In this special edition we look at how trace to service men and women who fought and died in the Great War. We cover a number of questions covering different aspects of how to trace your WW1 Ancestors from many different nations, but in particular from Britain and the Commonwealth.
USEFUL LINKS:
Western Front Association Pension Files website
Grand Memorial - Tracing French WW1 Records
French War Diaries - WW1
Long, Long Trail website - Chris Baker
London Gazette - WW1 Notices
The British Newspaper Archive
QMAAC WW1 Records
British Nurses Records WW1
VAD Red Cross Records WW1
Women's Land Army website
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In this episode, we examine five iconic objects from the First World War which came to define the experience of Trench Warfare. These objects include barbed wire, helmets, duckboards, and trench periscopes. There is also a surprise artefact that millions of men carried onto the battlefield.
If you are interested in Trench Warfare also check out The Western Front: WW1 Trench Warfare, Why Was there Trench Warfare in WW1? and Five Weapons of Trench Warfare.
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Based on this weeks questions we look at the difference between Ordnance Survey and Trench maps, recommend some WW1 Channels and videos to look at on YouTube, look at how to study a particular regiment and examine souvenirs brought home by veterans.
Old Front Line Recommends on YouTube: click here to watch the playlist.
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We return to the Arras Battlefields of April 1917 and walk from Athies to the high ground at Point du Jour, seeing where men of the 9th (Scottish) Division, including troops from the South African Brigade fought. We visit cemeteries along the way and see the memorial Cairn overlooking the fields where so much sacrifice took place in the Great War.
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This week we look at the subject of Army Pay - how were men paid, who paid them and in what currency when On Active Service? We ask why men changed their names when joining up, answer a question about the Ypres Buglers and IWGC Gardeners in WW2, and why were the Germans seemingly allowed to have all the high ground in 1914?
Caitlin DeAngelis' podcast War Graves Gardeners is available on all podcast platforms.
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As the seasons change along The Old Front Line we take a winter walk across one part of the Somme battlefields, walking along the tracks from near Courcelette to Thiepval and the Ancre Valley.
The WW1 Cemeteries website mentioned can be found here: www.ww1cemeteries.com.
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We begin at the Battle of Loos in 1915, looking at the casualty figures for the opening stage of the attack and comparing them to the Somme, we then discuss what units formed in WW1 were still part of the Army in WW2, discuss soldiers and their medals and were there examples of 'stolen valour' and examine collectables of the Great War and discuss fakes and what to collect.
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The film Oh what A Lovely War! based on Joan Littlewood's play was released in 1969 and influenced a whole generation of people in what the Great War stood for. But what does the film really tell us about the First World War and what is its value more than 50 years on?
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In a wargraves special, we follow up on the recent episode about the new Loos British Cemetery Extension and we take some Questions relating to the work being carried out there, along with the recovery and identification of the dead from the Great War, both in the past and the present.
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Our latest questions submitted by podcast listeners lead us to discuss what was a 'British Warm' and how did uniforms change during the Great War, ask if we could go back in time what would we want to see, look at the quarries that were part of the battlefield at Beaumont-Hamel on the Somme, and ask what happened to Allied Prisoners of War taken in the final days of the conflict in November 1918?
The Western Front Association Online Trench Maps: WFA TrenchMapper site.
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We take the podcast across to Northern France and visit Loos British Cemetery on the battlefields of 1915, seeing the new Extension that has been constructed here, looking at the initial burials and asking how this brand new cemetery might develop over the coming years.
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In our latest selection of questions from podcast listeners we look at the circumstances of the end of the First World War on the Western Front on 11th November 1918, ask why Albert Ball VC has a private memorial over his grave in France, discuss what happened to the Last Post Ceremony during WW2 and examine the 'War of the Guns' in the Great War - the use of artillery.
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Trench Warfare saw the use of existing weapons on the battlefield and the development of new ones to cope with the static nature of the Western Front. In this episode we examine five of those weapons from handguns to trench clubs to mortars, and include a surprising 'weapon' of trench warfare.
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This week we answer questions about British Prisoners of War held in Switzerland, ask what kind of permission you need to explore the fields and woods across the landscape of the Great War, discuss if any Estaminets survive from the Great War and look at events on the Somme on 1st July 1916 and what the experience of soldiers was on that evening as darkness fell.
Red Cross Records from WW1 are found here: Red Cross Prisoner of War Records.
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Fismes is a small town on the Aisne, close to its neighbour Fismette and divided by the Vesle river. Here in the summer of 1918 men of the American 28th Division took part in a bitter battle for possession of its houses and the bridge over the Vesle, a story retold in possibly the greatest American memoir of the First World War: Toward the Flame by Hervey Allen. Here too a memorial bridge was built commemorating their sacrifice, just a dozen years before Europe went to war once more.
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In this latest Question and Answer Episode we look at several questions about the changing nature of the British Army in the Great War, and its Regimental system, examine one aspect of how WW1 meets WW2 and discuss whether it is possible to trace a fatal casualty for every day of the Great War.
The image for this episode shows British tanks passing Villers Bretonneux Military Cemetery on the Somme in September 1944. (IWM BU 272)
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In this special edition of the podcast as we return from after the summer break we speak to author and broadcaster John Nichol about his new book examining the history and story behind the Unknown Warrior buried in Westminster Abbey.
John Nichol’s new book, The Unknown Warrior, is published by Simon & Schuster on the 26th September.
His national theatre tour, telling the moving story behind the Unknown Warrior’s tomb in Westminster Abbey, runs from 4 October.
For more information, visit www.JohnNicholLive.comYou can also find John Nichol's on Facebook and Twitter.
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In a special summer edition of the podcast before it returns properly in September, we walk the battlefields near Passchendaele and have an extended Question and Answer session.
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In our tenth QnA Episode we look at subjects from Canada's Hundred Days in 1918 to the Missing of the Great War, ask how to begun studying the First World War given all that is available now, and discuss how sickness was as much of a problem to soldiers on the battlefield as wounds from shot and shell.
John Livesay - link to a copy of Canada's Hundred's Days on the Internet Archive.
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In an episode recorded live on the battlefields, we travel to Northern France and follow the Southdowns Battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment from behind the lines to their attack at The Boar's Head near Richebourg. We also visit the graves of the fallen at St Vaast Post Cemetery and at nearby Laventie, learning about 'The Day Sussex Died' on 30th June 1916.
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In our latest Questions and Answers Episode we look at the rifles carried by British soldiers in the Great War, discuss the experience of Prisoners of War, ask what kind of recycling and salvage took place, and discuss the horticulture in British and Commonwealth Cemeteries.
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Link to WW1 POW Records: International Red Cross Prisoner of War Records
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For our 200th Episode we return to the Somme battlefields where the podcast began in 2020 and walk the ground from Crucifix Corner, along the edge of Authuille Wood to Nab Valley, a terrible killing ground on 1st July 1916, ending at the Lonsdale Cemetery.
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In our latest batch of Questions and Answers we look at what Mentioned in Despatches were, who they were awarded to how and what they were for, we discuss what special badges were represented on the headstones in War Cemeteries, how German occupation worked in WW1 and how the casualties of the various nations affected them, and who suffered the most?
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The Somme is one of the most written about battles in military history. Where to start your reading given the huge number of books about the period? In this episode we take a 'layered' approach to reading and examine everything from 'Gateway Books' to Battlefield Guides.
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In this latest Question & Answer Episode we look at subjects ranging from the Hampshire Regiment in the Great War, to ask if there is an increase in German visitors to the battlefields, and discuss how soldiers are being identified more than a century after the conflict ended.
