Old Front Line
WW1 Podcast with Paul Reed
Category: Somme
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”
Walking the Somme: Mailly-Maillet
We begin Season 8 back on the Somme Battlefields of 1916 and walk the ground around the village of Mailly-Maillet, located just behind the British trenches in front of Beaumont-Hamel and Serre and later much closer to the fighting in 1918. We visit cemeteries,… Continue Reading “Walking the Somme: Mailly-Maillet”
Somme Winter Walk
As the seasons change along The Old Front Line we take a winter walk across one part of the Somme battlefields, walking along the tracks from near Courcelette to Thiepval and the Ancre Valley. The WW1 Cemeteries website mentioned can be found here: http://www.ww1cemeteries.com.… Continue Reading “Somme Winter Walk”
Somme 1916: Nab Valley
For our 200th Episode we return to the Somme battlefields where the podcast began in 2020 and walk the ground from Crucifix Corner, along the edge of Authuille Wood to Nab Valley, a terrible killing ground on 1st July 1916, ending at the Lonsdale… Continue Reading “Somme 1916: Nab Valley”
Somme Books
The Somme is one of the most written about battles in military history. Where to start your reading given the huge number of books about the period? In this episode we take a ‘layered’ approach to reading and examine everything from ‘Gateway Books’ to… Continue Reading “Somme Books”
The War Underground
The War Underground in many ways defined the static nature of the First World War on the Western Front. We examine the history of military mining, discover Sir John Norton Griffiths and his attempt to recruit 10,000 “moles” to work beneath No Man’s Land,… Continue Reading “The War Underground”
Podcast Questions & Answers Ep 5
In this latest Questions & Answers bonus episode, we look at questions about the Regular Army and the 1914 Star, the Canadians in WW1 as ‘Shock Troops’, discuss the men from the Southdowns Battalions from Sussex and ask do we have enough memorials along… Continue Reading “Podcast Questions & Answers Ep 5”
Newfoundland’s Unknown Soldier
Just this week it was announced that the body of an Unknown Soldier from the Royal Newfoundland Regiment would be taken back to Newfoundland to become their Unknown Warrior. In this first episode of Season 7 we look at the story behind this and… Continue Reading “Newfoundland’s Unknown Soldier”
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