Send us a text In this episode, it's a real pleasure to be joined by the American writer and former History professor, William Stroock. William's historical interests are many, but his book on the WW1 American general John J "Blackjack" Pershing is a fascinating insight into one of the Great War's most complex and colourful characters. We talk about Pershing's early life and military career, examine whether some of the more disagreeable traits in his character were compatible with Generalship, a...
Apr 30, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 5Ep. 17
Send us a text During the Great War over 16,000 men registered as Conscientious Objectors; men whose conscience wouldn't allow them to take the life of another human. Ridiculed in the press, humiliated by the Government, and shunned by friends and neighbours, the life of a CO was a lonely one. An organisation aimed at helping those who objected to war was set up, the No-Conscription Fellowship, which became one of the most powerful anti-war bodies of the time. Our episode begins with looking at ...
Apr 23, 2023•1 hr 28 min•Season 5Ep. 16
Send us a text The Gallipoli campaign presents military historians with some of the great "what-ifs" of Great War history, and perhaps nowhere more so than the fighting around Gully Ravine in June 1915. The ravine was a barren strip of land running from the Aegean to within touching distance of the town of Krithia. Flanked by tall spurs on either side, Gully Spur to the North and Fir Tree Spur to the South, the Ravine was the scene of some of the most brutal fighting of the campaign. Ghurka Bluf...
Apr 16, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 5Ep. 15
Send us a text 1917 was a difficult year for the Allied high command. With the British and the French suffering from the exertions of the Somme and Verdun, the French army was in a state of mutiny on the Chemin des Dames, and the British were bogged down in the hell of Passchendaele. The Spring of 1918 saw the British on the defensive around the city of St Quentin, in a series of eight heavily defended strongpoints called Redoubts. On the 21st of March, the Germans launched Operation Michael, th...
Apr 02, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 5Ep. 14
Send us a text In today's podcast we visit one of the forgotten battlefields of the Great War, the tiny farming village of Epehy. While small in size, it proved a formidable obstacle to be captured as the Allies advanced towards the Hindenburg Line. We look at the origins of the Hindenburg Line and the fighting for villages and copses that the British had to undertake in order to get near to this masterpiece of German military engineering. We hear about new British tactics involving armoured car...
Mar 26, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Send us a text In our latest episode we visit a group of cemeteries that were attached to the Casualty Clearing Stations and discover the stories of some of the men and women who lie buried within them. Our journey begins at Dozinghem, Bandaghem, and Mendinghem cemeteries in Belgium, where we hear the personal recollections of an American surgeon, and meet a VC winner who was a Lt. Col aged only in his mid-twenties. We hear the remarkable story behind the award of what is possibly the world's ra...
Mar 12, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 5Ep. 12
Send us a text In today's podcast, we visit the battlefields of Artois, the scene of so much fighting during the spring and summer of 1915. It's a battlefield region that provides so much for the battlefield tourist in a very small place. But, if you haven't visited the battlefields of Artois and only have one day in which to visit some of the key sites, where should you go and what should you see? Beginning at the massive French memorial on the Notre Dame de Lorrette ridge, we head from south t...
Mar 05, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 5Ep. 11
Send us a text Welcome to our latest podcast, which was recorded live on the streets of London. In this episode, we travel around the capital to discover the stories behind six memorials, all of which have a connection to the Great War. Some of them are very well known, some of them less so, but they each tell a story of this tumultuous period of social and military history. Please do check out the website for images of all the memorials - www.footstepsofthefallen.com Please support the podcast:...
Feb 26, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 5Ep. 10
Send us a text The Great War saw casualties on an industrial scale. The changing face of warfare placed demands on the medical profession like no conflict before or since. How did medicine adapt to cope with the demands of Great War casualties? We begin at Lijssenthoek Cemetery at the grave of Nurse Nellie Spindler who was killed by shell fire while working at a CCS near Brandhoek, and is the only female buried amongst 10,000 men. We look at the chain of evacuation, the complex series of medical...
Feb 19, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Send us a text In our latest episode of Trench Talk it's a real pleasure to be joined by illustrator Tim Godden ( http://www.timgodden.co.uk ) Tim is an artist and illustrator with an instantly recognisable style of cartoon drawings illustrating scenes of life in the trenches and cemeteries of the Great War. In this wide ranging chat we talk about his career as an artist, his unique style of drawing, his work on the wonderful book Percy, his latest exhibition in Talbot House, and how his love of...
