Explore every episode of the podcast The Old Front Line
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| West of Arras: Behind The Lines | 08 Nov 2025 | 01:06:06 | |
We travel to the area Behind the Lines of West of Arras, visiting cemeteries where Casualty Clearing Stations were moved back to in 1918, discuss a small village where WW1 meets WW2, discover some original Great War graffiti on a farm building wall and visit on the of the most important Arras cemeteries covering all four years of the fighting and seeing the grave of Canada's most decorated ordinary soldier. Pte Claude Nunney VC DCM MM: Claude Nunney website. Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin. You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast. | |||
| Questions and Answers Episode 39 | 01 Nov 2025 | 00:40:10 | |
In this episode we ask what is the current size of the 'Zone Rouge' and are there plans to clear it? We then look at the use of morphine to treat pain and was this misused? We then look at when Steel Helmets were first issued to British and Canadian troops, and end by asking what WW1 slang words are still in use today? The Old Front Line on YouTube: Old Front Line Channel. The OFL episode about the Zone Rouge: The Myth of the Zone Rouge. Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin. You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast. | |||
| Bonus Episode: A Siege Battery Gunner | 30 Aug 2025 | 00:29:40 | |
In this second Bonus Episode to end Season 8 of the podcast we look at the subject of Great War veterans and in particular Malcolm Vyvyan who served as a Siege Battery officer in the Royal Garrison Artillery on the Somme, Arras and Flanders, and was awarded the Military Cross in 1917. Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast. | |||
| Despatches: WW1 Trench Museums | 06 Dec 2023 | 00:21:18 | |
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. We look at some of the famous, and less famous Trench Museums and some that no longer exist. What do they tell us about the experience of trench warfare? | |||
| Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery | 02 Dec 2023 | 00:53:52 | |
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 an amazing private museum. Along the way we discuss the history and ask why such a place receives so few American visitors? Romagne 14-18 Museum: website of Romagne 14-18 Museum. American Battle Monuments Commission website: ABMC website. | |||
| Despatches: The Butte de Warlencourt | 29 Nov 2023 | 00:16:29 | |
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 World War. They will be published in addition to the regular episodes. | |||
| War at Sea: HMS India | 25 Nov 2023 | 00:47:30 | |
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 of the ship to a German U-Boat in August 1915. The men spent the rest of the war interned in neutral Norway and we discover the fascinating stories behind their experience there. Rebecca Clarke's website: HMS India website. | |||
| Walking Arras: Gavrelle | 18 Nov 2023 | 01:16:51 | |
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 Royal Marines lost more men in a single days fighting than on any other in their entire history. | |||
| Memoirs: The Great War Remembered | 11 Nov 2023 | 01:16:00 | |
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 generation faded away. We look at Officer's Memoirs and ask why there are fewer memoirs by ordinary soldiers? | |||
| Volunteers in WW1 with Richard Van Emden | 04 Nov 2023 | 00:46:56 | |
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 years of the Great War in 1914/15. | |||
| Return of The Old Front Line | 28 Oct 2023 | 00:41:21 | |
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 prompted some thoughts from the past, from authors to Great War veterans. | |||
| Podcasting About the Great War | 07 Oct 2023 | 01:15:07 | |
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 about and what we think the subject brings to this medium, and go off on plenty of tangents too! | |||
| Somme Mine Craters with Peter Doyle | 30 Sep 2023 | 00:54:36 | |
In this latest Trench Chat we speak to Professor Peter Doyle about his current research on the mine craters of the Somme battlefields. We learn how were these craters formed, what their wartime story was, and what do they mean in relation to the landscape of the Western Front today? | |||
| Bonus Episode: A Divisional Memorial | 23 Aug 2025 | 00:26:10 | |
In the first of three Bonus Episodes of the podcast to end Season 8, we travel to Fricourt on the Somme and examine the journey to unveil a memorial to the 17th (Northern) Division in the church there in July 1938, just over a year before the outbreak of a Second World War. Who made that pilgrimage to Picardy, and what does it tell us about the experience of the Great War? The image used for this episode shows men of the 17th (Northern) Division on the steps of a captured German dugout at Fricourt in July 1916. The image was taken by Ernest Brookes. (IWM Q 814). Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast. We now have a shop for Old Front Line Merch: Old Front Line shop. | |||
| Walking Arras: Hénin Hill | 23 Sep 2023 | 00:55:16 | |