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On the 80th Anniversary of the Normandy Landings in 1944, we look at how events at Gallipoli in 1915 link the two great conflicts, from Churchill to landing craft to a battalion of the British Army. What lessons were learned from one war to another?
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In our latest series of Questions and Answers we cover a wide range of subjects from the use of alcohol and tobacco by soldiers in the war, to visiting battlefields 'beyond the Somme', to how we present those battlefields of the Great War to future generations and what role Identify Disks or 'Dog Tags' had in the identification of the dead.
Alex's Youtube channel: Alex315 on YouTube.
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The War Underground in many ways defined the static nature of the First World War on the Western Front. We examine the history of military mining, discover Sir John Norton Griffiths and his attempt to recruit 10,000 "moles" to work beneath No Man's Land, and examine the pinnacle of mine warfare at Messines in 1917.
Simon Jones' website: Myths of Messines
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In the first of our new 'how and why' podcasts we ask a simple question: Why was there Trench Warfare in the First World War? What factors made it possible, where were the first trenches, who dug them and how did they affects the battles in WW1?
Thanks to Doug @colour_history on Twitter for the use of the colourised image of men from the 1/4th East Lancashire Regiment in the trenches in January 1918.
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In this latest Questions & Answers bonus episode, we look at questions about the Regular Army and the 1914 Star, the Canadians in WW1 as 'Shock Troops', discuss the men from the Southdowns Battalions from Sussex and ask do we have enough memorials along The Old Front Line?
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Just this week it was announced that the body of an Unknown Soldier from the Royal Newfoundland Regiment would be taken back to Newfoundland to become their Unknown Warrior. In this first episode of Season 7 we look at the story behind this and the history of The Royal Newfoundland Regiment in the Great War and their Missing soldiers.
The articles relating to the Newfoundland Unknown Soldier are on the Veterans Affairs Canada website and Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.
The new Old Front Line Substack is available here: The Old Front Line with Paul Reed.
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In this latest Questions & Answers episode we look at how we read the landscape of the Great War, visiting the Sunken Lane at Beaumont Hamel and Talbot House, discuss that remains of RFC/RAF airfields, examine the survival rates of officers and ask what part weather played in the experience of the trenches.
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In this latest Old Front Line Podcast Questions & Answers Episode we answer four questions from listeners asking what is the most memorable story of the Great War I've visited, what battlefield draws me back time and again, what did British troops think about Australians and Canadians, and what was the weaponry of ordinary soldiers and how did that change during the war?
This is how the German Army rated British and Commonwealth Divisions in the Great War, taken from a 1916 report by the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL):
Good - 47th, 6th, 20th, 50th, 18th, 1st Canadian, 2nd Canadian
Medium - 11th, 39th, 41st, 3rd Canadian, NZ
Poor - 61st, 40th, 60th, 63rd, 3rd Australian, 5th Australian, 4th Canadian
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In a special edition of the podcast which marks the end of Season 6, this episode was recorded on The Old Front Line where we take a journey from the vast Etaples Military Cemetery, look at the Tank Gunnery School at Merriment, Douglas Haig and 'GHQ' at Montreuil, and then travel via a small village up to Arras and the Arras Memorial.
Season 6 will continue with two more Question & Answers episodes and then after a short break the Podcast will return in early May.
Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.
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In our latest Old Front Line Podcast Questions & Answers Episode we answer four questions from listeners covering subjects like the 'Learning Curve' on the Western Front to how to visit battlefields beyond the Somme.
The Naval Flank of the Western Front project I mentioned was this one: Forgotten Wrecks of the First World War.
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We travel to the familiar landscape of Picardy and visit one part of the 'Forgotten Somme' - the battlefields on the Redan Ridge. Here we see look at the fighting on 1st July 1916 and at the end of the battle in November 1916, examine the story of a soldier 'Shot at Dawn' and discuss the writer H.H. Munro ('Saki') who fell here during the Battle of the Somme.
Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.
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At the end of the Great War, vast areas of France were left devastated by the fighting: this became the 'Zone Rouge' or the 'Red Zone'. Reconstruction and recovery of ground brought that Red Zone to an end in the 1920s but stories of it circulated once more during the Great War Centenary. So what are the Myths of the Red Zone, and what are its truths?
Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.
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In the first of our new 'your questions answered' episodes we answer six questions sent in by listeners to the podcast covering subjects like how the army saw itself in the Great War, why the podcast is called 'the Old Front Line', how the opposing armies held the Western Front, and what kind of methods did I use to check the accuracy of Great War veterans interviews made in the 1980s and 90s.
Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.
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We've just had the first ever Old Front Line Podcast Supporter's meet-up on the battlefields of Flanders near the Belgian city of Ypres. What was the weekend all about, what plans have we got for more of these, and in the episode we share some of the stories we discussed at Ypres on our walks.
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The Great War on the Western Front was much more than Flanders and the Somme, and the experience of British and Commonwealth soldiers. When we travel 'Beyond the Somme' - what does that mean, and what do we find on these battlefields where soldiers from France and its Empire, and later American troops fought?
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On our fourth anniversary of launching The Old Front Line, I look back over the episodes and discuss how the podcast has helped shape and define how I see the landscape of the Great War, helped me find a language for what it means more than a century later, and we look back too over some of my favourite episodes and those which have proved especially popular.
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Railways were an essential part of the Great War, and the line which ran from Northern France to Poperinghe and Ypres became the route in and out of the battlefield for millions of men during the conflict. What can we learn of the history of the railways in Flanders and what do we find of it on the landscape of the Western Front today?
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In August 1914 a force of more than 55,000 German soldiers descended on the Belgian city of Liege. Protected by a belt of steel and concrete forts, at Fort de Loncin the garrison of 550 men came under murderous German artillery fire resulting in a huge explosion that turned this site into a national cemetery and memorial, and came to stand for Belgian defiance in that first year of the war.
The website of the fort is here: Fort de Loncin.
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We look at two exhibitions in two key institutions that connect us to the history of the Great War: the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres and Imperial War Museum in London. At Ypres we see an exhibition about the history of the war cemeteries in Flanders, and at the IWM a new gallery devoted to war art, photography and film.
Imperial War Museum - Restoration of the John Singer Sergeant Gassed painting.
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In this latest episode of Despatches, we examine an original Trench Map from the Battle of the Somme in 1916, showing the battlefield around the village of Courcelette where the Canadians fought. What are Trench Maps, and what do they tell us about the history and landscape of the Great War?
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Returning to the History of the First World War we find on our doorsteps, we visit Shorncliffe in Kent to record an episode onsite. Here during the Great War were an Army Garrison, along with a major training centre. We discover the important role of the Canadians at Shorncliffe, the men of the Chinese Labour Corps who had their camp here, and also discuss the first Gotha Bomber raid on Britain by the Germans in 1917.
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In this episode we look at so-called 'War Damage Postcards' published during the conflict and which depicts the smashed villages, towns and cities, and indeed landscapes of the Western Front. We ask what these postcards tell us about the conflict and the battlefields of the Old Front Line?
The images discussed can be found on the Podcast website here: https://oldfrontline.co.uk/2024/02/03/despatches-war-damage-postcards/
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In this latest Despatches we discuss the passing of author Martin Middlebrook, and look back to another Great War icon, perhaps lesser known, John Giles. John founded the Western Front Association in 1980, wrote a series of books on the Western Front, and in 1982 took what was then a unique flight over the Old Front Line. We look back on that aerial survey and discuss what landscape means to us on the ground and from the air.
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While the Great War was still on the British Government decided to produce a Next of Kin Memorial Plaque for all those who had died while on service in the conflict, which read 'He Died For Freedom and Honour'. Often called a "Dead Man's Penny" or 'Widow's Penny" or even 'Death Plaque", eventually over 1.1 million were produced for every British and Commonwealth service men and women who died. In this episode of Despatches, we examine their history and what these objects mean more than a century later.
