Old Front Line
WW1 Podcast with Paul Reed
Category: Somme
A Tale of Two Veterans
In this episode we discuss the importance of oral history and what it tells us about the experience of conflict and the culture of the British military in the Great War, and we contrast two interviews I did with veterans in the 1980s: Jack… Continue Reading “A Tale of Two Veterans”
Gunner Officer: Malcolm Vyvyan
We return to the memories of WW1 veteran Malcolm Vyvyan MC, who served with 96th Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery on the Western Front from 1916, and then latterly the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force. We follow him from the Somme to… Continue Reading “Gunner Officer: Malcolm Vyvyan”
Walking the Somme: Gommecourt
In our first episode of Season 9, we walk the northern part of the Somme battlefield from Foncquevillers out to the ground before Gommecourt, and examine the attack here by the 46th (North Midland) Division on 1st July 1916. We examine the Court of… Continue Reading “Walking the Somme: Gommecourt”
Bonus Episode: A Siege Battery Gunner
In this second Bonus Episode to end Season 8 of the podcast we look at the subject of Great War veterans and in particular Malcolm Vyvyan who served as a Siege Battery officer in the Royal Garrison Artillery on the Somme, Arras and Flanders,… Continue Reading “Bonus Episode: A Siege Battery Gunner”
Bonus Episode: A Divisional Memorial
In the first of three Bonus Episodes of the podcast to end Season 8, we travel to Fricourt on the Somme and examine the journey to unveil a memorial to the 17th (Northern) Division in the church there in July 1938, just over a… Continue Reading “Bonus Episode: A Divisional Memorial”
Return to the Somme
As the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme approaches, we walk part of the battlefield across the iconic Mash Valley, visit Ovillers Military Cemetery and walk through Ovillers village to the far end of the valley facing the Pozières Ridge. Alf Razzell discusses… Continue Reading “Return to the Somme”
The MOD War Detectives
In a Trench Chat special we speak to the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre Commemorations team – otherwise known as ‘The MOD War Detectives’ – who work to recover and identify the dead on the former battlefields of the Great War. Thanks to the… Continue Reading “The MOD War Detectives”
Forgotten Memoirs of the Great War Part 1
In this episode we start a look at some of the Forgotten Memoirs of the First World War, starting with Percy Croney’s ‘Soldiers Luck’ published in the mid-1960s. Croney was a 1914 volunteer who served with the Essex Regiment and Scottish Rifles at Gallipoli… Continue Reading “Forgotten Memoirs of the Great War Part 1”
Somme: Tara-Usna Hills
In this episode for the fifth anniversary of the Podcast we travel back to the Somme and look at the story behind the naming of Tara and Usna Hills overlooking La Boisselle, and discuss two First World War objects found in a Somme junk… Continue Reading “Somme: Tara-Usna Hills”
Somme: Albert-Bapaume Road
Is there a ‘culture’ surrounding The Old Front Line? One that helps define it and enables us to understand that landscape of the First World War? If so, what is it, and how can we understand it? In this episode we take a major… Continue Reading “Somme: Albert-Bapaume Road”
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