The Old Front Line

Returning to the History of the First World War we find on our doorsteps, we visit Shorncliffe in Kent to record an episode onsite. Here during the Great War were an Army Garrison, along with a major…

In this episode we look at so-called 'War Damage Postcards' published during the conflict and which depicts the smashed villages, towns and cities, and indeed landscapes of the Western Front. We ask …

In this latest Despatches we discuss the passing of author Martin Middlebrook, and look back to another Great War icon, perhaps lesser known, John Giles. John founded the Western Front Association in…

While the Great War was still on the British Government decided to produce a Next of Kin Memorial Plaque for all those who had died while on service in the conflict, which read 'He Died For Freedom a…

A staggering 12 million letters were going to and from the Western Front during the Great War. What was the history of the Royal Engineers Postal Section, how did letters and parcels get to troops in…

In our first podcast of 2024 we return to Flanders to look at some of the history behind the original burials at Tyne Cot Cemetery near Ypres, the largest British and Commonwealth cemetery from eithe…

In this special episode of Despatches we look at two Christmases on the Somme: 1915 and 1916. We do this through the experience of men from southern England who served with the 18th (Eastern) Divisio…

In this latest edition of Despatches we look at the phenomena of Battlefield Pilgrimages which began almost as soon as the Great War ended and continued throughout the 1920s and 30s. What were they? …

In our final main episode of 2023 we travel to the Somme battlefields and visit one of the most iconic parts of the 1916 landscape - the fields where the infamous Schwaben Redoubt once stood near the…

Despatches goes on the road, and this episode was recorded on location in Flanders. We visit Coxyde Military Cemetery, a British and Commonwealth cemetery from when these troops held the line on the …

Bandaghem, Dozinghem and Mendinghem were three made-up names for British Casualty Clearing Stations locations in Flanders, reflecting their use for the wounded: Bandaging Them, Dosing Them Up and Men…

In this latest episode of Despatches we think about First World War Trench Museums: a battlefield phenomena from the 1920s when thousands of 'pilgrims' travelled to the landscape of the Western Front…

The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery is the largest US War Cemetery in Europe with over 14,000 graves. We walk the battlefields here from Cunel to the cemetery, and down into Romagne village to visit …

Welcome to Despatches, a new short-form podcast from The Old Front Line. These new shorter Pods will look at some specific aspects of the Great War and the landscape of the battlefields of the First …

In this episode we look at the War at Sea in the Great War for the first time and are joined by historian Rebecca Clarke to discuss her book on the fate of HMS India and her crew, following the loss …

In this episode we return to the Arras battlefields in Northern France and walk to the village of Gavrelle where the men of the Royal Naval Division fought in 1917, and discover the fields where the …

In this episode for Armistice Day we look at those who survived the Great War and came home to write about in a series of memoirs which were published from the 1920s until more recent times as that g…

In this latest Trench Chat we are joined by author and historian Richard Van Emden to discuss his new book 'Volunteers' about the men who enlisted as volunteers in the British Army during the early y…

After moving house, and nearly three hundred miles with the Old Front Line archives and library, we return from a new location, new ideas for the podcast and shifting hundreds of Great War books has …

In this special Trench Chat we bring together four Great War Podcasters: I was so very happy and honoured to be joined by Mike Cunha, Matt Dixon and Terry Whenham. We discuss what podcasting is all a…