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A staggering 12 million letters were going to and from the Western Front during the Great War. What was the history of the Royal Engineers Postal Section, how did letters and parcels get to troops in the front line, and how did censorship work for all those letters from the trenches?
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In our first podcast of 2024 we return to Flanders to look at some of the history behind the original burials at Tyne Cot Cemetery near Ypres, the largest British and Commonwealth cemetery from either World War. Was there really once an Advanced Dressing Station here, and if not what does the archive evidence tell us about how this site evolved?
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In this special episode of Despatches we look at two Christmases on the Somme: 1915 and 1916. We do this through the experience of men from southern England who served with the 18th (Eastern) Division and discover what their life in the trenches and behind the front was like during the Christmas period.
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In this latest edition of Despatches we look at the phenomena of Battlefield Pilgrimages which began almost as soon as the Great War ended and continued throughout the 1920s and 30s. What were they? What motivated people to go on a pilgrimage to the battlefields and what can we find of their history in a new book on the subject?
Mike Hill's new book: Pilgrimage to the Western Front
Terry Whenham's Podcast on the Great Pilgrimage 1928.
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In our final main episode of 2023 we travel to the Somme battlefields and visit one of the most iconic parts of the 1916 landscape - the fields where the infamous Schwaben Redoubt once stood near the village of Thiepval. The Schwaben was a strong German defensive position that took over three months to capture, at the cost of thousands of lives.
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Despatches goes on the road, and this episode was recorded on location in Flanders. We visit Coxyde Military Cemetery, a British and Commonwealth cemetery from when these troops held the line on the top end of the Western Front in 1917. What do we find here and what does the cemetery tell us about the Great War?
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Bandaghem, Dozinghem and Mendinghem were three made-up names for British Casualty Clearing Stations locations in Flanders, reflecting their use for the wounded: Bandaging Them, Dosing Them Up and Mending Them! What was the story of these important medical facilities and what stories of the war in Flanders do we find here?
Returned From The Front website: Battlefield Cross - Caps B.H. Vyvyan
The wartime book on Best-Dunkley VC: At Ypres with Best-Dunkley
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In this latest episode of Despatches we think about First World War Trench Museums: a battlefield phenomena from the 1920s when thousands of 'pilgrims' travelled to the landscape of the Western Front. We look at some of the famous, and less famous Trench Museums and some that no longer exist. What do they tell us about the experience of trench warfare?
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The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery is the largest US War Cemetery in Europe with over 14,000 graves. We walk the battlefields here from Cunel to the cemetery, and down into Romagne village to visit an amazing private museum. Along the way we discuss the history and ask why such a place receives so few American visitors?
Romagne 14-18 Museum: website of Romagne 14-18 Museum.
American Battle Monuments Commission website: ABMC website.
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Welcome to Despatches, a new short-form podcast from The Old Front Line. These new shorter Pods will look at some specific aspects of the Great War and the landscape of the battlefields of the First World War. They will be published in addition to the regular episodes.
In this first Despatches episode we travel to the Somme and look at the Butte de Warlencourt, the old burial mound where the fighting came to an end in November 1916. It was in the news this week having had a change of ownership, and we look at its history and consider how and why sites like these can be preserved.
The official Butte de Warlencourt website is here: https://www.buttedewarlencourt.com/
The Butte de Warlencourt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ButteDeWar
The Hawthorn Crater Association is here: https://hawthornridgeca.com/
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In this episode we look at the War at Sea in the Great War for the first time and are joined by historian Rebecca Clarke to discuss her book on the fate of HMS India and her crew, following the loss of the ship to a German U-Boat in August 1915. The men spent the rest of the war interned in neutral Norway and we discover the fascinating stories behind their experience there.
Rebecca Clarke's website: HMS India website.
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In this episode we return to the Arras battlefields in Northern France and walk to the village of Gavrelle where the men of the Royal Naval Division fought in 1917, and discover the fields where the Royal Marines lost more men in a single days fighting than on any other in their entire history.
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In this episode for Armistice Day we look at those who survived the Great War and came home to write about in a series of memoirs which were published from the 1920s until more recent times as that generation faded away. We look at Officer's Memoirs and ask why there are fewer memoirs by ordinary soldiers?
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In this latest Trench Chat we are joined by author and historian Richard Van Emden to discuss his new book 'Volunteers' about the men who enlisted as volunteers in the British Army during the early years of the Great War in 1914/15.
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After moving house, and nearly three hundred miles with the Old Front Line archives and library, we return from a new location, new ideas for the podcast and shifting hundreds of Great War books has prompted some thoughts from the past, from authors to Great War veterans.
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In this special Trench Chat we bring together four Great War Podcasters: I was so very happy and honoured to be joined by Mike Cunha, Matt Dixon and Terry Whenham. We discuss what podcasting is all about and what we think the subject brings to this medium, and go off on plenty of tangents too!
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In this latest Trench Chat we speak to Professor Peter Doyle about his current research on the mine craters of the Somme battlefields. We learn how were these craters formed, what their wartime story was, and what do they mean in relation to the landscape of the Western Front today?
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On a hill above the village of Hénin, close to Arras, stood a wooden cross remembering soldiers of the 64th Brigade who fell there in 1917. Preserved at Beverley Minster in Yorkshire, what happened to this memorial, and what can we find of the men who fought here at Hénin Hill in 1917?
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Charley's War was a comic strip published in the late 1970s and early 1980s telling the story of Charley Bourne, a 16 year old Tommy on the front line of the Great War. What does it tell us about the conflict, and what impact does it have on our understanding of the subject?
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In this episode we look back over Season 5, discuss some of the subjects we have spoken about during the past few months, explain how the podcast is planned and made, and look ahead to Season 6. Along the way we also have a few Great War stories. The podcast returns for the next Season in September.
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For the final episode of Season 5 we are back on the Somme. At Contalmaison we discover the story of how the history of Great War football weaves through that village, how a pioneering eye surgeon from Liverpool came to be killed there, and later we uncover the story of the 'Nine Brave Men' at Bazentin. We look at Private Memorials and how Bazentin Wood almost broke the proud volunteers of the 'Leicestershire Pals.' in July 1916 and think once more about the 'Forgotten Somme'.
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In this special Trench Chat, we meet historian, re-enactor and professional musician Beverley Palin, and discover the story of two original WW1 instruments she has restored and now plays, and discuss the importance of music to the generation of the Great War.
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In the latest of our series of Battlefields in a Day, we travel to Eastern France and look at the Battlefields around Verdun. Verdun was the longest single battle of the Great War, lasting some 300 days and 300 nights, fought between February and December 1916. More than 770,000 French and German soldiers became casualties in what the Poilus called 'the mincing machine'.
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Concrete bunkers - pillboxes - are an iconic symbol of the Great War, and in this episode we look at the book 'The Pillboxes of Flanders' published in the 1930s, examine their history and use, and then visit some of the surviving examples of bunkers around Ypres.
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In this latest Trench Chat we speak to historian and writer Caitlin DeAngelis who has just finished a fascinating new book 'The Caretakers: War Graves Gardeners and the Secret Battle to Rescue Allied Airman in World War II'. We discuss her research for the book, look at the community of War Graves gardeners that existed on the battlefields in the late 1930s and what happened to them when war swept across Northern France. The book will be released in January 2024.
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In this episode we look at how British soldiers joined the army, either before the war or when the New Army of volunteers was created in 1914, what their training and preparation for war consisted of, and what their route to the trenches was.
