The Old Front Line

26/04/2025

Questions and Answers Episode 28. In this episode we ask were there any 'Thankful Villages' in France where everyone came home, what was 'Camp Elisabeth' at Verdun as visited by Professor Richard Holmes in the 1990s, did Great War soldiers experience any spiritual or paranormal activity on the battlefields and how did the presence of British and Commonwealth soldiers impinge on life behind the lines in France.

In this episode we ask were there any ‘Thankful Villages’ in France where everyone came home, what was ‘Camp Elisabeth’ at Verdun as visited by Professor Richard Holmes in t…

20/04/2025

Walking Ypres: The Lille Gate. In our latest Old Front Line video we travel here and visit Ramparts Cemetery and the Rose Coombs Walk.

Discover the powerful history of the First World War through the story of the Lille Gate in Ypres, one of the key access points to the Ypres Salient. In this...

19/04/2025

Sambre Canal: Lock No 1. In this episode we travel to the last major battlefield of the Great War on the Western Front - the Sambre Canal. Here we follow the story of the infantry and the engineers who attacked the Canal on 4th November 1918, including the 2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment. We also see what remains of the battlefield today.

In this episode we travel to the last major battlefield of the Great War on the Western Front – the Sambre Canal. Here we follow the story of the infantry and the engineers who attacked the C…

14/04/2025

Walking Ypres: The Ramparts. In the latest Old Front Line film we look at what The Ramparts were and what their role was in the Great War.

Recorded in March 2024 while the Menin Gate was still under renovation, in this film we understand what The Ramparts are, and what their role was in the Grea...

12/04/2025

Questions and Answers Episode 27: Our questions and answers in this episode look at what happened to trench systems when they met a road, was the Battle of the Somme a victory, how France remembers the Great War, and the role of the Army Service Corps in the conflict.

Our questions and answers in this episode look at what happened to trench systems when they met a road, was the Battle of the Somme a victory, how France remembers the Great War, and the role of th…

05/04/2025

Ypres: The Menin Road. Continuing our journeys along the roads which crisscross the landscape of the Western Front, we travel to Flanders in Belgium, and take the old Roman road between the city of Ypres and the town of Menin which follows the story of four years of conflict here in the First World War.

Continuing our journeys along the roads which crisscross the landscape of the Western Front, we travel to Flanders in Belgium, and take the old Roman road between the city of Ypres and the town of …

29/03/2025

Questions and Answers Episode 26: This week we discuss the background to the names British soldiers gave their German counterparts - names like Fritz and Bosch - we examine the role Portugal had on the Western Front and discuss where they are memorialised, look out how modern development has changed The Old Front Line and who was Princess Patricia of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry?

This week we discuss the background to the names British soldiers gave their German counterparts – names like Fritz and Bosch – we examine the role Portugal had on the Western Front and…

22/03/2025

Somme: Tara-Usna Hills. In this episode for the fifth anniversary of the Podcast we travel back to the Somme and look at the story behind the naming of Tara and Usna Hills overlooking La Boisselle, and discuss two First World War objects found in a Somme junk sale.

In this episode for the fifth anniversary of the Podcast we travel back to the Somme and look at the story behind the naming of Tara and Usna Hills overlooking La Boisselle, and discuss two First W…

15/03/2025

Questions and Answers Episode 25: In this episode we cover subjects from how the British and Commonwealth soldier named the 'Battle of the Somme' in 1916 to how Irish soldiers on the front line in France thought about the Easter Rising in Dublin in April 1916, to the flooding of the Yser Plain in 1914 and how infantry signallers went over the top in the Great War.

In this episode we cover subjects from how the British and Commonwealth soldier named the ‘Battle of the Somme’ in 1916 to how Irish soldiers on the front line in France thought about t…

08/03/2025

Live From Ypres: Bayernwald Trenches. From a recently recorded livestream on the battlefields of Ypres in Flanders, join us on a walk around the reconstructed First World War trenches in Bayernwald - 'Bavarian Wood' - called Croonaert Wood on the British trench maps.

From a recently recorded livestream on the battlefields of Ypres in Flanders, join us on a walk around the reconstructed First World War trenches in Bayernwald – ‘Bavarian Wood’ &…

01/03/2025

Questions and Answers Episode 24: In the latest Old Front Line podcast, this weeks subjects include how trenches in the First World War got their names, what happened to the pay of Missing soldiers and were men who were Prisoners of War paid at all, why did the Western Front stop at the Swiss border, and what happened to the soldiers and units positioned on the flanks of big attacks and operations?

This weeks subjects include how trenches in the First World War got their names, what happened to the pay of Missing soldiers and were men who were Prisoners of War paid at all, why did the Western…

22/02/2025

Walking Cambrai: Gouzeaucourt 1917. We visit the Hindenburg Line battlefields of 1917 where the Battle of Cambrai was fought. We see the battlefield around Metz-en-Couture, visit the cemetery here and grave of Patrick Shaw-Stewart, and then walk down in Gouzeaucourt seeing a rare British bunker from WW1 and a memorial to the 11th Engineers of the US Army, ending on the high ground where the Welsh Guards counter-attacked in December 1917.

We visit the Hindenburg Line battlefields of 1917 where the Battle of Cambrai was fought. We see the battlefield around Metz-en-Couture, visit the cemetery here and grave of Patrick Shaw-Stewart, a…

17/02/2025

Battlefield Vlog - Cambrai 1917: Gouzeaucourt. In our latest video we look at the 1917 fighting in this area, visit a rare British bunker and discuss the role of Indian Cavalry on The Hindenburg Line.

We travel to the battlefields near Cambrai where the British Army launched a major Tank assault in November 1917, and follow the story through from the advan...

15/02/2025

Questions & Answers Ep 23: Our latest Questions and Answers cover the military importance of Ypres in WW1, the French Cemetery and Memorials at Notre Dame de Lorette in Northern France, weather on the landscape of the Western Front, and the role of Women in the British Army in France and Flanders.

Our latest Questions and Answers cover the military importance of Ypres in WW1, the French Cemetery and Memorials at Notre Dame de Lorette in Northern France, weather on the landscape of the Wester…

08/02/2025

WW1 on Film: Our World War. We look at this BBC Drama series from 2014 and ask a decade on is it still relevant, and what does it tell us about the Great War?

Our World War was a three-part BBC Drama series for the Great War Centenary in 2014 covering the fighting at Mons in 1914, the Somme in 1916 and the Battle of Amiens in 1918. It pioneered a new app…

07/02/2025

Tomorrow on the Old Front Line podcast we return to the subject of WW1 on Film and look at the 2014 BBC Drama Series 'Our World War' and even manage to get PJ Harvey into the conversation.

01/02/2025

Questions and Answers Episode 22: roundup we look at memorials to non-white soldiers, 'battle bars' on British medals, the German 'Blue Max' and whether ordinary soldiers knew about the explosion of the Hawthorn Mine on the Somme.

In our latest round-up of Questions and Answers we look at Memorials to non-white soldiers on the Western Front, whether ‘battle bars’ were ever planned for WW1 British and Commonwealth…

25/01/2025

Somme: Albert-Bapaume Road. In this episode we take a major pathway across the Western Front battlefields - the Albert-Bapaume Road on the Somme, and we discuss what the 'culture' of The Old Front Line might be.

Is there a ‘culture’ surrounding The Old Front Line? One that helps define it and enables us to understand that landscape of the First World War? If so, what is it, and how can we under…