Episodes
Published 12/25/18
In an omnibus edition of selected programmes from the final series, Dan Snow looks at some of the key events of 1918, from the German Spring Offensive in March, to the impact that the arrival of massed American troops had on the war. In interviews recorded by the BBC and the Imperial War Museums, those who were there recall the devastation caused by the Spanish Flu epidemic from May onwards, and the rapid advances made in the autumn as the Germans retreated. Finally Dan looks at the closing...
Published 12/25/18
Dan Snow presents the final episode of Voices of the First World War, veterans recall what they were doing when the armistice took effect at 11 o'clock on 11th November 1918, and how they felt now the end of the war had at last arrived. Alongside relief, disbelief, and celebrations, there was also an empty feeling, and a looming question that seemed to trouble many of them: what were they going to do now? Presented by Dan Snow Produced by Megan Jones for BBC Wales
Published 11/09/18
Dan Snow hears accounts of those who witnessed the restlessness, disorder and eventual mutiny of the sailors of the German High Seas Fleet in early November 1918, and recollections of one of the most remarkable sights in British Naval history, 10 days after the Armistice. The German Fleet, as a condition of the Armistice, surrendered to the Allies, and arrived in the Firth of Forth on the 21st. Members of the British Grand Fleet, some privileged to be above deck, some peeking through port...
Published 11/08/18
'Green fields, no barbed wire, nothing…'. Those who were there recall what it felt like to be advancing at last in the autumn of 1918, after years of stalemate. After a series of assaults on the Hindenburg line, the vast system of German trenches, many remember excitement as they advanced so far they lost contact with their command. But there were pockets of fierce resistance, and an eerie feeling as they set about reclaiming abandoned villages where snipers and booby traps might lie in...
Published 11/07/18
In August 1918 after years of disappointment, bloodshed and stalemate, Allied troops launched a surprise overwhelming attack on the German Army - a short, four day battle in which the Allied forces advanced 12 miles, more than the total advance of the Somme and Passchendaele offensives combined. Veterans recall how they did it. Presented by Dan Snow Produced by Megan Jones for BBC Wales
Published 11/06/18
Across 50 programmes, in a major series throughout the commemorative period, Voices of the First World War has been tracking the story of the war through archive interviews with those who experienced it, year by year. Presented by Dan Snow, the programmes have featured recollections recorded by the BBC for the Great War series in 1964, and by the Imperial War Museums for their oral history collection in the 1970s and 80s. Speakers recall in great detail, as though it were yesterday, the...
Published 11/05/18
Dan Snow hears the recollections of US soldiers who were sent to fight in France in 1918, and looks at the reactions of British and German soldiers to their arrival. They had received formidable physical training, but were naturally regarded as naïve by the battle-hardened 'old sweats' who'd served on the front for several years. But at the Battle of Bellau Wood, the Americans fought as tenaciously as any veteran unit, and helped to turn the tide of the war.
Published 04/06/18
It was a tragedy beyond comprehension. Soldiers who had survived the trenches, civilians who had weathered shortages and bombardment, now faced a new enemy: influenza. The virus tore through societies already weakened by war in 1918. According to one British nurse who recorded an interview with the Imperial War Museum, 'the mortuaries were so full we had the patients lying one on top of the other'. Dan Snow hears the accounts of those who survived it, from those in the front line and Prisoner...
Published 04/05/18
Oral History tells a very different story to the propaganda of contemporary accounts when it comes to the state of morale in 1918. On the British side, the army that had sailed to Europe with a roar in 1914 now moved through a shattered landscape with a whisper. Across Europe, units, armies, even societies were under intolerable strain. But the front line needed reinforcements, so the system continued: young men were given new uniforms and rifles and sent to training depots. Dan Snow hears...
Published 04/04/18
Dan Snow looks at the war in the air in the first months of 1918, when a pilot's expertise began to matter less than an aircraft's bombing capabilities. Airmen recall that most of the great flying aces had been lost by this point. In April, the most feared of them was shot down: the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen. There's a tone of respect which runs through the officers' testimonies, whether German or British. The return of the major series tracking the development of the First World...
Published 04/03/18
The return of the major series tracking the development of the First World War, presented by Dan Snow. After 40 episodes looking at the war through interviews in the sound archives of the IWM and the BBC with those who experienced it, this week's five programmes explore the beginning of the end: the first months of 1918. The year didn't begin well for the British. After a few months of relative quiet over the winter, British soldiers experienced the massive onslaught of the first German...