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On the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, we take a virtual walk along all eighteen miles of the Somme front from Gommecourt to Montauban, connecting to the landscape and discovering the stories of those who fought and fell on 1st July 1916: the First Day of the Somme. We also examine the casualties that day and ask where they are buried and commemorated.
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In 1986 the BBC Drama 'The Monocled Mutineer' was released, starring Paul McGann who plays Percy Toplis. In this episode, we look at the series and ask what is the truth behind Toplis and the claim that he dressed as an officer and took part in the Etaples Mutiny? We also ask how realistic the series was in depicting various aspects of the Great War.
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In this episode we look at a weapon that came to symbolise the First World War - Poison Gas. We look at the history behind its use, the story of the 'Birth of Chemical Warfare' at Ypres in April 1915 and what measures were made to protect soldiers against the gas, as well seeing what can be found of this history on the battlefield today.
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In this episode recorded in Ypres, we look at the renovations at the Menin Gate Memorial, discuss what Memorials to the Missing mean to us, and then walk to Ypres Town Cemetery following the stories of English Lords, members of the Royal Family, and seeing how the graves themselves are witnesses to the Great War.
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In another episode recorded on the battlefields, we walk the crest of the Hawthorn Ridge near Beaumont-Hamel on the Somme, visiting Hawthorn No 1 Cemetery, across to the Hawthorn Mine Crater, and down to the famous Sunken Lane and Beaumont-Hamel British Cemetery.
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A massive engineering project has been announced for Northern France which will create a new 'super canal' linking in with the existing Canal du Nord, the scene of heavy fighting during the Great War, especially in 1917/18. In this episode we will look at the history of the canal, the fighting there and how this project may change the landscape of the Western Front in this region, and what might be found during the work.
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Recorded on the battlefields, in this episode we walk the ground where poets Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Bois Français near Fricourt and end at the Devonshire Cemetery near Mametz.
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In this latest Trench Chat, we are joined by Stephen Bourne, author of Black Poppies. His important book, now in its third edition with a children's version, tells the often-neglected contribution of Black soldiers in the British and Commonwealth forces in the Great War.
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In the summer of 1916 men of the South African Brigade marched into Delville Wood. After six days of fighting, less than a third of them returned from among the shattered trees of "Devil's Wood". Who were the Springboks of the South African Brigade and what can we find of them on the Somme today?
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More than twenty years after the BBC made a film about the work of 'The Diggers' called 'Forgotten Battlefield', in this special edition of the podcast we bring together three of us connected to the film - Aurel Sercu from the Diggers, BBC Producer John Hayes Fisher and me, Military Historian Paul Reed. We look back on the work the group did, the making of the film in 2001, and what happened with the film was released the following year.
The film can be watched on YouTube via the Podcast website link below.
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In December 1920 a large concrete shelter financed by an American millionaire marked the spot where French soldiers had fallen in one of the many small actions around Verdun in 1916. The story of the Trench of Bayonets was born, but what is the real story behind this episode of the Great War, and the memorial that still marks the spot?
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In this episode we ask: what was The Hindenburg Line? A system of German defences built in Northern and Eastern France, it was the largest single engineering project of the Great War on the Western Front. Some of the key battles of 1917/18 were fought along it, and we look at the background to these important First World War fortifications.
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In this episode we look at the four years of the Great War in Flanders and the battles around the city of Ypres, in what became known as the 'Immortal Salient'. What was the Ypres Salient, what was its meaning and what does it still mean to us more than a century later?
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In this Trench Chat, we are joined by Roger Steward who works as a Battlefield Guide in Flanders, and is the author of an excellent book on Langemarck German Cemetery and a new one 'Reclaiming the Salient' about the battlefields around Ypres in the years following WW1. We look at the problems of the 'Iron Harvest', the recovery of the dead, and modern battlefield archaeology.
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In this episode, we look at the birds which flew above and lived across the battlefields of the Western Front during the First World War, and what they meant to the men who served in the trenches of France and Flanders. We also look at how birds did their bit in the war, too, how the battlefield conditions affected them, and discuss ways we can connect this subject to what we see on the Great War landscape today.
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In a Trench Chat special we are joined by Professor Mark Connelly of the University of Kent to discuss the post-war Pilgrimages to the Great War Battlefields, and his new work on the postcards, ephemera and guidebooks that came out of this period.
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In this episode we look at the men of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) who fought in Flanders, from Ypres to the Scheldt River, in 1918. What were American troops doing in Belgium away from the main US sector and what remains of their battlefields more than a century later?
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What can War Art and the work of Official War Artists tell us about the experience of the Great War and the landscape of the Western Front? We examine this through the work of three war artists: John Nash, CRW Nevinson, and Paul Nash.
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We look at three winters on the Somme front: from 1914 to 1916. We discuss Christmas Truces involving the French and Germans, and later when the British arrive, discuss the terrible sub-zero conditions of 1916, and look at the problem of Trench Foot, particularly amongst Australian troops faced with the harsh reality of Somme mud.
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Who was Harry Moseley? In this episode we ask: can one man's life be more important than another? Our journey takes us from the Helles Memorial, and the Missing of the Gallipoli Campaign, up to the high ground at Chunuk Bair and a walk to the isolated cemetery at The Farm, uncovering the life and achievements of one of Britain's greatest Edwardian scientists.
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In this episode we explore five little-known memorials along the Western Front battlefields in France and Flanders, looking at how different nations commemorated the battles of the Great War, and what they chose to remember.
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This weekend marks History Writers Day, a new venture from Simon at History Book Chat on Twitter. As part of my contribution to the event, in this episode I talk about how I came to write my trilogy of WW1 Battlefield Walking Guides covering the Somme, Ypres and Arras.
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In this latest Trench Chat we are joined by Mike Cunha of the Battles of the First World War Podcast to talk about his interest in the Great War and the wider aspect of American involvement in the conflict and how it is remembered there today. We also discuss the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and Mike's recent visit to the battlefields.
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In this episode we travel along The Old Front Line in France and Flanders to visit five lesser-known war cemeteries from different nations where the dead of the Great War lie, some with only a handful of graves and others with thousands of burials.
We visit: Nécropole Nationale de la 28ème Brigade (La Ferme de Wacques), Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Noyelles-sur-Mer Chinese Cemetery, Vladslo German Cemetery and Guizancourt Farm Cemetery near Gouy.
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We are joined by Renny Richardson, author of a trilogy of books about the men of Crawley in West Sussex who fought in the Great War. Renny chats with Paul Reed, who was born in Crawley, about the town at war and the stories of the men commemorated on the war memorials here.
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Following the purchase of a Great War book owned by author and veteran Henry Williamson, we explore something of Williamson's life, the Writing Hut where he crafted his work and look at what the book was, and how it connects is to the battlefields of the Great War.
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Thanks to Netflix, I've been able to watch a preview of the new film All Quiet on the Western Front. In this episode we look at the film, the story behind the book that gives it its name, and I share my thoughts on what the film is like and the impact it may have on our understanding of the Great War.
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In this episode, we feature another Battlefield In A Day and visit the area around the Northern French coal-mining village of Loos-en-Gohelle where the Battle of Loos was fought in September-October 1915.
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Following a battlefield tour looking at the early work of the Imperial War Graves Commission and the establishment of the permanent cemeteries across Belgium and France, we examine some keys sites connected to the Soldier's Cemeteries of the Great War, what Rudyard Kipling called 'The Silent Cities'.
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In this episode we look at how the criss-cross paths of two Great Wars collide on the old battlefields of the First World War. What happened to the approach to war, how were the battlefields affected in the fighting of 1940 and the Occupation, and what happened during the Liberation in 1944?