Feb 05, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Send us a text In today's podcast, we visit Croisilles cemetery near Arras to discover the personal stories of some of the men who lie within. Many of the men who lie dead in the cemetery were killed in the actions against the formidable German strongpoint of Tunnel Trench which ran just to the east of the village. We look at the Sassoon poem "The Rear-guard" which documents his experiences of being underground in the troglodyte kingdom the Germans created. We hear about two British sappers, fou...
Jan 29, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Send us a text In today's podcast, we make a welcome return to the battlefields of Gallipoli and look at the fighting at Suvla. It was a disaster that spelled the end of a disastrous campaign. Ian Hamilton, the commander of the British Mediterranean Force had been dealt a bad hand by the British Government. Short of trained soldiers and supplies, and forced to fight on a battlefield defended with almost fanatical idealism by Turkish soldiers under the inspirational command of Mustafa Kamal, the ...
Jan 22, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Send us a text Welcome to our first podcast of 2023! In today's podcast, we are off to Carnoy on the Somme, a farming hamlet between Mametz and Montauban that was the scene of terrific fighting on the 1st of July 1916. Dominated by the massive Pommiers Redoubt, this area of the front line was one of the few successes for the British that fateful day. We meet Captain Wilfred "Billy" Neville who brought footballs back from England for men of the 8th East Surrey's to kick across No Man's Land towar...
Jan 15, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Send us a text Welcome to our Christmas episode of Footsteps of the Fallen. The Christmas Truce has often been portrayed as a mass act of rebellion by soldiers tired of fighting, who wilfully disobeyed the instructions of senior officers not to fraternise with the enemy. The commander of II Corps issued an order on the 5th of December 1914 forbidding any form of ceasefire or armistice with the enemy. Yet, within his Divisions, seven battalions reported fraternisation with the enemy on or around ...
Dec 26, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Send us a text In this latest podcast, we look at the fighting for a small but heavily defended German strongpoint on the Somme battlefield, which proved to be one of the only successes for the British in this sector on the 1st of July 1916, the Leipzig Redoubt. We begin by looking at John Masefield whose seminal work The Old Front Line provided a remarkable view of the Somme battlefields and describes in detail the redoubt. Masefield had worked as a hospital orderly in a French military hospita...
Dec 18, 2022•59 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Send us a text In this latest episode of Trench Talk, it's a real pleasure to be joined by the writer Sarah Wearne, whose 30-year odyssey to study the epitaphs of the Great War culminated in the publication of three collections of epitaphs, The Somme, Passchendaele, and The Last Hundred Days. In this wide-ranging chat we talk about Helen's quest to track down some of the more unusual and unique epitaphs of the Great War, how epitaphs were chosen, the different approaches to commemoration by the ...
Dec 11, 2022•53 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Send us a text Welcome back to Season 5 of the podcast! In this first episode, we meet five remarkable men, Maurice Dease, Hugo Throssell, Noel Chavasse, Phillip Konowal, and Martin Doyle. They all came from very different backgrounds, different countries, and different regiments; their lives took very different paths to each other, but each of them was awarded a Victoria Cross (in Chavasse's case, twice) during the Great War. We hear stories of remarkable bravery, humility, danger, and great pe...
Dec 04, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Send us a text Welcome to our 100th podcast! In today's episode, we look at the trenches that formed the 450 miles of the Western Front, running from the Swiss border to the Belgian coast. We look at how trenches were designed, and where the naming patterns came from. We hear the macabre reasoning behind Woman Trench, learn about the role of the Sanitary Corporal and discover how a German artillery attack did wonders for a British officer's digestive problems. Footsteps of the Fallen will be bac...
Nov 13, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 4Ep. 25
Send us a text This episode looks at the fighting around Touvent Farm, a critical strong point on what was to become the Somme battlefields. For seven days in June 1915, French infantry fought hand-to-hand with fanatical German defenders to capture this important strongpoint. We begin by looking at the French army and its evolution during the Great War. Consisting largely of conscripted men, over 8 million were called into service. We look at their weapons and how their famous red trousers becam...
Nov 06, 2022•56 min•Season 4Ep. 24
Send us a text Apologies for the sound issues in this episode, it was recorded online and sadly the Internet connection was misbehaving. The sound is not of the usual standard, but this was out of my control. In our latest episode of Trench Talk we are joined by Richard Dunning MBE, the owner of the Lochnagar Crater at La Boiselle. In this wide-ranging chat we talk about how reading a paperback book in the middle of a riot in Chicago led Richard on a lifetimes journey into the Somme battlefields...
