Footsteps of the fallen

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 i...

Send us Fan Mail 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 o...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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-...

Send us Fan Mail 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 loo...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 on...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail In our latest episode, it's a real pleasure to be rejoined by Rory Forsyth, CEO of the Western Front Way project. Rory last came on the podcast in April 2021, and in this latest episode, he provides an overview of the work that's been completed on the epic path of peace since then. In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about the spirit of international cooperation t...

Send us Fan Mail Our latest episode takes us to one of the forgotten battlefields of the Great War - Festubert.  Over ten days in May 1915 the British suffered 16,000 casualties for no material gain.  Why did this battle happen? We begin by looking at the "entente discordiale"  between the British and the French, with relations between Sir John French and General Joffre at an all-time lo...

Send us Fan Mail On the 23rd of September 1914,  the BEF went into action, fighting the Germans around the Belgian city of Mons.  The small but highly trained BEF was outnumbered three to one by the Germans and found themselves isolated by a natural salient formed in the Mons Canal at the village of Nimy. It was here that the first two VCs of the war were won, whereas just upstream, two further VC...

Send us Fan Mail In our latest episode, we visit one of the most iconic battlefields anywhere on the Western Front, the Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont Hamel. The park was the site of the tragedy of the first day of the Somme for the Newfoundland Regiment - we look at who these men were, their contribution to the wider war effort,  and what happened on that fateful day in July 1916.  We the...

Send us Fan Mail To the northeast of Ypres stands a dark and forbidding woodland, formerly an equestrian centre and rifle range that became a ferocious battlefield in the September of 1917.  Known as Polygon Wood, the shell-ravaged landscape was captured in bitter fighting by men of the 5th Australian Division. In this podcast, we look at the events of the 26/27th of September and hear the persona...

Send us Fan Mail In our latest episode, we visit one of the forgotten battlefields of WW1, the small village of Cuinchy.  Location of the infamous brick stacks, the village appears in many personal memoirs, and while there were no major offensives per se, it was a mincing machine for British troops for the duration of the war. We hear about the scandalous court case intrigue of a Coldstream Guards...

Send us Fan Mail Our journey today takes us to the small Somme village of Guedecourt.  Throughout September 1916 the village was the scene of violent fighting as the Allies sought to gain control of the village and the high ground beyond. In their way stood a formidable German defensive line, the Gird system of trenches which had to be taken trench by trench.  The battalions involved, especially t...

Send us Fan Mail In our latest podcast, we visit the Faubourg d'Amiens Cemetery in Arras to discover the personal stories of some of the men who lie buried within. The cemetery has a real connection with Birmingham and the men of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.  We hear the story of two sets of brothers from Birmingham who died in very different circumstances, the first man to join the Birmi...

Send us Fan Mail This latest episode looks at alcohol and its influence at home and the front. Our journey begins in a London pub containing a remarkable piece of WW1 memorabilia, where time has remained still since 1915.  We examine the alcohol restrictions imposed on the home front to preserve industrial production, especially amongst munitions workers, and hear about the so-called "Carlisl...

Send us Fan Mail In this first Trench Talk of Season 4, it's a real pleasure to be joined by Helen Roberts.  Helen is an avid history fanatic who was fascinated by the large chalk map of Australia carved into the side of a hill near her home in Wiltshire. Her research into the map led her on a fascinating journey of discovery into the lives of many Australian soldiers who were based at the ne...

Send us Fan Mail To the southeast of Ypres, in what was once a lover's lane, stands a small artificial hill created from the digging of the Ypres-Comines railway.  Standing just 60ft above sea level, Hill 60 was strategically a vital spot, giving unbroken views towards Ypres. For a period of four days in April 1915, this small hilltop became one of the most dangerous places on earth, with fou...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Season 4 of the podcast! In this episode, we're on the little-visited battlefields around Fampoux, east of the city of Arras.  These few acres of farmland became a slaughterhouse for the British infantry in April 1917. The village of Fampoux and the fearsome Hyderabad Redoubt was captured with relative ease, but as they attacked and pushed east towards Roeux a...

Send us Fan Mail In our final episode of Season 3, we travel to the village of Contalmaison on the Somme battlefields and begin by visiting the magnificent Contalmaison Cairn, the memorial to the 16th Royal Scots.  Known as McCrae's Boys, the regiment was a Pals Battalion, with many members of the Heart of Midlothian football team making up its first members.  They paid a heavy price on the o...

Send us Fan Mail "If the British public knew what was really happening, the war would be over tomorrow" stated David Lloyd George to the editor of the Manchester Evening News in 1917. In this episode, we look at the press, their involvement in the front line, and how the War was reported back at home.  How accurate a picture did the British public get of the reality of War? How could rep...

Send us Fan Mail In this latest of our series of Trench Talk, it's a pleasure to be joined by author and historian Simon Batten. Simon is the author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning book "Futile Exercise?" which examined the British Army's preparation for WW1 in the form of the massive all arms exercises that took place in the run-up to WW1. The scale of these mane...

Send us Fan Mail On the 25th September 1915, the Battle of Loos began in Artois, in what was the largest British offensive of the war to date.  While the majority of the fighting took place around the mine workings and slag heaps around Loos and Hulluch, some fourteen miles to the north, a diversionary attack took place at Mauquissart in an attempt to try and prevent German reserves being sent sou...