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In this episode, we look at the fighting around Villers-Bretonneux on the Somme in April 1918, seeing where Australian and British soldiers stopped the German advance on the key city of Amiens. We visit the cemeteries and memorials, and see where Tanks fought Tanks for the first time in history.
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This episode marks forty years since I first visited the battlefields of the Great War. We look back over those four decades and discuss what those first trips meant to me, what it was like to live on the battlefields, my work as a Battlefield Guide and examine some of my favourite locations that I've visited over the years.
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In this episode we go behind the lines in Flanders and look at the key locations that enabled the British and Commonwealth forces to keep millions of men on the front line near Ypres during the Great War.
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In this episode of the podcast we look at several objects connected to the First World and ask what they tell us about the wider history of the period and those who fought and died.
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In this episode we look at the experience of war and how it affected veterans who returned home and live long lives. When did they feel able to talk about the Great War? What did they say? And how was it possible to conduct interviews with Great War veterans in the 1980s and 90s.
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The capture of Vimy Ridge by the Canadian Corps in April 1917 was one of Canada's iconic moments in the Great War. In another of our Battlefields In A Day series we look at the wider Vimy Ridge battlefield, seeing some lesser-known locations and getting an understanding of this important battle.
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In this episode we travel to the Somme battlefields of 1916, see the ground where men of the 13th Rifle Brigade fought in a tragic attack, and walk the route the ANZACs took into Pozières village when they took it, see where Albert Jacka VC might have been awarded a bar to his Victoria Cross, and ending on the ground where the Canadians made their assault on Courcelette in September 1916.
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In the latest of our Battlefields In A Day series we travel to Arras in Northern France to visit some key locations connected to the fighting here in 1917-1918; from the Arras Memorial to the key battle sites, ground connected to the 1917 movie and the ground fought over by Australians in 1917 and Canadians in 1918. A separate Battlefields In A Day covering Vimy Ridge will come later!
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We begin Season 4 of the podcast with a walk between the Somme villages of La Boisselle and Contalmaison, the scene of heavy fighting in July 1916. We see memorials, battlefield cemeteries and discover the stories of those who fought here more than a century ago.
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In a new Podcast Series we use the Adjutant's Notebook to look at different aspects of First World War history. In this episode we examine the cornerstone of the British Army in the Great War - the Division. These self-contained units of nearly 20,000 men fought the battles and held the line, and by 1918 there were more than seventy of them.
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In the second in our series of Battlefields In A Day, we travel to the Somme battlefields in Northern France. The Somme was one of the defining battles of the Great War and we follow it's story from beginning to end, seeing some of the key sites connected to the fighting in 1916.
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During the Great War pilots took their aircraft above the battlefield not only to bomb and strafe, but to photograph the trenches of the Western Front. What do these images show us and how do they relate to the landscape we know today?
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In this episode, the first in a series of Battlefields in a Day, we explore one of the iconic British and Commonwealth battlefields of the Great War: Ypres, in Flanders. On our tour we take in some well known and famous locations, and travel off the beaten track, too.
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Astride the Arras-Cambrai road a small wayside memorial commemorates a missing British officer. Out in the fields small Comrade's Cemeteries act like beacons to the fighting here in April 1917. What took place on this ground around Arras, near to Feuchy Chapel?
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Just astride the road between Poperinghe and Ypres, the hamlet of Brandhoek was a main site for the treatment of wounded soldiers. Here women serving as Army nurses got close to the realities of war, and the war cemeteries here today remind us that not everyone could be saved.
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Among the dark Oak trees of Bourlon Wood, the Bantam Battalions from England, Scotland and Wales experienced their baptism of fire. Who were The Bantams, and did all roads lead to Bourlon Wood in November 1917?
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To commemorate one hundred episodes of the podcast we take a journey along the Western Front visiting four locations from Flanders to the Somme to Verdun to the Vosges. What does the landscape of the Great War mean to us?
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In this episode we look at the writer Henry Williamson, best known for his nature writing and Tarka The Otter novel, but in the 1950s he began to publish 'A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight', some fifteen novels, five of which cover the Great War. We look at his life, his war, and his work as a writer, a forgotten author of the First World War.
The Henry Williamson Society website.
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We visit the small village of Soupir on the Aisne where men of the British Expeditionary Force, known as The Old Contemptibles, fought in September 1914. We visit the British graves here and walk the battlefield to the Aisne heights where some of the first trenches were dug in the Great War.
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From Bully Beef to Hardtack and Plum and Apple Jam... what did the British Tommy in the trenches of the Western Front eat? How was it supplied, how good was his food, how did it reach him, and having had a meal, how did he go to the toilet?
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We return to the 'Forgotten Front' in Northern France where the British operations on the Western Front took place in 1915, and there were long periods of static trench warfare. Here we visit the site of the Cuinchy 'Brickstacks' - huge stacks of undelivered bricks that formed towers on the battlefield here.
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In this episode, we follow Great War poets Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon into the trenches near Fricourt at the 'Bois Français' during the months before the 1916 battle and learn about how the death of a much-beloved comrade affected them both.
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Christmas Day in 1914 - a day we more commonly associate with a Christmas Truce between the British and Germans. Who died and where, and how many?
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In a special Trench Chat, we are joined by Matt Dixon, host of the Footsteps of the Fallen Podcast. We talk about Matt's interest in the Great War, what led him to produce the podcast and the books he is currently working on.
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In this episode, we go 'off the beaten track' at Vimy Ridge and look at two unusual cemeteries on the battlefield here - Lichfield and Zivy Crater Cemeteries - where the Canadians buried their dead in some old mine craters in April 1917.
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In this episode we are Behind the Lines on the Somme, starting in the small village of Heilly, and looking at how soldiers were billeted in places like this, we then walk down to the railway station and examine the use of railways on the Somme and establishment of medical facilities for the wounded. We end at Heilly Station Cemetery, a vast city of the dead from the Somme battles of 1916.
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In this episode, we return to Flanders, and walk from the Lille Gate on the edge of the city of Ypres via 'Shrapnel Corner' to Bedford House Cemetery, one of the largest in this area and laid out in an unusual way. We end on the old Ypres-Comines Canal where the German Army was stopped south of Ypres in April 1918.
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In the second of our episodes recorded while on a Leger Battlefield Tour, we travel to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Experience at Arras and then down to the Somme battlefields to see the Lochnagar Crater, the Ulster Tower, the trenches in the Newfoundland Park and end at 'Mighty Thiepval'.
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In an episode released between Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday, we pause to Remember. We reflect on the veterans back in the 80s and 90s, and think about what visiting the battlefields of the Great War means to us more than a century later.
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In this episode after so many months away from The Old Front Line we return to Flanders with a Leger Battlefield Tour group on a trip along the Western Front. We visit Tyne Cot, walk the trenches at Sanctuary Wood and attend the Last Post at the Menin Gate.
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In this episode, we are behind the lines on the Somme, in the village of Englebelmer. We look at life behind the front on the Somme, discover what remains from 1916, and follow a journey many soldiers made towards the front line in this sector of the battlefields.
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In this episode, we travel away from the Western Front to Gallipoli. Here there are thirty-one British and Commonwealth cemeteries on the Gallipoli Penninsula, and we visit some on the beaches and others in more isolated locations, along with the stories of the men buried there from the 1915 Campaign.
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In this episode we walk from the village of Wytschaete ('Whitesheet' to the soldiers), along part of the Messines Ridge, scene of fighting in 1917, and visit three small battlefield cemeteries, reflecting on how we connect with these comrade's burial grounds of the Great War.
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With the Great War battlefields still seeming far away, this week we travel to a picturesque church in Somerset to look at memorials to men bound together by family, sacrifice and duty, and in the churchyard discover the grave of one of the major Great War poets: Siegfried Sassoon.