Oct 30, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 4Ep. 23
Send us a text In today's podcast, we look at the remarkable story of Tank F41 "Fray Bentos" which took part in an attack on the heavily defended German lines near Hill 35 just outside Zonnebeke in August 1917. The attack failed but for three days and nights, Fray Bentos and its crew performed one of the greatest defensive actions of the Great War. Our journey begins at Oxford Road cemetery near Wieltje, where we hear about one of the greatest cricketers to play the game, Colin Blythe, before we...
Oct 23, 2022•58 min•Season 4Ep. 22
Send us a text Our latest episode visits the massive military facility at Etaples on the French coast. Known as Eat Apples to the Tommies, the facility contained 20 hospitals and enough accommodation for 100,000 men. Why was the camp there, how was it run, and what was life like for those who stayed there? We hear about the logistical issues of running such a massive camp, meet the "Pencil General" responsible for managing the day-to-day affairs of this mini-city, and look at the medical evacuat...
Oct 16, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 4Ep. 21
Send us a text In our latest episode we visit the tiny Somme hamlet of La Boiselle and look at the action which led up to the creation of the massive Lochnagar Crater, which stands on the site to this day as a memorial to the men who died in combat on the first day of the Somme. The men of Tyneside paid a heavy toll at the hands of German machine gunners, and we look at how German intelligence intercepts rendered any element of surprise obsolete. We hear about the three Victoria Cross winners fr...
Oct 09, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 4Ep. 20
Send us a text In this episode, we visit Ypres and look at five locations around the battlefields that keep calling us back trip after trip. We begin with a reflection on the personal connection one feels with history when visiting the battlefields and consider the impact that the changing seasons have on one's perceptions of the Great War landscape. Our journey begins at the war memorial of war memorials, The Brooding Soldier at Vancouver Corner, before looking at the chequered past of the huge...
Oct 02, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Season 4Ep. 19
Send us a text In April 1917 the men of the Royal Naval Division went into action against the German-held village of Gavrelle. Once the village was taken, however, the problems for the British began, with the strong point of the Windmill needing to be captured. Attack after attack was thrown against the Germans, each beaten back as the body count mounted. In this episode, we look at the quirky history of the Royal Naval Division. We hear about a vitriolic poem written by an officer about the CO,...
Sep 18, 2022•58 min•Season 4Ep. 18
Send us a text Our latest podcast brings us to the small village of Givenchy, a non-descript farming hamlet on the banks of the La Bassee canal, which was, for six days in December 1914, the scene of brutal fighting between the men of the Indian Corps and the Germans. Against a backdrop of some of the worst weather experienced by troops anywhere, the Indians were outnumbered, outgunned, and out-supplied, but managed to fight with the tenacity to hold onto the ground they gained. The attacks were...
Sep 11, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 4Ep. 17
Send us a text The final week of artillery fire that preceded the Canadian assault on Vimy Ridge, was an experience that German soldiers holding the ridge would never forget. Known by the Germans as "Die Liedenwoch" or "The week of suffering", one veteran stated that his experience at this time was the worst week he went through in four years of war. In this episode, we look at the Canadian preparations for the assault on Vimy Ridge, and hear about how the French experiences at Verdun drove Cana...
Sep 04, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Season 4Ep. 16
Send us a text In this special bonus episode, we visit the site of Pond Farm near Ypres, a non-descript farmstead between Wieltje and St Jean, that was to prove a real show-stopper for Allied infantry in both 1915 and 1917. A masterpiece of German military engineering, the concrete blockhouses, and machine gun posts took a heavy toll on the attackers. Such was the skill in construction, that the bunkers remain to this day. We look at the fighting of the London Rifle Brigade in 1915, where we loo...
Aug 21, 2022•30 min•Season 4Ep. 15
Send us a text Our latest episode takes in the massive cemetery of Cabaret Rouge which stands in the shadow of Vimy Ridge. We hear a remarkable first-hand account of being captured by the Germans, written by an Olympic oarsman, and the connection to an officer of the Queens who lost his life in a costly raid. We meet a flying obsessed officer who lost his life in company with a relation of one of the greatest scientists of all time, hear about the perils of joyriding in a Rolls Royce behind the ...
Aug 07, 2022•57 min•Season 4Ep. 14
Send us a text On Monday 2nd September 1918, men of the Canadian Infantry attacked the formidable German strongpoint of the Drocourt-Queant line to the east of the city of Arras. In a day of ferocious fighting, the Canadians fought their way through this masterpiece of precision German defensive engineering, successfully opening the way to the Canal du Nord and winning seven Victoria Crosses in the process. In this episode, we look at the Hindenburg Line, its construction, function, and purpose,...
Jul 31, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 4Ep. 13