On a hill above the village of Hénin, close to Arras, stood a wooden cross remembering soldiers of the 64th Brigade who fell there in 1917. Preserved at Beverley Minster in Yorkshire, what happened to this memorial, and what can we find of the men who fought here at Hénin Hill in 1917? | |||
| Charley's War | 16 Sep 2023 | 01:06:04 | |
Charley's War was a comic strip published in the late 1970s and early 1980s telling the story of Charley Bourne, a 16 year old Tommy on the front line of the Great War. What does it tell us about the conflict, and what impact does it have on our understanding of the subject? | |||
| Season 5 Old Front Line Roundup | 26 Aug 2023 | 00:50:46 | |
In this episode we look back over Season 5, discuss some of the subjects we have spoken about during the past few months, explain how the podcast is planned and made, and look ahead to Season 6. Along the way we also have a few Great War stories. The podcast returns for the next Season in September. | |||
| Somme: Contalmaison to Bazentin | 19 Aug 2023 | 01:05:24 | |
For the final episode of Season 5 we are back on the Somme. At Contalmaison we discover the story of how the history of Great War football weaves through that village, how a pioneering eye surgeon from Liverpool came to be killed there, and later we uncover the story of the 'Nine Brave Men' at Bazentin. We look at Private Memorials and how Bazentin Wood almost broke the proud volunteers of the 'Leicestershire Pals.' in July 1916 and think once more about the 'Forgotten Somme'. | |||
| Great War Music with Beverley Palin | 12 Aug 2023 | 01:22:18 | |
In this special Trench Chat, we meet historian, re-enactor and professional musician Beverley Palin, and discover the story of two original WW1 instruments she has restored and now plays, and discuss the importance of music to the generation of the Great War. | |||
| Verdun In A Day | 05 Aug 2023 | 01:09:50 | |
In the latest of our series of Battlefields in a Day, we travel to Eastern France and look at the Battlefields around Verdun. Verdun was the longest single battle of the Great War, lasting some 300 days and 300 nights, fought between February and December 1916. More than 770,000 French and German soldiers became casualties in what the Poilus called 'the mincing machine'. Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin. You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast. | |||
| The Pillboxes of Flanders | 29 Jul 2023 | 00:53:22 | |
Concrete bunkers - pillboxes - are an iconic symbol of the Great War, and in this episode we look at the book 'The Pillboxes of Flanders' published in the 1930s, examine their history and use, and then visit some of the surviving examples of bunkers around Ypres. | |||
| Trench Chat: The Caretakers with Caitlin DeAngelis | 15 Jul 2023 | 00:46:04 | |
In this latest Trench Chat we speak to historian and writer Caitlin DeAngelis who has just finished a fascinating new book 'The Caretakers: War Graves Gardeners and the Secret Battle to Rescue Allied Airman in World War II'. We discuss her research for the book, look at the community of War Graves gardeners that existed on the battlefields in the late 1930s and what happened to them when war swept across Northern France. The book will be released in January 2024. | |||
| From Training to Trenches | 08 Jul 2023 | 01:05:12 | |
In this episode we look at how British soldiers joined the army, either before the war or when the New Army of volunteers was created in 1914, what their training and preparation for war consisted of, and what their route to the trenches was. | |||
| First Day Of The Somme | 01 Jul 2023 | 01:18:47 | |
On the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, we take a virtual walk along all eighteen miles of the Somme front from Gommecourt to Montauban, connecting to the landscape and discovering the stories of those who fought and fell on 1st July 1916: the First Day of the Somme. We also examine the casualties that day and ask where they are buried and commemorated. | |||
| RFC/RAF: Where They Flew & Fell | 16 Aug 2025 | 00:46:44 | |
In the final episode of our Air War series we travel across the landscape of the First World War and discover what we can find that connects us to the story of the Royal Flying Corps and RAF in WW1, from memorials to cemeteries and sites of former aerodromes. Along the way we examine the stories of some of the Aces from James McCudden VC to Manfred Von Richthofen - The Red Baron - to Bob Little from Australia and Major Lanoe Hawker VC, before seeing the battlefields where Albert Ball VC's war ended and the fields where Mick Mannock VC crashed in 1918. We end at the Air Services Memorial at Arras which commemorates nearly a thousand British and Commonwealth aviators of the First World War. Mike O'Connor 'Airfields and Airmen' books published by Pen & Sword:
Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast. | |||
| The Monocled Mutineer: Fact or Fiction? | 24 Jun 2023 | 01:01:34 | |
In 1986 the BBC Drama 'The Monocled Mutineer' was released, starring Paul McGann who plays Percy Toplis. In this episode, we look at the series and ask what is the truth behind Toplis and the claim that he dressed as an officer and took part in the Etaples Mutiny? We also ask how realistic the series was in depicting various aspects of the Great War. | |||
