Old Front Line
WW1 Podcast with Paul Reed
Where WW1 Meets WW2
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?
LINK TO TERRY WHENHAM’S PODCAST:
13 Comments on “Where WW1 Meets WW2”
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Old Front Line 
Hi Paul,
My great grandfather fought with the Royal Field artillery during the Great War and returned home. But had 2 sons killed during the second war, Joseph was killed on a boat in the evacuation of Dunkirk his body made it back England and he was buried in Belfast. Hugh was his other son killed and never found in Burma. Imagine surviving the Great War and all the mental scares that were ingrained in your mind only for 2 of your sons to go off to the second war and to killed, very sad and unfair. Thanks John
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Thanks John – yes, several of the Great War veterans I knew had sons killed in WW2. We can but only imagine what they thought about it.
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Such an enjoyable episode that discussed a question I’ve long thought about. Another thing I’ve wondered is what it would have been like to take a train from Germany to France after the war through the front and to see the battlefront out the window.
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Indeed, I’m sure it would be a fascinating journey!
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When I was a tour back in 1998 we were told a story about a WW2 RAF pilot who was shot down in the 14-18 area of France. It turned out his father had been killed nearby in WW1 and buried in a cemetery – so at some point (possibly after 1945) he was re-buried in the same cemetery (maybe same plot) as his father. I can’t remember the name or cemetery – does anyone else I wonder??
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Hi – I was told this once about Chilli Trench Cemetery near Arras but I’ve discovered it’s not true!
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I did wonder……
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Thanks for this really interesting episode Paul, filled out some details from the Zoom meeting nicely. I enjoyed your chat with Terry too – another podcast to put on my list!
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Paul – another great episode. Thanks. I often wondered what the Wehrmacht forces made of all the ‘Stars of David’ on headstones in the german cemetery in Fricourt; Cognitive dissonance doesn’t do it justice! In the weirdness of these things my grandfather in law was an officer in the austrian army in the first war and a refugee in the second.
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The Jewish graves were marked with crossed until the 1950s so they wouldn’t have known… probably thankfully!
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Just like to add that it wasn’t just locations that meant so much…..As you know Paul I have a special interest in Arnhem 1944 and just a few of the men who fought there had a link to the previous conflict…These names cannot just be random thoughts…Private John Verdun Bagge
Private Verdun Charles Bayley Private Alfred Kitchener Bennet and Private John Arras McCloy to name just four and then…..finally Private Douglas Haig Marshall Smith……Great episode….
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Indeed, and some Great War veterans serving there too, like Boy Wilson!
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Thanks for another fascinating podcast. In August I was on the excellent France Blitzkrieg 1940 tour with Dave Warren and we visited many of the places connected with the Arras counter attack, so it was good to hear them placed in the context of the Great War in this podcast.Jean-Paul Pallud’s Blitzkrieg France Then and now (from the After the Battle series) includes several references and a few photos of French troops, often colonial ones summarily executed by the Germans. The “Myth of the clean Werhmacht” readily springs to mind.
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