Podcast Questions & Answers Ep 2

Posted on April 24, 2024 by

19 Comments

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 your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.

Category: QnA Episode

19 Comments on “Podcast Questions & Answers Ep 2”

  3. Some great questions and comprehensive answers from Paul which were excellent. As far as Verdun goes a car does seem to be the answer or the Leger tour there which sounds very good.

    I think anything up to 30 minutes is ideal but appreciate it takes a little longer to produce and Paul has a day job as well !!

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  5. Thanks Paul for a great Q and A and for answering my question in particular. Thanks also for your kind words.

    Planning, as you say, is vital. Last year I visited the Somme using Eurostar. I did quite a bit of research beforehand and because of the British rail strikes I travelled from Southport to London by coach. What I hadn’t bargained for was a strike on SNCF which was on the day I returned ! I lost about £225 in returning a day early which I didn’t recover.

    You could say that was my learning curve as I will always check the strike situation on the other side of the Channel in future. Jon Haskey of Old Blighty Tours did an excellent job of driving me to where I wanted to go and then I would then walk the 9/10 miles back to Albert. Hence me asking about local guides.

    Thanks for the Dragon’s Cave reminder, I will check out their website. As ever, thanks for the book recommendations too. I have some of those mentioned, but a few more won’t do any harm!

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    • Hi Stephen

      Should you do a similar trip and get to the Somme, I can recommend Richard Porter at Chavasse Farm, it’s also residential, who does excellent tours to Verdun.

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    • Hi Stephen

      Should you do a similar trip and get to the Somme, I can recommend Richard Porter at Chavasse Farm, it’s also residential, who does excellent tours to Verdun.

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      • Hi Rick,

        Thanks for this and apologies for the late reply, I have only just seen this. The Chavasse Farm website is quite extensive so I will definitely have a look.

        Best wishes

        Stephen

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  6. Great answers as usual Paul. Your marking up maps hit a cord with me. This is my dining room table now – planning for Bastogne area in May – There will be Great War sites too.

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  7. I think the idea of Q&A podcasts is great. But to be really helpful, I think you should ask a Q&A section on this website to point people to the right Q&A-podcast. Personally, my ideal podcast length is 45 minutes. But that’s because that’s my general commute time and I usually listen podcasts in my car.

    In general I love the combination Podcasts / despatches / Q&A. And now Apple podcast also provides transcripts, it is developing in an enourmous knowledge database.

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    • Thanks Peter – I’m not sure what a QnA page here would do? The links to ask them are in the show notes and then there is a page for the episode here – what do you see this extra page containing? Thanks!

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      • I mean a menu with all the Answers in the Q&A podcast. So that when in 2 years someone wants to know something about a topic, they can find it. Of the 4 subjects, 3 are mentioned on the page. So number 4 won’t be found very easily. That’s what I meant, but I know it is all extra work.

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      • And that’s the issue, the podcast isn’t my full time job and I don’t have a big backer behind it like other Pods so to do this kind of thing could be at the expense of putting out actual episodes. But I appreciate the feedback! Always helpful.

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  8. Loved the question about what place you really like in Ypres. I knew the brilliant Great War historian Malcolm Brown and he talked of two places which touched him. Firstly he said that Talbot House in Popperinghe was somewhere where you could really feel the First World War. Not Ypres but a little further afield, he said that his favourite CWGC cemetery was St Symphorien near Mons, which contained among others the graves of John Parr the first British soldier to be killed in the war and almost opposite was that of George Edwin Ellison the last to be killed. I think he described the distance between the two headstones rather poetically as the length of a cricket pitch.

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