The Old Front Line

In our latest series of Questions and Answers we cover a wide range of subjects from the use of alcohol and tobacco by soldiers in the war, to visiting battlefields 'beyond the Somme', to how we pres…

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 t…

In the first of our new 'how and why' podcasts we ask a simple question: Why was there Trench Warfare in the First World War? What factors made it possible, where were the first trenches, who dug the…

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…

In this latest Questions & Answers episode we look at how we read the landscape of the Great War, visiting the Sunken Lane at Beaumont Hamel and Talbot House, discuss that remains of RFC/RAF airfield…

In this latest Old Front Line Podcast Questions & Answers Episode we answer four questions from listeners asking what is the most memorable story of the Great War I've visited, what battlefield draws…

In a special edition of the podcast which marks the end of Season 6, this episode was recorded on The Old Front Line where we take a journey from the vast Etaples Military Cemetery, look at the Tank …

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 …

We travel to the familiar landscape of Picardy and visit one part of the 'Forgotten Somme' - the battlefields on the Redan Ridge. Here we see look at the fighting on 1st July 1916 and at the end of t…

At the end of the Great War, vast areas of France were left devastated by the fighting: this became the 'Zone Rouge' or the 'Red Zone'. Reconstruction and recovery of ground brought that Red Zone to …

In the first of our new 'your questions answered' episodes we answer six questions sent in by listeners to the podcast covering subjects like how the army saw itself in the Great War, why the podcast…

The Great War on the Western Front was much more than Flanders and the Somme, and the experience of British and Commonwealth soldiers. When we travel 'Beyond the Somme' - what does that mean, and wha…

On our fourth anniversary of launching The Old Front Line, I look back over the episodes and discuss how the podcast has helped shape and define how I see the landscape of the Great War, helped me fi…

Railways were an essential part of the Great War, and the line which ran from Northern France to Poperinghe and Ypres became the route in and out of the battlefield for millions of men during the con…

In August 1914 a force of more than 55,000 German soldiers descended on the Belgian city of Liege. Protected by a belt of steel and concrete forts, at Fort de Loncin the garrison of 550 men came unde…

We look at two exhibitions in two key institutions that connect us to the history of the Great War: the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres and Imperial War Museum in London. At Ypres we see an exhibi…

In this latest episode of Despatches, we examine an original Trench Map from the Battle of the Somme in 1916, showing the battlefield around the village of Courcelette where the Canadians fought. Wha…