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After the Great War, more than half a million casualties had marked graves. A decision was made to mark them permanently with headstones and allow the families of the fallen a chance to add their own inscription; more than a century later what do they tell us about grief and loss, sacrifice and service, and the myriad faces of the Great War?
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In this episode, we follow the story of the Southdowns Battalions of the Royal Sussex, "Lowther's Lambs"; often seen as the nearest Sussex had to Pals Battalions. We look at their story from their formation in September 1914 to their virtual destruction at Richebourg and Hamel in 1916. We also discuss the journey I made in the 1980s to follow their war and interview some of the last remaining veterans.
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Continuing with our look at the 105th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, we examine the fighting on 15th September 1916, the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, when tanks were used for the first time in history. After an overview of the fighting that day, we also walk the battlefield near 'Bully' and 'Lousy' Wood where men from the London Regiment fought.
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More than 300 British and Commonwealth soldiers were executed 'for the sake of example' during the First World War, for crimes from desertion to striking a superior officer. In this episode, we look at the background to military discipline, the process of Field General Courts-Martial, and what was involved when a soldier was executed by firing squad. And we discover how the inscription on an executed soldier's grave - 'Shot At Dawn' - remains as powerful as when his father chose it in the 1920s.
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After the fighting at Mametz on 1st July 1916, the Devonshire Regiment buried their dead in an old disused trench among the trees of Mansel Copse. Here the 'Devonshires Held This Trench, The Devonshires Hold It Still'. In this episode, we walk the ground at Mametz and discover the stories of three men: a poet who loved the countryside, a former spy who made a model of the battlefield, and a young man who had traveled the world.
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In the final episode of Season 2, we look back at this season's podcasts and ahead to the future of The Old Front Line, and then travel to Belgium, to examine some of the opening shots of the war at the village of Nimy, near Mons, where the men of the 4th Royal Fusiliers fought in August 1914.
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The 'Crimson Coast' extended along the Northern French coast where the British Base Hospitals were located during the Great War. Here men shattered by wounds were treated, in the massive Base Depots new soldiers were prepared for the front line and women worked in changing ways behind the front. In this episode, we visit Le Treport and Etaples, including the cemeteries in both locations.
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In this episode we walk the Somme from Ovillers to Mouquet Farm; 'Moo-Cow Farm' or 'Mucky Farm' as the soldiers called it. Here we examine the attacks by Australian, Canadian and finally British units, discovering just how costly this corner of the Somme battlefields was in 1916.
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On 31st July 1917 the Third Battle of Ypres - or the Battle of Passchendaele as it is often called - began with an attack on a forteen mile front near the city of Ypres. In this Anniversary episode we look at the first day of Third Ypres; who attacked, what happened and what were the casualties?
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the heart of the Loos Battlefield. Here we look at the fighting in this part of the Western Front, the background to the Missing, and examine some stories of those commemorated here: from a Major-General to the son of Rudyard Kipling, to the men from Sussex, many of whom died at Richebourg.
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As the Battle of the Somme continued, it took the British Army into the 'Horseshoe of Woods' that characterised the next phase of the fighting here in July 1916. As the 105th Anniversary of the Somme continues, we look at how the battle progressed.
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The Great War went from a mobile war in 1914 to a static conflict with hundreds of miles of trenches across France and Flanders. How did trench warfare come about, what were the trenches that crisscrossed the battlefield and what were the differences between Allied and German trenches?
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In this episode, we look at how the Northumbrian Territorials were thrown into battle at Ypres in April 1915, look at Wieltje as a front line village, and walk the ground where the opening phase of the Third Battle of Ypres took place following the men from the medical services as they struggled to save the wounded, including Captain Noel Chavasse VC & Bar.
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Today is the 105th Anniversary of the First Day of the Battle of the Somme. The battle began on this day at 7.30 am, when the British soldiers went Over The Top on a perfect summer's morning. On this anniversary we look at the background to 1st July 1916, visit the Thiepval Memorial, and discuss what the First Day of the Somme means to me, reflecting on the experience of the veterans I interviewed.
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High Wood was one of the most fought-over corners of the Somme battlefields in 1916. We take a walk from Caterpillar Valley Cemetery via Longueval, to stand beneath the dark trees of the wood. We learn about New Zealand's Unknown Warrior, Indian Cavalry, and a father and son who were both awarded the Victoria Cross.
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South of the city of Ypres in Belgium, a large area of woodland was swallowed up in the fighting of 1914. For the next four years, the British and Commonwealth forces held the line in and around Ploegsteert Wood - "Plugstreet Wood" to the British Tommy.
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In this 'Trench Chat' we talk to Canadian Tour operator Samantha Cowan about battlefield tourism coming to the Great War battlefields from Canada. What inspires Canadians to come? What does Vimy mean to them? Samantha shares her years of experience with her tour company TheBattlefieldTours.
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The story of the Northern Pals battalions who marched to war in 1914 is forever linked to the Somme, but their war continued and in May 1917 they found themselves up against a 'dark wood' - Oppy Wood, near Arras.
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Located at the heart of the Somme battlefields, the town of Albert, known as 'Bert to the troops, was the route to the front line - all roads led there in 1916. Here we look at what the town meant to those who served on the Somme, examine the story of the Basilica with its figure of Mary, which Australian soldiers called 'Fanny Durack' and then look at the British graves in Albert Communal Cemetery and end on the outskirts of the town at Bapaume Post Military Cemetery.
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It's War Graves Week! The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintain all cemeteries and memorials from both World Wars worldwide. This week sees the first War Graves Week and the focus is on the graves we see at home, in the cemeteries close to where we live. In this special episode, we talk to Megan Maltby and James King from CWGC, and Battlefield Guide Martin Garnett in Barnsley Cemetery.
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In this latest Trench Chat, we are joined by Richard Fisher of the Vickers Machinegun Collection & Research Association to talk about the Machine Gun Corps, Graham Seton Hutchison ('Hutchy') and did they make tea from the hot water in their Vickers gun water jackets?!
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Something slightly different this week: we look at the village of Bazentin-le-Petit on the Somme battlefields through the lens of three classic memoirs of the Great War. These include Robert Graves Goodbye To All That and Frank Richards Old Soldiers Never Die. How important are these WW1 memoirs and what do they tell us?
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The Ancre Valley cuts across the northern Somme battlefield like a deep scar; in 1916 attack after attack saw heavy losses here. Our walk takes us from the small village of St Pierre Divion, to a bridge over the river Ancre itself, then on to the Ancre Cemetery and ending in Beaumont-Hamel.
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In the quiet village of Montbrehain in Northern France, Australians who had fought at Gallipoli, and in some of the key battles on the Western Front, went into battle for the last time on a misty morning in October 1918. This was Australia's final battle of the Great War: the end of a long route across France and Flanders that had cost the lives of more than 45,000 Diggers.
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In this Trench Chat Special, we speak to Professor Peter Doyle about his upcoming book on the story of an iconic Great War artifact, the Princess Mary's Christmas Box. Peter explains the history behind the little brass tin, what was in it and who it was given to.
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Located just off the main road on a route into Flanders, and sheltered by tall trees, this is Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery. It was once one of the largest British cemeteries from the Great War, with nearly 11,000 burials of men who died of wounds. Here we look at Railheads and Estaminets and examine the treatment of the wounded, and the role of Nurses.
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In this episode, we follow the Australians - the ANZACs - and men from the West Riding of Yorkshire who fought around the sleepy village of Bullecourt near Arras, in Northern France. Here more than 10,000 ANZACs became casualties in the bloody battles for the Hindenburg Line.
