Old Front Line
WW1 Podcast with Paul Reed
Walking The Somme: Ancre Valley
The Ancre Valley cuts across the northern Somme battlefield like a deep scar; in 1916 attack after attack saw heavy losses here. Our walk takes us from the small village of St Pierre Divion, to a bridge over the river Ancre itself, then on to the Ancre Cemetery and ending in Beaumont-Hamel.
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Podcast Extras – St Pierre Divion
Podcast Extras: Ancre
Another superb listen,Paul. Have you by any chance read or heard of the author Pat Barker and her Regeneration Trilogy, novels that contain descriptions of the need for a hospital dedicated to facial injuries and artists from the Slade School who worked with the surgeons to try and repair those horrific wounds caused by high explosives in WWI?
Henry Tonks of The Slade was a principal artist, who had trained as a surgeon, worked at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and one can see the portraits at http//www.gilliesarchives.org.uk
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Thanks, yes I’ve read and enjoyed all of Barker’s books on the Great War. I know of the Sidcup archive as we’ve used it a few times for TV programmes.
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Thank you for another wonderful Podcast. Enjoy them all, but this is another favourite. Tremendous to learn more about Beaumont Hamel as well as the Ancre British Cemetery.
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Thanks, Jon.
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I love the way you explain the stories on a personal level and in the overall bigger picture, thank you.
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Thank you, Chris.
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Many thanks Paul – an excellent podcast. As you head up the track above Ancre British Cemetery, does the concrete emplacement which you meet represent the German front line? Regards, John-George Willis.
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It was in a position just behind their front line.
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Thank you.
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Paul – Another great podcast.
Thanks for mentioning my great uncle gunner W J Miles. Interested to see you found a picture of Lieutenant Hitchcock as I could find little about him when researching the A13 Crew.
Having read of the death of Lynn Macdonald, It prompted me to re-read her book on the Somme. I had forgotten what a superb book it is. It vividly illustrates the appalling experiences of the common solder within the wider context of the politics and leadership at that period of the war.
The river Ancre is chalk-stream, an exceptional aquatic environment limited to mostly parts of England and Northern France. Only 210 in the world of which 160 are in England. The River Test in Hampshire is a prime example. If the Ancre was in Southern England it would be preserved for Trout and Salmon fishing at a cost of several hundred pounds a day. As I know to my cost!
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Thanks for that, Martin. Glad you found this of interest and it was good to be able to tell their story for C4 back in 2016.
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Another fantastic podcast, Paul. When I visited the Somme in 2014, I remember whilst sitting in the May sunshine, listening to the skylarks, on the banks of the Ancre, wondering how somewhere so peaceful and tranquil could have been the site of so much violence and bloodshed all those years ago.
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Indeed, it’s a special place to stop and reflect.
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It was Alain Nice to walk virtuele on the oud front line. Honing to return this summer.
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Indeed, let us hope!
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