In this episode, we visit the battlefield of Le Cateau.  In August 1914 Horace Smith-Dorrien's II Corps stood and fought when they had been ordered to retreat.  This disobedience delayed the Germans and has been described by one military historian as being "the battle that saved the BEF". Sir John French later used Smith-Dorrien's insubordination as a tool to dismiss him.  What happened that day? We look at the battle itself and then take a journey around the battlefield to visit some of the...

Between the 8-13th of May 1915, the Germans attempted to smash their way through the British lines in the Ypres salient launching an attack against the Frezenberg Ridge. The British were subjected to an artillery bombardment of a ferocity never seen before and suffered over 8,000 casualties in defending the ridge. Our journey begins at the Menin Gate where we discover the works of one of the lesser-known poets of the Great War before we look at the ebb and flow of the battle.  We hear...

Standing at Hyde Park Corner in London, the Royal Artillery Memorial has been cited by one art critic as the finest work of sculpture of the 20th Century.  Its creator, Charles Sergeant Jagger, was once described by Auguste Rodin as "The Master". Who was Charles Jagger? In this episode, we look at one of the finest sculptors of the human form to have lived, his work including the RA Memorial and his incredible piece which stands on Platform 1 at Paddington Station commemorating the dead of...

Our journey today begins at Berkshire Cemetery Extension near Ploegsteert Wood, home of a stunning memorial to the missing, and two magnificent stone lions guarding the entrance in allegorical perfection.  We hear the story of a short-sighted 2nd Lt whose father pulled strings to get his son a commission and look at the tragic death of a New Zealand chemist who lies buried in the cemetery. But it's the graves in Plots II and III that grab our attention.  The 457 men who lie buried in these...

Welcome to Season 6! My wife went away with the kids and instructed me not to anything rash while she was away. So I got on a ferry and went to the Somme.... In this episode, recorded on the Somme battlefields we travel from Fricourt to Mametz via Flatiron Copse and visit some of the cemeteries and memorials on this beautiful part of the Somme battlefield. Support the podcast: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/footstepsblog https://www.patreon.com/footstepsofthefallen

Welcome to the final episode of Season 5! In today's episode, we look at the 3rd Battle of Ypres, more commonly, but incorrectly, referred to as the Battle of Passchendaele.  A campaign flawed in its inception, and blighted by the weather, when the ridge at Passchendaele was finally captured some ninety-nine days after the offensive began, over 250,000 men had become casualties. We conclude with a visit to Tyne Cot, the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world, and contemplate why...

During the course of WW1 over 34 million maps were produced by the Royal Engineers and the Ordnance Survey.  From primitive beginnings, by the end of the war, the British Army was in possession of the finest and most accurate maps of any of the combatant nations. How did this happen and who were these men? We look at the work of the Field Survey Companies commanded by the meticulous Bovril drinking Major E M Jack, who assembled a crack team of surveyors and cartographers to undertake the...

In this episode, we look at the weapons of war used by men in the trenches.  The standard rifle of Tommy Atkins was the Short Magazine Lee Enfield,  a highly effective rifle, that was deadly in the hands of a trained marksman.  As casualties rose the declining standards of British musketry were a real concern for senior command. At the business end of the rifle was often found the sword bayonet, 12" of honed steel used in close combat with the enemy -what did soldiers really think about this...

In our latest podcast, it's a privilege to be joined by the writer and historian Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris, who wrote the superb book "The Facemaker" about the pioneering WW1 surgeon Dr. Harold Gillies. Gillies was determined to give wounded and disfigured servicemen as normal an appearance as possible and his groundbreaking plastic surgery revolutionized maxillofacial medicine, and developed techniques that are still used to this day. Beautifully written and impeccably researched, The...

Standing at the side of the main road from Bethune to Armentieres, the Le Touret Memorial commemorates over 13,400 men who died on this part of the battlefield between October 1914 and September 1915. In our latest podcast, we discover the stories of the men who are commemorated here including a Private who wasn't, the distant relative of the founder of Georgian England's most salubrious drinking den, discover a family connection to the Queen Mother's rocking horse, and hear about the...

In our latest podcast, we visit the hulking mass of Plugstreet Wood and look at the actions of December 1914 around the German strongpoint known as The Birdcage. Formed of trenches captured from the Worcestershire Regiment and three ruined farm buildings, it was a show-stopper for the men of the Rifle Brigade, Somerset LI and Hampshire Regiment who paid a heavy toll in trying to capture it. We begin with a reminiscence of guiding a remarkable man around Plugstreet Wood, consider why some...

In this latest episode of the podcast, we look at bravery on the battlefield through the stories of six remarkable men. Between them, they won 4 Victoria Crosses, 4 Distinguished Service Orders, 8 Military Crosses, 6 Military Medals, 2 Distinguished Conduct Medals, and 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and were mentioned in despatches no less than 17 times. What does bravery on a battlefield mean, and how does one define the "value" of a particular medal? Support the...