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Once the haunt of lovers, these gentle slopes on a Flanders landscape became Hill 60 to the British Tommy - one of the most infamous locations on the battlefields near Ypres. We look at the story of Demarcation Stones, British and Commonwealth Tunnellers, mine craters and bunkers... and a forgotten WW1 Trench Museum.
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In this episode, we have an introduction to the battlefields east of Reims in the vast open fields of the Champagne. We discover a surprisingly diverse battlefield where men of many nations fought during the Great War and hear the story of a disgraced English Colonel who found retribution here in 1915.
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Back in the city of Ypres in Flanders, in this episode we follow the walls, the old Ramparts, seeing British bunkers, visit the Ramparts Cemetery, discover more about military historian Rose Coombs, and end at the Menin Gate. Each night at 8pm the Last Post is sounded under this Memorial to the Missing, but who does it commemorate and what does it mean to us today?
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Was this the 'greatest game'? On 25th September 1915, men of the London Irish Football Club kicked a ball into battle signalling the start of the Battle of Loos. We follow their story and the other London lads who fought that day in the slag heaps near Loos and Lens.
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In this latest Trench Chat we are joined by military historian Dr Tim Godden to discuss his research on the Junior Architects of the Imperial War Museum, and the design and meaning of the 'Silent Cities', the British cemeteries of the Great War. We also discuss Tim's work as an artist, and how that connects to his wider interest in the conflict.
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In this 50th Episode of the podcast, we return to home ground - the village of Courcelette on the Somme. We walk the Canadian attack route in the attack on the village, visit Courcelette British Cemetery and then look at the final stage of the battle around Regina Trench and Desire Trench.
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Along the old Roman Road between Ypres and Menin was a road junction that became the main route to the front line: this was Hell Fire Corner, the most infamous spot on the Western Front. In this episode, we walk from the centre of Ypres to the Lille Gate and along the old railway line to Hell Fire Corner.
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We return to Picardy, for a walk across the 'Forgotten Somme': those places less visited on these battlefields of 1916, and see the villages of Ginchy and LesBoeufs, look at the story of the 'Tally Ho VC', of author Charles Dickens' grandson killed near Ginchy, and discuss conditions in the dreadful Somme mud of the autumn and winter of 1916.
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In this episode, we travel to Vimy Ridge in Northern France, taken by Canadian soldiers in April 1917. We walk from a series of preserved trenches and mine craters to the crest of the Ridge and look at the impressive Vimy Memorial unveiled in 1936. Has a memorial come to symbolise Canada's connection to the Great War?
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In this episode, we are joined by Military Historian Amy Harrison to discuss her work as a Commonwealth War Graves Commission Intern, and her research into Battlefield Tourism and Landscape for the Ph.D. she is researching at the University of Kent.
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In this episode we take a detailed look at the film 1917, examining how it represents this period of the First World War, how it depicts the landscape of the Western Front, and how it links us to the battlefields of the Hindenburg Line around Arras today.
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Cambrai in November 1917 witnessed the first mass use of British Tanks in the Great War as battalions of the Tank Corps supported the infantry. On this walk we follow the men from the West Riding of Yorkshire in their attack at Havrincourt, look at the story of the chateau here, the West Riding Memorial, and visit a small 'Comrade's Cemetery' neat Havrincourt Wood.
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In the shadow of Lutyens' mighty Thiepval Memorial, we visit the graves of British soldiers in the picturesque Authuille Military Cemetery, discover how a Newcastle United player launched the attack here with a football on 1st July 1916, and find what remains of the pre-war village of Thiepval, more than a century after its destruction.
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On a cold winter's day in December 1914, the men of both sides emerged from their trenches. Not to fight, but to take part in the Christmas Truce. For a brief moment, there was Peace in No Man's Land. But what is the real story of this famous event?
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Amidst the dark trees of Polygon Wood near Ypres, bunkers and old shell craters tell the story of the Great War in Flanders. This week we walk the cemeteries and memorials around the wood, follow the ANZACs, and discover the story of the Black Watch in 1914.
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In this latest Trench Chat, we are joined by military historian Mathilde Bernardet who works at the Memorial 14-18 Museum near Lens in Northern France. Mathilde discusses how France remembers the Great War, the history of France's largest military cemetery at Notre Dame de Lorette, and the new memorial, the Ring of Remembrance.
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Alongside a busy road in Northern France, the Star of India rises from between two weeping willows, commemorating the thousands of Indian Army soldiers who died in the trenches of the Western Front. What took place at Neuve-Chapelle and what was India's story in the early years of the Great War?
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In the latest Trench Chat, we talk to historian and battlefield guide Andrew Thornton about his research on the men of the British Expeditionary Force in 1914, the 'Old Contemptibles'. Who were they, and what is the history behind the Old Contemptibles Association. We also discuss the death of John Parr at Mons in 1914, the soldier believed to be the first killed on the Western Front in 1914.
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We return to Flanders and walk the battlefields near the village of Langemarck across to Langemarck German Cemetery, the story of which runs like a dark thread through the history of the Twentieth Century, uncovering many of the myths about this iconic symbol of German loss in the Great War. For our WW1 Object, we look at a German 1917 Artillery Signalling Lamp.
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Today is Armistice Day; a century ago in 1920, the body of the Unknown Warrior was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey. What lays behind this story, how was he selected, and what of the Unknown Warriors in our own connections to the Great War?
A bonus episode for Armistice Day.
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As Remembrance Sunday approaches we look at the final day of the Great War on the Western Front. What happened on 11th November 1918, what brought the war in France and Flanders to an end and who were the last men to die that day?
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As part of Black History Month, we look at the often forgotten story of the Black African-Caribbean men who joined the British Army during the Great War or who served in the ranks of the British West Indies Regiment on the Western Front.
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We're joined by Military Historian Taff Gillingham this week to talk about his amazing Great War Huts project taking place in Suffolk. We learn about how he and his team have saved many of these original WW1 huts and will open them to the public.
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What is the story behind a place known as 'The Colonel's Field' near to the Somme village of Flers? In this episode, we link Picardy with Yorkshire and follow the story of an English Earl and a Battalion of Yeoman who marched to the front in 1916.
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Rudyard Kipling called the cemeteries of the Great War 'Silent Cities', these vast cities of stone where the dead of that conflict lay. What is the background and history of these cemeteries, what happened to them in WW2, and what is their meaning to us today?
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In this latest Trench Chat we talk to historian and author John Broom about his new book Reported Missing in the Great War which will be published by Pen & Sword Books in October 2020. John tells us about his research, some of the stories of grief and loss, and how in some cases closure for families took over a century to happen.
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The war poet Siegfried Sassoon referred to the Missing of the First World War as 'nameless names'. Who were the Missing, what was their fate, how were they commemorated, and is it a story lost in the past, or still part of the Great War battlefields today?
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In this episode, we walk the fields that link together an English composer, a Canadian who was one of three from the same street to be awarded the Victoria Cross, a black cat that went into battle in one of the first Tanks, and a young officer who collected books. We're back on the Somme, walking the ground between Pozières and Martinpuich where the fighting in September 1916 took place.
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On the slopes of the Messines Ridge, Croonaert Wood (or Bayernwald as the Germans called it) was one of the places connected to Adolf Hitler's story in the Great War. We uncover his connection to the fighting here in 1914, look at the role of the French Army in this sector and uncover the history of the WW1 Trench Museum that was once here in the 1970s and 80s and the reconstructed trenches that still remain within the wood today.
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Why is the Geology of the First World War so important? In this latest Trench Chat, we are joined by Professor Peter Doyle to discuss landscape and memory, and how the geology of Mud, Chalk, and Rock affected the battlefields of the Western Front.