Published 04/02/18
An omnibus edition of five episodes of Voices of the First World War, spanning the course of the war from 1914 to 1917. Narrated by Dan Snow, this edition begins with the Christmas Truce of 1914, when German and British troops mingled and played football in No Man's Land on the Western Front. Veterans recall the war as they remember it - from how they survived the nights in the trenches, to what they got up to behind the lines. Conscientious objectors and family members speak about their...
Published 12/25/17
William Towers describes his experiences as a seriously wounded soldier in the autumn of 1917, when his life was threatened as much by the primitive medical practices of the Western Front, as by the shrapnel that hit him. From his injury, to his treatment in an underground hospital and at the Etaples military camp, to his eventual recovery after evacuation to Britain, Towers speaks movingly of the role of resilience, love and luck in his journey back home, and back to health.
Published 12/15/17
Members of the Tank Corps describe the excitement and rapid gains of the first day of the Battle of Cambrai, where new tactics and new technology helped the British to achieve that most elusive of advantages: surprise. After the mud-choked misery of Passchendaele, Cambrai was the first sign that an end to the stalemate of trench warfare was possible, and proved that the British could break through the strongest of defences - the German Hindenburg line. With Dan Snow.
Published 12/14/17
Among the recordings made for the BBC's landmark series 'The Great War' in the early 1960s, one in particular stands out. John Palmer, a British Gunner who served as a signaller from 1914 onwards on the Western Front, admitted to being at his lowest ebb by November 1917. Towards the end of his time in Flanders fields, he admitted considering a self-inflicted wound to get out of Passchendaele, and the apocalyptic landscape he was crawling around in night after night. Finally, on his last night...
Published 12/13/17
Dan Snow, surveying the landscape around Ypres, hears the recollections of veterans of the Third Battle of Ypres, and maps their painfully slow progress eastwards. As the front line crept towards the ruins of the village of Passchendaele, the men renamed the few landmarks around them to reflect their experience of the place - from Hellfire Corner to Vicious Crossroads. As they advanced, in a series of local battles, the men were afforded little or no shelter, apart from abandoned German...
Published 12/12/17
The return of the major series tracking the development of the First World War through the sound archives of the Imperial War Museums and the BBC. The name Ypres has become shorthand for the most hellish conditions imaginable. In this week's programmes, looking at the events of autumn 1917 through interviews with those who experienced it, we come to the war's darkest days. As they inched their way towards Passchendaele from July to November 1917, men witnessed scenes that would stay...
Published 12/11/17
In the first five programmes looking at 1917, Dan Snow explores the events of the year through the recollections of those who were there. As the fighting became more and more desperate, in the air, on the Western Front - even below ground in extensive mining operations - the morale of those being sent into battle was at times becoming dangerously low. Morale was never worse in the Royal Flying Corps than in spring 1917, which became known as 'Bloody April'. Germany had the upper hand at this...
Published 07/28/17
There are conflicting versions of events when it comes to the British mutiny at Etaples in September 1917, from the soldiers who took part in it, to the military policeman who witnessed it. They tell their stories, along with Officer Jim Davies, who was ordered to help put the mutiny down, at the centre of the action on the bridge between the army camp and the town. With Dan Snow and Peter Hart.
Published 07/19/17
Soldiers and officers speak about the issue of rank and class in the British Army of 1917, by which time many ex-public school officers had been wiped out. With Dan Snow.
Published 07/12/17
Reaching 1917, Dan Snow explores the events of the year through the recollections of those who were there. As the fighting became more and more desperate, in the air, on the Western Front - even below ground in extensive mining operations - the morale of those being sent into battle was at times becoming dangerously low. In archive interviews survivors of the war recall their role in the attack on Messines Ridge in June 1917, which began with the devastating use of more than 20 huge mines,...
Published 07/05/17
Dan Snow presents the story of WWI through the voices of those who were there.
Published 06/28/17
The return of the major series tracking the development of the First World War through the archives of the Imperial War Museums and the BBC. Reaching 1917, Dan Snow explores the events of the year through the recollections of those who were there. As the fighting became more and more desperate, in the air, on the Western Front - even below ground in extensive mining operations - the morale of those being sent into battle was at times becoming dangerously low. Morale was never worse in the...
Published 06/21/17
Dan Snow tracks the development of the First World War through the recollections of those who were there. Drawing on the sound archives of the IWM and the BBC, in this omnibus edition of five programmes looking at the course of the war in 1916, interviewees recall the impact of the Battle of the Somme on Sheffield, through the recollections of a soldier who fought with the Sheffield City Battalion and two people who were schoolchildren at the time. They recall the lists of dead in the...
Published 11/18/16