The Old Front Line

Today is Armistice Day; a century ago in 1920, the body of the Unknown Warrior was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey. What lays behind this story, how was he selected, and what of the Unknown Warrior…

As Remembrance Sunday approaches we look at the final day of the Great War on the Western Front. What happened on 11th November 1918, what brought the war in France and Flanders to an end and who wer…

As part of Black History Month, we look at the often forgotten story of the Black African-Caribbean men who joined the British Army during the Great War or who served in the ranks of the British West…

We're joined by Military Historian Taff Gillingham this week to talk about his amazing Great War Huts project taking place in Suffolk. We learn about how he and his team have saved many of these orig…

What is the story behind a place known as 'The Colonel's Field' near to the Somme village of Flers? In this episode, we link Picardy with Yorkshire and follow the story of an English Earl and a Batta…

Rudyard Kipling called the cemeteries of the Great War 'Silent Cities', these vast cities of stone where the dead of that conflict lay. What is the background and history of these cemeteries, what ha…

In this latest Trench Chat we talk to historian and author John Broom about his new book Reported Missing in the Great War which will be published by Pen & Sword Books in October 2020. John tells us …

The war poet Siegfried Sassoon referred to the Missing of the First World War as 'nameless names'. Who were the Missing, what was their fate, how were they commemorated, and is it a story lost in the…

In this episode, we walk the fields that link together an English composer, a Canadian who was one of three from the same street to be awarded the Victoria Cross, a black cat that went into battle in…

On the slopes of the Messines Ridge, Croonaert Wood (or Bayernwald as the Germans called it) was one of the places connected to Adolf Hitler's story in the Great War. We uncover his connection to the…

Why is the Geology of the First World War so important? In this latest Trench Chat, we are joined by Professor Peter Doyle to discuss landscape and memory, and how the geology of Mud, Chalk, and Rock…

In this episode, we are back on the Somme and follow in the footsteps of Canadian soldiers who fought at Courcelette in 1916. On this tiny battlefield, more than 6,000 Canadians went missing; we hear…

In this episode, we follow a route to the front line used by soldiers during the Great War. Starting in Ypres, we walk via Shrapnel Corner, Zillebeke Lake, Zillebeke village, and up to the area beyon…

In this episode, we walk the battlefield at Fricourt on the Somme. It's a walk very much connected to regiments from Yorkshire who fought here on 1st July 1916: the First Day of the Battle of the Som…

In this episode, we explore Tyne Cot Cemetery and Memorial. Tyne Cot, the largest British and Commonwealth war cemetery in the world, stands on a ridge in Flanders facing the city of Ypres. We look a…

This weeks episode was recorded a few weeks ago whilst on the battlefields of Flanders, and in it, we visit a small cemetery in the fields near Boesinghe, remember a son's visit to his father's grave…

In this latest 'Trench Chat' we speak to military historian and author Richard Van Emden about his time interviewing veterans of the Great War, and personal photographs taken by soldiers with their o…

What does Passchendaele mean to us, more than a century later? In this episode, we walk an iconic battlefield of the Great War, the ground where the final phase of the Third Battle of Ypres occurred.…

For the first of our Trench Chats, we are joined by Battlefield Guide Tim Thurlow to talk about his many years of walking the Somme battlefields, discuss some of the amazing things he has found on hi…

In this episode, we are once more on the Somme and take a visit to the Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont-Hamel, a unique area of preserved First World War battlefield where the Newfoundland Regi…