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In this episode, we are back on the Somme and follow in the footsteps of Canadian soldiers who fought at Courcelette in 1916. On this tiny battlefield, more than 6,000 Canadians went missing; we hear some of their stories and walk from the village to ADANAC Military Cemetery, one of the largest in this area.
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In this episode, we follow a route to the front line used by soldiers during the Great War. Starting in Ypres, we walk via Shrapnel Corner, Zillebeke Lake, Zillebeke village, and up to the area beyond Maple Copse where the front lines were located. Along the way, we visit cemeteries, discuss Canadian poet Robert Service, and see the graves of British aristocrats.
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In this episode, we walk the battlefield at Fricourt on the Somme. It's a walk very much connected to regiments from Yorkshire who fought here on 1st July 1916: the First Day of the Battle of the Somme. We visit cemeteries, walk across the front lines, discuss a lesser-known war poet, and look at the story of the German dead on the Somme.
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In this episode, we explore Tyne Cot Cemetery and Memorial. Tyne Cot, the largest British and Commonwealth war cemetery in the world, stands on a ridge in Flanders facing the city of Ypres. We look at what the cemetery means to us and uncover some of the stories of those buried here. This episode was recorded at Tyne Cot Cemetery a few weeks ago.
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This weeks episode was recorded a few weeks ago whilst on the battlefields of Flanders, and in it, we visit a small cemetery in the fields near Boesinghe, remember a son's visit to his father's grave, and walk among the vast legion of unknown soldiers at Poelcapelle.
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In this latest 'Trench Chat' we speak to military historian and author Richard Van Emden about his time interviewing veterans of the Great War, and personal photographs taken by soldiers with their own cameras on the front line.
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What does Passchendaele mean to us, more than a century later? In this episode, we walk an iconic battlefield of the Great War, the ground where the final phase of the Third Battle of Ypres occurred. Our walk takes us through the valley where the final attack by the Canadians took place in October 1917, seeing the memorials at Crest Farm and in Passchendaele church.
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For the first of our Trench Chats, we are joined by Battlefield Guide Tim Thurlow to talk about his many years of walking the Somme battlefields, discuss some of the amazing things he has found on his walks and what the battlefields mean.
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In this episode, we are once more on the Somme and take a visit to the Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont-Hamel, a unique area of preserved First World War battlefield where the Newfoundland Regiment, among others, fought on the First Day of the Battle of the Somme. We follow a route through the park to the front line, walk the trenches, and look at the two ends of the battle in July and November 1916.
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On the Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, this Somme Extra looks at some of the background to 1st July 1916, we take a walk from outside Albert to La Boisselle and Mash Valley, visiting Ovillers Military Cemetery. The podcast includes a recording of Liverpool Pal Ted Williams, made in the 1980s, and our object this week is a group photograph connected to the story of 1st July 1916.
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In this episode we walk from the Menin Road, along Maple Avenue to Sanctuary Wood British Cemetery, visiting the grave of Gilbert Talbot and a private memorial to an officer killed nearby. We also see the Trench Museum at Sanctuary Wood and finish on the high ground of Hill 62.
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This week we are once again back on the Somme, this time to visit the battlefield at Serre where the men from the Northern Pals battalions had their baptism of fire on 1st July 1916 - the First Day of the Battle of the Somme. We visit the cemeteries and memorials, hear about the veterans who were here and this week's object is a photo of Harry Scargill of the Barnsley Pals.
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In this episode we walk from the village of Locre (now Loker) to Kemmel Hill in Flanders. Along the way we discuss men who were Shot at Dawn, an Irish Nationalist MP Willie Redmond, life behind the lines and the importance of the high ground at Kemmel Hill and the often forgotten role of French troops here in 1918. Our Great War object is a frame containing a WW1 Memorial Plaque.
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We return to the Somme this week and walk the ground from Dantzig Alley Cemetery to Mametz Wood, looking at the Manchester Pals, Generals killed on front line and the Welsh Volunteers who fought and died at Mametz Wood in July 1916. Our object this week is a unique photograph taken by an officer on the Somme.
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In this week's episode, we step beyond the British sector of the Western Front to one of the most iconic French battlefields of the Great War - Verdun. Here we walk the ground between the 'lost' village of Fleury and visit the huge cemetery and ossuary at Douaumont. Our object is a commemorative memorial stone produced to help soldiers wounded in battles like Verdun.
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In this week's episode we travel to another 'Forgotten Battlefield' of the Great War and walk the area around Loos, on the site where the 'Lone Tree' was located in 1915. Walking from Le Rutoire Farm, near the village of Vermelles, to the Lone Tree in the very heart of the 1915 Loos Battlefields. We visit battlefield cemeteries and discuss the story of Rudyard Kipling's son, John, who fell at Loos with the Irish Guards. Our object this week is a poignant photo of a young girl, a postcard lost on the battlefield.
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In this episode we walk the Somme battlefields between Trônes Wood and the village of Guillemont. We follow the story of Noel Chavasse VC & Bar, the son of a Royal Academy artist, Raymond Asquith whose father was Prime Minister, and discover how the stories of men from either side of No Man's Land collided in a sunken lane. Our WW1 object is a small Old Comrades badge; what does it tell us about veterans of the Great War?
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In this episode we start in the village of Wulverghem and walk via Ration Farm, and some battlefield cemeteries, up onto the Messines Ridge. This weeks WW1 object is a collection of 'Fragments From France' magazines and we discuss the work of cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather, famous for the 'Old Bill' cartoons.
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In this episode we walk the battlefields of the Somme between the villages of Hebuterne and Gommecourt where men of the 56th (London) Division fought on 1st July 1916. We look at the stories of two veterans who were in two separate dugouts here on that day: Malcolm Vyvyan MC, a Gunner officer, and Harry Coates MSM, a Sergeant in the London Scottish. The WW1 object this week is an Imperial Service Badge.
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In this episode we move to Gallipoli, a battlefield in Turkey where British and Commonwealth soldiers landed on 25th April 1915. Here we visit Lancashire Landing Cemetery, walk down to W Beach and look at the story of the 'six VCs before breakfast'. Our object this week is a WW1 photo album with private images taken at Gallipoli in 1915.
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This week we take our first walk across one of the 'Forgotten Battlefields' of the Great War, the Boar's Head close to the village of Richebourg in Northern France. Here we discover the story of the Southdown's Battalions, or Lowther's Lambs, and uncover what a terrible sacrifice Sussex made here on 30th June 1916.
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In this episode we walk the battlefields of the Somme, taking a journey from Auchonvillers up onto the Hawthorn Ridge near Beaumont-Hamel, where the fighting raged on 1st July 1916, the First Day of the Somme. We learn about a young officer, Eric Heaton, and visit a small battlefield cemetery where comrades lay side by side: Hawthorn Ridge No 1.
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In this episode, published on the 103rd Anniversary of the Battle of Arras, we talk about some of the history of the battle and remember two veterans who were there in 1917: George Butler of the Machine Gun Corps and Malcolm Vyvyan MC of the Royal Garrison Artillery.
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In this episode we look at Battlefield Archaeology carried out by the Diggers near Ypres in 2001-2002, examine an original piece of recovered archaeology and visit the Advanced Dressing Station bunkers at Essex Farm, on the battlefields close to Ypres in Flanders.
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In this first Episode of the Old Front Line, Military Historian Paul Reed takes you on a walk across the Somme battlefields at Pozières, the scene of heavy fighting in 1916. We visit the cemetery and memorial, and travel through the village to 'Mucky Farm'. We also introduce a regular feature looking at WW1 objects, talking about a Great War officer's whistle.
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