WW1 Digger History Podcast

We get descriptions of the Battle of Fromelles, although painfully brief, from brother Vern, a good look at Delville Wood and the aftermath of the Flers engagement. Here is a bit of what Percy has to say; "Turned off to the left, to some old disused trenches, near where was a wrecked "tank", one of those Hun-dreaded monsters which are the latest development of modern warfare. This one did not look...

A nice quiet little stint in the Ypres Salient for our armed plebeians is a prelude to a return to the Somme. Anyway, Perce has a fight with rats, dangling wires and a Tommy sentry before he realises that he and three mates were left behind. The boys give their opinion on the Conscription Referendum in no uncertain terms to a couple politicians. Not so quiet on the Somme, you bet! Perce and Viv ta...

What can I say. Nothing, Percy says it all. This time he goes from the Somme to the dreaded Hill 60 and back to the Somme. He sees his first tanks, there are more mates killed, etc! Enough said!

Well finally! My apologies at the lateness of this episode. family visiting, work, yada, yada yada (as Seinfeld might say). Anyhow, this one is another cracker with the boys fighting at Moquet Farm and then coming back out again.

This episode is based on the letters home by Percy Smythe which were published in the Jerilderie Herald and Urana Observer in March and April 1917. They cover the same events as in the previous episode at Pozieres with a slightly different bent. What does a soldier tell his family about one of the most intense battles of the western front?

Drum-roll time ..... Here it is, The Battle of Pozieres. Percy drinks rum and smokes cigarettes and, those following the series know, things must be really bad for that to happen! He gets buried by a shell, dug out, digs others out ... some of them ..., shot at, blown up again, machine gunned, shelled and so and so on. He loses a lot of good mates, Bert Newland and Smith among them. Come into this...

Jack Prior almost gets himself killed, but many others succeed without trying. The boys are moved to the Somme and the Battle of Pozieres looms large before them. What a charming place, Percy describes the dugout he and his Russian born mate, Alex Popoff, find, "There are some bodies buried just in front of our door, and having swollen, they have forced the earth up over them, and it is spongy and...

Stannard, Green, Hall, Wise etc etc all dead but why worry about that? Bad news from home worries Percy much more when he learns a couple girlfriends are drowned. Such is life!.... Hey, what a great title if only it hadn't been used before! Anyway, the boys get a hammering from a heavy barrage and worse than that, some are out in no-man's-land when friendly fire - if artillery can be friendly - ki...

In this episode, one man gets his head blown off while gas alarms brings out, "goggle faced ogres," who, "moved about in the moonlight and the shadows." Percy mellows on the puritanical side, feeling sorrow for a bloke with VD, avoids getting into a philosophical argument with chaplain and prefers to talk to a pretty blonde girl named Georgette, ooh-la-la. He visits Armentieres too! Oh and the Pri...

Well, finally Percy has us in the front line. Sniping and being sniped at, machine gun bullets over our heads in no-man's-land and heavy shelling behind the lines. Percy has no qualms about taking a dead man's water bottle or another's jack-knife. Percy is really becoming the old soldier now and .... his bad luck also holds out at the end!

Come with Percy into the reserve trenches at Sailly-sur-la Lys, which is near the soon to be infamous Fromelles. Listen to why Private Ogilvie nearly kills Private Williams and how does the 9th Battalion loses a lot of men without ever firing a shot! And finally Percy catches up with ..... no spoilers, but if you have followed every episode you will know who. This is the last episode recorded with...

Who does Percy think looks like a girl? Find out when he sees out his time at Suez and then travels to France, dodging submarines and circling around Malta. Yes, we finally make it to France!

Thirsty, huh, Perc? Chase after that "furphy" water wagon and watch out for the dead man's bones out in the desert. Percy does some time near the Suez Canal but when will they go to France? Oh, and yes he does get that elusive stripe.

Well do something Percy! He does, he goes to Egypt, meets up with his brother Vern, marches around the desert, looks at old battlefields and studies to become a non commissioned officer. This episode was re-recorded in May 2019.

Percy has almost recovered and is full of introspection, apprehension and a touch of mischief. This episode covers Christmas Dinner at St John's Hospital, New Years Eve, the death of an orange tree, or was it a peach tree? ... and the night the old cow died! My apologies to Paper Lace! Now I used some backing music,  here is a link to St Monicas Choir Facebook page They are a Maltese Choir and wor...

Percy does the tourist "thing" in Malta, moving from hospital to a convalescent camp. Come explore Valetta and other places around Malta. This episode was re-mastered in February 2019.

In this episode Percy wants to die, no, really, he wants to die! He is sick, probably delirious with pneumonia, on a troop ship from Gallipoli and gets put off at Malta into a hospital for infectious cases. Find out what he gets up to, who he meets and how he gets on. You'll love Sister Suzie!

Percy describes his time at Anzac Cove dodging shells from "Beachy Bill", chats, Turkish bullets, diarrhoea and the 'flu. Did any of these horrors get him? Listen and find out! Here's a "snippet": After tea, I went for a walk up to Lone Pine. I met a couple of casualties on the way. They were 24th battalion men. A "75" had got four of them. The first one I met was wounded in several places, and th...

Percy is at ANZAC and settles in to the shells, flies, maggots, dead bodies, bullets, and other problems. He visits Lone Pine, Shrapnel Gully and Dead Man's Gully. He meets up with his brothers Bert and Vern. Bert is not so well and Percy starts to get sick himself. Vern has a stellar career and Percy learns of his brave actions at Lone Pine.

He is almost there! In this episode Percy spends time at Cairo, travels by train to Alexandria and finally by ship to Lemnos Island and Gallipoli. Percy explores the Cheops Pyramid, the Sphynx and the infamous "Wozzer" where ANZAC troops rioted twice in 1915. Percy is a good religious boy, though, and shuns the activites at the Wozzer (The Can Can is evil, my wife will like that comment) and is di...

Just a little warning. This episode includes content that could offend modern sensibilities. Some racist terms and descriptions are used. If you can handle that, Percy describes his trip to Egypt and stopovers in Melbourne, Freemantle, Aden and Suez. We finish with him spending his first night in Egypt. It is worth a listen if you don't mind the "N" word.

When I was a young man I carried a pack and waltzed me Matilda all over..... This is a tear jerker as Percy says goodbye to his family and sets sail on the SS Orsova for fate and destiny. Before he goes, his unit is set to Obelisk Bay in Sydney Harbour to fight fake Turks for the movie cameras, a clip of that movie is available at the Smythe family website if you care take a look... well worth it!

This is an extra special episode. 15 Year old Tom Wark is guest presenter and does a fantastic job at presenting a letter written by Bert Smythe to his family where Bert recounts the landing and first few days at Gallipoli before he gets shot by a sniper. If you have any interest at all in the Gallipoli legend this is the episode to listen to. Bert gives a great account of the Turks, deaths in the...

In this episode Viv Smythe gets married before going to war, Percy renews old acquaintances at Taree and he gets charged with something he did not cause. We meet more diggers and learn more about camp life at Liverpool, including the infamous Colonel Kirkland.

It is April 1915, you are 21 years old, you have two brothers in khaki and on their way to god knows where (Gallipoli), you have had a big problem at work and you are broke. What do you do? You join the AIF of course! This is part one of the diary of Percy Ellesmere Smythe, the third oldest of four brothers who go to war. This is the story of your experiences and those of your brothers through you...