The Old Front Line

We return to the 'Forgotten Front' in Northern France where the British operations on the Western Front took place in 1915, and there were long periods of static trench warfare. Here we visit the sit…

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 …

Christmas Day in 1914 - a day we more commonly associate with a Christmas Truce between the British and Germans. Who died and where, and how many? 

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In a special Trench Chat, we are joined by Matt Dixon, host of the Footsteps of the Fallen Podcast. We talk about Matt's interest in the Great War, what led him to produce the podcast and the books h…

In this episode, we go 'off the beaten track' at Vimy Ridge and look at two unusual cemeteries on the battlefield here - Lichfield and Zivy Crater Cemeteries - where the Canadians buried their dead i…

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 …

In this episode, we return to Flanders, and walk from the Lille Gate on the edge of the city of Ypres via 'Shrapnel Corner' to Bedford House Cemetery, one of the largest in this area and laid out in …

In the second of our episodes recorded while on a Leger Battlefield Tour, we travel to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Experience at Arras and then down to the Somme battlefields to see the Lo…

In an episode released between Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday, we pause to Remember. We reflect on the veterans back in the 80s and 90s, and think about what visiting the battlefields of the Gr…

In this episode after so many months away from The Old Front Line we return to Flanders with a Leger Battlefield Tour group on a trip along the Western Front. We visit Tyne Cot, walk the trenches at …

In this episode, we are behind the lines on the Somme, in the village of Englebelmer. We look at life behind the front on the Somme, discover what remains from 1916, and follow a journey many soldier…

In this episode, we travel away from the Western Front to Gallipoli. Here there are thirty-one British and Commonwealth cemeteries on the Gallipoli Penninsula, and we visit some on the beaches and ot…

In this episode we walk from the village of Wytschaete ('Whitesheet' to the soldiers), along part of the Messines Ridge, scene of fighting in 1917, and visit three small battlefield cemeteries, refle…

With the Great War battlefields still seeming far away, this week we travel to a picturesque church in Somerset to look at memorials to men bound together by family, sacrifice and duty, and in the ch…

After the Great War, more than half a million casualties had marked graves. A decision was made to mark them permanently with headstones and allow the families of the fallen a chance to add their own…

In this episode, we follow the story of the Southdowns Battalions of the Royal Sussex, "Lowther's Lambs"; often seen as the nearest Sussex had to Pals Battalions. We look at their story from their fo…

Continuing with our look at the 105th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, we examine the fighting on 15th September 1916, the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, when tanks were used for the first time …

More than 300 British and Commonwealth soldiers were executed 'for the sake of example' during the First World War, for crimes from desertion to striking a superior officer. In this episode, we look …

After the fighting at Mametz on 1st July 1916, the Devonshire Regiment buried their dead in an old disused trench among the trees of Mansel Copse. Here the 'Devonshires Held This Trench, The Devonshi…

In the final episode of Season 2, we look back at this season's podcasts and ahead to the future of The Old Front Line, and then travel to Belgium, to examine some of the opening shots of the war at …