| Gas! Gas! Gas! | 10 Jun 2023 | 01:11:51 | |
In this episode we look at a weapon that came to symbolise the First World War - Poison Gas. We look at the history behind its use, the story of the 'Birth of Chemical Warfare' at Ypres in April 1915 and what measures were made to protect soldiers against the gas, as well seeing what can be found of this history on the battlefield today. Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin. You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast. | |||
| Ypres Walks: Menin Gate to Ypres Town Cemetery | 03 Jun 2023 | 01:01:38 | |
In this episode recorded in Ypres, we look at the renovations at the Menin Gate Memorial, discuss what Memorials to the Missing mean to us, and then walk to Ypres Town Cemetery following the stories of English Lords, members of the Royal Family, and seeing how the graves themselves are witnesses to the Great War. | |||
| Somme Walks: Hawthorn Ridge to the Sunken Lane | 20 May 2023 | 00:38:20 | |
In another episode recorded on the battlefields, we walk the crest of the Hawthorn Ridge near Beaumont-Hamel on the Somme, visiting Hawthorn No 1 Cemetery, across to the Hawthorn Mine Crater, and down to the famous Sunken Lane and Beaumont-Hamel British Cemetery. | |||
| Changing Landscapes: Canal du Nord | 13 May 2023 | 01:00:17 | |
A massive engineering project has been announced for Northern France which will create a new 'super canal' linking in with the existing Canal du Nord, the scene of heavy fighting during the Great War, especially in 1917/18. In this episode we will look at the history of the canal, the fighting there and how this project may change the landscape of the Western Front in this region, and what might be found during the work. | |||
| Somme Walks: Bois Français | 06 May 2023 | 00:29:50 | |
Recorded on the battlefields, in this episode we walk the ground where poets Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Bois Français near Fricourt and end at the Devonshire Cemetery near Mametz. | |||
| Trench Chat: Black Poppies with Stephen Bourne | 22 Apr 2023 | 00:56:26 | |
In this latest Trench Chat, we are joined by Stephen Bourne, author of Black Poppies. His important book, now in its third edition with a children's version, tells the often-neglected contribution of Black soldiers in the British and Commonwealth forces in the Great War. Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin. You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast. | |||
| Springboks at Delville Wood | 15 Apr 2023 | 00:59:19 | |
In the summer of 1916 men of the South African Brigade marched into Delville Wood. After six days of fighting, less than a third of them returned from among the shattered trees of "Devil's Wood". Who were the Springboks of the South African Brigade and what can we find of them on the Somme today? | |||
| Forgotten Battlefield: The Reunion | 01 Apr 2023 | 01:09:13 | |
More than twenty years after the BBC made a film about the work of 'The Diggers' called 'Forgotten Battlefield', in this special edition of the podcast we bring together three of us connected to the film - Aurel Sercu from the Diggers, BBC Producer John Hayes Fisher and me, Military Historian Paul Reed. We look back on the work the group did, the making of the film in 2001, and what happened with the film was released the following year. | |||
| Verdun: The Trench of Bayonets | 18 Mar 2023 | 00:51:11 | |
In December 1920 a large concrete shelter financed by an American millionaire marked the spot where French soldiers had fallen in one of the many small actions around Verdun in 1916. The story of the Trench of Bayonets was born, but what is the real story behind this episode of the Great War, and the memorial that still marks the spot? | |||
| Questions & Answers: RFC/RAF Special | 09 Aug 2025 | 00:49:33 | |
In this special and extended QnA Episode we look at Parachutes in the Air Services in WW1, the Ground Crew who kept the planes in the air, what are the best RFC/RAF memoirs of WW1, how the filming of the Red Baron's funeral was received, and how men applied for transfers to the Air Services and what was the selection process for Pilots and Observers. Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast. We now have a shop for Old Front Line Merch: Old Front Line shop. | |||
| The Hindenburg Line | 04 Mar 2023 | 01:06:59 | |
In this episode we ask: what was The Hindenburg Line? A system of German defences built in Northern and Eastern France, it was the largest single engineering project of the Great War on the Western Front. Some of the key battles of 1917/18 were fought along it, and we look at the background to these important First World War fortifications. | |||
| Ypres: The Immortal Salient | 25 Feb 2023 | 01:12:56 | |
In this episode we look at the four years of the Great War in Flanders and the battles around the city of Ypres, in what became known as the 'Immortal Salient'. What was the Ypres Salient, what was its meaning and what does it still mean to us more than a century later? Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin. You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast. | |||
