The Old Front Line

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.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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 Ge...

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.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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.  Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin . You can order Old...

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.  Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin . You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop . Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop you...

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'. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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?  Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin . You can order Old Front Line Merch...

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.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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. Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin . You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old...

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.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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.  Send us...

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! Send us Fan...

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

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. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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?  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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?  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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?  Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin . You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop . Got a question about this episode or any others? Dr...