Old Front Line
WW1 Podcast with Paul Reed
Category: Somme
Henry Williamson’s Books
Following the purchase of a Great War book owned by author and veteran Henry Williamson, we explore something of Williamson’s life, the Writing Hut where he crafted his work and look at what the book was, and how it connects is to the battlefields… Continue Reading “Henry Williamson’s Books”
Return to the Silent Cities
Following a battlefield tour looking at the early work of the Imperial War Graves Commission and the establishment of the permanent cemeteries across Belgium and France, we examine some keys sites connected to the Soldier’s Cemeteries of the Great War, what Rudyard Kipling called… Continue Reading “Return to the Silent Cities”
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,… Continue Reading “Where WW1 Meets WW2”
Villers-Bretonneux 1918
In this episode, we look at the fighting around Villers-Bretonneux on the Somme in April 1918, seeing where Australian and British soldiers stopped the German advance on the key city of Amiens. We visit the cemeteries and memorials, and see where Tanks fought Tanks… Continue Reading “Villers-Bretonneux 1918”
Forty Years on the Old Front Line
This episode marks forty years since I first visited the battlefields of the Great War. We look back over those four decades and discuss what those first trips meant to me, what it was like to live on the battlefields, my work as a… Continue Reading “Forty Years on the Old Front Line”
Somme: La Boisselle to Contalmaison
We begin Season 4 of the podcast with a walk between the Somme villages of La Boisselle and Contalmaison, the scene of heavy fighting in July 1916. We see memorials, battlefield cemeteries and discover the stories of those who walked here more than a… Continue Reading “Somme: La Boisselle to Contalmaison”
The Somme In A Day
In the second in our series of Battlefields In A Day, we travel to the Somme battlefields in Northern France. The Somme was one of the defining battles of the Great War and we follow it’s story from beginning to end, seeing some of… Continue Reading “The Somme In A Day”
100th Episode: Across The Old Front Line
To commemorate one hundred episodes of the podcast we take a journey along the Western Front visiting four locations from Flanders to the Somme to Verdun to the Vosges. What does the landscape of the Great War mean to us? The Old Front Line… Continue Reading “100th Episode: Across The Old Front Line”
Poets on the Somme
In this episode, we follow Great War poets Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon into the trenches near Fricourt at the ‘Bois Français’ during the months before the 1916 battle and learn about how the death of a much-beloved comrade affected them both. RECOMMENDED READING:… Continue Reading “Poets on the Somme”
Somme: Heilly Station Cemetery
In this episode we are Behind the Lines on the Somme, starting in the small village of Heilly, and looking at how soldiers were billeted in places like this, we then walk down to the railway station and examine the use of railways on… Continue Reading “Somme: Heilly Station Cemetery”
Old Front Line 