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 . Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast . Send us a text Support the show...
Jun 28, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 8Ep. 25
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 (Pe...
Jun 21, 2025•37 min•Season 8Ep. 24
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 Compassionat...
Jun 14, 2025•1 hr•Season 8Ep. 23
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 Su...
Jun 07, 2025•38 min•Season 8Ep. 22
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 ...
May 31, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Season 8Ep. 21
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 . Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line D...
May 24, 2025•37 min•Season 8Ep. 20
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 Got a question about t...
May 17, 2025•54 min•Season 8Ep. 19
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 . Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Disco...
May 10, 2025•39 min•Season 8Ep. 18
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 . Got a ...
May 03, 2025•49 min•Season 8Ep. 17
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 : West...
Apr 26, 2025•38 min•Season 8Ep. 16
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 ...
Apr 19, 2025•53 min•Season 8Ep. 15
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 . Got a question abou...
Apr 12, 2025•38 min•Season 8Ep. 14
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. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast . Send us a text Support the sho...
Apr 05, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 8Ep. 13
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 . Got a question about this episode or any others? D...
Mar 29, 2025•38 min•Season 8Ep. 12
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. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast . Send us a text Support the show...
Mar 22, 2025•55 min•Season 8Ep. 11
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. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast . Send us a text Support the show...
Mar 15, 2025•38 min•Season 8Ep. 10
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 . Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast . Send us a text Support the show...
Mar 08, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 8Ep. 9
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? Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast . Send us a text Support the show...
Mar 01, 2025•35 min•Season 8Ep. 8
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. Got a question about this ep...
Feb 22, 2025•57 min•Season 8Ep. 7
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. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast . Send us a text Support the show...
Feb 15, 2025•37 min•Season 8Ep. 6
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 . Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Ser...
Feb 08, 2025•52 min•Season 8Ep. 5
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 - Infantr...
Feb 01, 2025•35 min•Season 8Ep. 4
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. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email t...
Jan 25, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 8Ep. 3
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. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast . Send us a text Support the show...
Jan 18, 2025•36 min•Season 8Ep. 2
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. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast . Send us a text Support...
Jan 11, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 8Ep. 1
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 Newspa...
Dec 28, 2024•48 min•Season 7Ep. 31
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 . Got a question about this episode or an...
Dec 21, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Season 7Ep. 30
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 . Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast . Send us a text Support the show...
Dec 14, 2024•39 min•Season 7Ep. 29
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. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast . Send us a text Suppo...
Dec 07, 2024•58 min•Season 7Ep. 28
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. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front ...
Nov 30, 2024•35 min•Season 7Ep. 27
