The Old Front Line

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. 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 Fan M...

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? Got a question about this episode or any others...

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. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server o...

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. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email th...

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? 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 Fan Mail Sup...

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...

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 Got a question about t...

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...

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? Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or em...

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 o...

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. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front...

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 G...

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 & A...

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 . Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop y...

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 qu...

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? Sign up for the free podca...

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 th...

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. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Dis...

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? Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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? Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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 we...

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  pa...

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? You can support the Podcast via BuyMeACoffee or Patreon . Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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...