| Trench Chat: Reclaiming The Salient with Roger Steward | 11 Feb 2023 | 00:48:32 | |
In this Trench Chat, we are joined by Roger Steward who works as a Battlefield Guide in Flanders, and is the author of an excellent book on Langemarck German Cemetery and a new one 'Reclaiming the Salient' about the battlefields around Ypres in the years following WW1. We look at the problems of the 'Iron Harvest', the recovery of the dead, and modern battlefield archaeology. | |||
| Birds on the Western Front | 04 Feb 2023 | 01:07:51 | |
In this episode, we look at the birds which flew above and lived across the battlefields of the Western Front during the First World War, and what they meant to the men who served in the trenches of France and Flanders. We also look at how birds did their bit in the war, too, how the battlefield conditions affected them, and discuss ways we can connect this subject to what we see on the Great War landscape today. | |||
| WW1 Battlefield Pilgrimages: Trench Chat with Professor Mark Connelly | 21 Jan 2023 | 00:53:34 | |
In a Trench Chat special we are joined by Professor Mark Connelly of the University of Kent to discuss the post-war Pilgrimages to the Great War Battlefields, and his new work on the postcards, ephemera and guidebooks that came out of this period. | |||
| Doughboys in Flanders | 14 Jan 2023 | 00:59:16 | |
In this episode we look at the men of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) who fought in Flanders, from Ypres to the Scheldt River, in 1918. What were American troops doing in Belgium away from the main US sector and what remains of their battlefields more than a century later? Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast. | |||
| The Art of War | 07 Jan 2023 | 01:02:04 | |
What can War Art and the work of Official War Artists tell us about the experience of the Great War and the landscape of the Western Front? We examine this through the work of three war artists: John Nash, CRW Nevinson, and Paul Nash. | |||
| Winter on the Somme | 24 Dec 2022 | 00:56:32 | |
We look at three winters on the Somme front: from 1914 to 1916. We discuss Christmas Truces involving the French and Germans, and later when the British arrive, discuss the terrible sub-zero conditions of 1916, and look at the problem of Trench Foot, particularly amongst Australian troops faced with the harsh reality of Somme mud. Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin. You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast. | |||
| Gallipoli: The Farm | 17 Dec 2022 | 00:48:20 | |
Who was Harry Moseley? In this episode we ask: can one man's life be more important than another? Our journey takes us from the Helles Memorial, and the Missing of the Gallipoli Campaign, up to the high ground at Chunuk Bair and a walk to the isolated cemetery at The Farm, uncovering the life and achievements of one of Britain's greatest Edwardian scientists. | |||
| Five Little-Known WW1 Memorials | 10 Dec 2022 | 00:59:35 | |
In this episode we explore five little-known memorials along the Western Front battlefields in France and Flanders, looking at how different nations commemorated the battles of the Great War, and what they chose to remember. | |||
| The Air War in WW1 - with Josh Levine | 02 Aug 2025 | 00:58:28 | |
In the second of our special interviews for the War in the Air series, we are joined by historian and broadcaster Josh Levine to discuss the war in the air in WW1, based on his best-selling book On A Wing and A Prayer. Josh's book 'On A Wing and A Prayer' is now published in paperback at Fighter Heroes of WW1 ( Harper Collins 2011) Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin. Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast. We now have a shop for Old Front Line Merch: Old Front Line shop. | |||
| How I Wrote my WW1 Battlefield Walking Books | 26 Nov 2022 | 00:37:34 | |
This weekend marks History Writers Day, a new venture from Simon at History Book Chat on Twitter. As part of my contribution to the event, in this episode I talk about how I came to write my trilogy of WW1 Battlefield Walking Guides covering the Somme, Ypres and Arras. | |||
| Trench Chat: America in WW1 with Mike Cunha | 19 Nov 2022 | 00:58:19 | |
In this latest Trench Chat we are joined by Mike Cunha of the Battles of the First World War Podcast to talk about his interest in the Great War and the wider aspect of American involvement in the conflict and how it is remembered there today. We also discuss the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and Mike's recent visit to the battlefields. | |||
| Remembrance: Five Little-Known Cemeteries of the Great War | 12 Nov 2022 | 00:57:05 | |
In this episode we travel along The Old Front Line in France and Flanders to visit five lesser-known war cemeteries from different nations where the dead of the Great War lie, some with only a handful of graves and others with thousands of burials. We visit: Nécropole Nationale de la 28ème Brigade (La Ferme de Wacques), Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Noyelles-sur-Mer Chinese Cemetery, Vladslo German Cemetery and Guizancourt Farm Cemetery near Gouy. | |||