On the 9th May 1915, the British launched an attack on the billiard table flat fields of Artois against the Aubers Ridge.  What was supposed to be a gentle stroll across the Artois countryside,  turned into one of the great military disasters the British suffered during the Great War. As night fell, nearly 11,000 men lay dead or wounded, and the ridge remained firmly in German's hands. The ensuing crisis saw the Government toppled in what became known as the "shell scandal". Support the...

In this episode, it's a real pleasure to be joined by the American writer and former History professor, William Stroock. William's historical interests are many, but his book on the WW1 American general John J "Blackjack" Pershing is a fascinating insight into one of the Great War's most complex and colourful characters. We talk about Pershing's early life and military career, examine whether some of the more disagreeable traits in his character were compatible with Generalship, and...

During the Great War over 16,000 men registered as Conscientious Objectors; men whose conscience wouldn't allow them to take the life of another human.  Ridiculed in the press, humiliated by the Government, and shunned by friends and neighbours, the life of a CO was a lonely one.  An organisation aimed at helping those who objected to war was set up, the No-Conscription Fellowship, which became one of the most powerful anti-war bodies of the time. Our episode begins with looking at the back...

The Gallipoli campaign presents military historians with some of the great "what-ifs" of Great War history, and perhaps nowhere more so than the fighting around Gully Ravine in June 1915. The ravine was a barren strip of land running from the Aegean to within touching distance of the town of Krithia. Flanked by tall spurs on either side, Gully Spur to the North and Fir Tree Spur to the South, the Ravine was the scene of some of the most brutal fighting  of the campaign.  Ghurka Bluff and...

1917 was a difficult year for the Allied high command.  With the British and the French suffering from the exertions of the Somme and Verdun, the French army was in a state of mutiny on the Chemin des Dames,  and the British were bogged down in the hell of Passchendaele. The Spring of 1918 saw the British on the defensive around the city of St Quentin, in a series of eight heavily defended strongpoints called Redoubts.  On the 21st of March, the Germans launched Operation Michael, their last...

In today's podcast we visit one of the forgotten battlefields of the Great War, the tiny farming village of Epehy.  While small in size, it proved a formidable obstacle to be captured as the Allies advanced towards the Hindenburg Line. We look at the origins of the Hindenburg Line and the fighting for villages and copses that the British had to undertake in order to get near to this masterpiece of German military engineering.  We hear about new British tactics involving armoured cars, the...

In our latest episode we visit a group of cemeteries that were attached to the Casualty Clearing Stations and discover the stories of some of the men and women who lie buried within them. Our journey begins at Dozinghem, Bandaghem, and Mendinghem cemeteries in Belgium, where we hear the personal recollections of an American surgeon, and meet a VC winner who was a Lt. Col aged only in his mid-twenties.  We hear the remarkable story behind the award of what is possibly the world's rarest...

In today's podcast, we visit the battlefields of Artois, the scene of so much fighting during the spring and summer of 1915.  It's a battlefield region that provides so much for the battlefield tourist in a very small place.  But, if you haven't visited the battlefields of Artois and only have one day in which to visit some of the key sites, where should you go and what should you see? Beginning at the massive French memorial on the Notre Dame de Lorrette ridge, we head from south to north...

Welcome to our latest podcast, which was recorded live on the streets of London.  In this episode, we travel around the capital to discover the stories behind six memorials, all of which have a connection to the Great War. Some of them are very well known, some of them less so, but they each tell a story of this tumultuous period of social and military history. Please do check out the website for images of all the memorials - www.footstepsofthefallen.com Please support the...

The Great War saw casualties on an industrial scale. The changing face of warfare placed demands on the medical profession like no conflict before or since.  How did medicine adapt to cope with the demands of Great War casualties? We begin at Lijssenthoek Cemetery at the grave of Nurse Nellie Spindler who was killed by shell fire while working at a CCS near Brandhoek, and is the only female buried amongst 10,000 men.  We look at the chain of evacuation, the complex series of medical...

In our latest episode of Trench Talk it's a real pleasure to be joined by illustrator Tim Godden (http://www.timgodden.co.uk) Tim is an artist and illustrator with an instantly recognisable style of cartoon drawings illustrating scenes of life in the trenches and cemeteries of the Great War.  In this wide ranging chat we talk about his career as an artist, his unique style of drawing, his work on the wonderful book Percy, his latest exhibition in Talbot House, and how his love of cycling...

In today's podcast, we visit Croisilles cemetery near Arras to discover the personal stories of some of the men who lie within. Many of the men who lie dead in the cemetery were killed in the actions against the formidable German strongpoint of Tunnel Trench which ran just to the east of the village.  We look at the Sassoon poem "The Rear-guard" which documents his experiences of being underground in the troglodyte kingdom the Germans created.  We hear about two British sappers, found dead...

In today's podcast, we make a welcome return to the battlefields of Gallipoli and look at the fighting at Suvla.  It was a disaster that spelled the end of a disastrous campaign. Ian Hamilton, the commander of the British Mediterranean Force had been dealt a bad hand by the British Government.  Short of trained soldiers and supplies, and forced to fight on a battlefield defended with almost fanatical idealism by Turkish soldiers under the inspirational command of Mustafa Kamal, the campaign...