Claim OwnershipTales from the Battlefields
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Podcast telling the unheard stories of men who served on the Western Front during World War 1. Listen to the stories of soldiers told by Terry Whenham, battlefield guide and researcher. I have been researching these stories for over 20 years and can now share incredible experiences of ordinary men and women. Who were these soldiers? How did they die? What is their legacy? How do we remember them?
157 Episodes
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In this episode we travel to the Somme, Ypres and a forgotten battlefield to follow in the footsteps of a British soldier who enlisted under the “Derby Scheme” in December 1915. We discover how he arrived on the Somme battlefield during the final stages of this iconic battle, and was then awarded the Military Medal following an unknown attack in March 1917. We then follow his journey to the Passchendaele battlefield and onto the 1918 German Spring Offensive, where a “Blighty” wound ended his war. But what was the tragedy that Fred and his wife suffered during the 2nd World War?
In this episode we travel to Cambrai and tell the story of this tank attack through the eyes of the soldiers who were there, rather than the history books. We talk to historian Neal Russell about 2 soldiers he discovered in a military cemetery and discover a connection with the son of the British Prime Minister, Raymond Asquith. We follow the stories of 2 British soldiers who died in the battle and discover how a German spy allegedly tried to disrupt the BEF during the German counter offensive. We also discover a young German soldier whose body was found 90 years after his death.
In this episode we continue the story of the 6th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment. We find them in flooded trenches at Fricourt during Christmas 1915, and discover what happened when the Germans carried out a raid on their positions and captured 20 of them. Who were these captured men? What happened to them and why were their trenches undefended? We also follow their preparations for the “Big Push” as they move to a new sector of the battlefield at Carnoy.
In this episode we talk to RAF veteran and writer John Nichol about his book “The Unknown Warrior”. After the hardback version of the book sold so well it has now been published in paperback. We discuss how remembrance has changed over the last 105 years and I read sections of his book following the final journey of the warrior from the battlefield to Westminster Abbey. We also listen to the words of a blinded soldier who was at the ceremony in November 1920. What did it mean to him?
In this episode we look at the struggles of the soldiers who suffered from shell shock. Probably over 250,000 men suffered from ‘shell shock’ as result of the First World War. At the time it was believed to result from a physical injury to the nervous system during a heavy bombardment or shell attack, later it became evident that men who had not been exposed directly to such fire were just as traumatised. We listen to the voices of men who had seen others suffer from this condition, and from some of the soldiers directly affected. And we discover the story of a shell shocked Canadian soldier who murdered a girl in Liverpool.
In this special episode we join The Army Benevolent Fund’s “Frontline Walk” from the Somme to Ypres, via Vimy Ridge. As we follow the fundraisers’ we visit a vast German Cemetery near Arras and hear from a walker whose relative is buried along the route. In Polygon Wood, we find an Australian grave with an emotional family inscription, and follow the route of the Canadians as they cross the Ravebeek in terrible conditions during the Battle of Passchendaele. We end with an emotional interview with Alix Hale, who father Mark was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2009.
In this episode we continue the story of 6th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment as they spend their first few months on the “quiet sector” of the Somme in 1915. We discover who their first casualty was and how the soldiers suffered with the mud and rats of the trenches. And they encounter mine warfare for the first time and the horrors and fear that it created. We also discuss the story of a soldier who divorced his wife who was having an affair with another soldier and find evidence of the close bond that developed between the comrades in the trenches. We end the episode at Christmas 1915. Did another truce take place.
In this episode we look at the very powerful and emotive stories of the children of the men that went off to World War 1 and never returned. How did they cope as young children? What happened to them in their adult lives? We hear from Ellen Elston whose Mother turned the portrait of her Father around because it upset her so much. And who was the WW2 airman who visited his father’s grave when he was 98 years old? How did it affect him? We also listen to the words of Gertrude Harris, who managed to get a pardon for her father who had been Shot at Dawn in 1916. And we discover the tragic story of father and son, mortally wounded just 5 miles apart from each other, 23 years apart and are buried in the same cemetery.
In this episode we commemorate the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Loos by talking to author Nigel Atter about the 8th Lincoln’s experience on the second day of the battle. We discuss how the Germans attacked them before they could go into action and how all of their Officers became casualties. We find out how one Officer was shot in the head, taken prisoner and held in captivity for over 3 years before returning home and resuming his business career. And we look at the claim that the battalion “threw their rifles away and bolted”. And much more too including the tragic story of twin brothers who died on that day.
In this episode we continue the story of Charles Carrington and his memoirs from the Great War. We hear his description of the Somme battlefield in the bitterly cold winter of 1916/17 and the German retreat from the battlefield in the Spring of 1917. We discover what it was like to route march 15 miles in a day and listen to the songs they sang along the way. We visit the grave of Mary Jane Climpson, a Salvation Army volunteer who, along with her husband, served on the Western Front in World War 1 and was killed during the 1940 retreat to Dunkirk.
1In this episode we feature one of the Great War’s war most graphic books. We travel with Charles Carrington as he discovers the broken bodies of enemy dead on the Somme “bursting out of their clothes”. We hear his voice as he describes the first day of the Somme and learn how he felt under an artillery barrage. He describes the Y Sap crater at La Boisselle before being ordered to attack Ovillers in a night action. How did he overcome his fear and anxiety? What did he say to a frightened young boy soldier? And how did he describe the death of several comrades in close quarter fighting?
In this episode we look at the tragic stories of veterans and their families whose love and relationships were torn apart by the soldiers’ experiences in the Great War. We discover the story of the French girl who took her own life after being jilted by a young British Officer. And, back home in Blighty, why did RAMC man Frank Copperwaite murder his wife and then attempt to take his own life? And how did he avoid being executed? We also discover how a British Airman was so traumatised he tried to shoot his sweetheart, and never recovered from his heartbreak.
In this episode we pick up the story of the 6th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment as they leave home and head to the South Coast of England to begin their basic training. Back home in Northampton, we describe what happened when a train load of Belgian refugees arrived. We also meet the Battalion’s first CO, George Ripley, and discover how the men occupied themselves when “at rest”, but got themselves into trouble. And we discover the tragic stories of 2 soldiers who succumb to illness before they even leave the UK.
In this episode we go back to 1932 and discover the story of the people involved in the design and construction of the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission anywhere in the world. We discover what inspired the architect Edwin Lutyens after a battlefield visit in 1917. We also look at the stories of several soldiers commemorated on the memorial, including a dying Sherwood Forester who wrote a heartbreaking letter to his Mum, and the story of a Hampshire Officer who could not pluck up the courage to propose to his girlfriend, until it was too late.
In this episode we begin telling the story of one of “Kitchener’s Army” New Army battalions – 6th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment. During this series we will follow the story of this Battalion, from recruitment and training in 1914, to the Somme in the summer and winter of 1916/17, to Arras, the horrors of Ypres and the German Spring Offensive of 1918. And we will continue their journey on the 100 Day Offensive. In this first episode, we discover who these volunteers were, and visit the barracks where they enlisted and paraded. Their story is told using the soldiers’ own words.
Daddy Dear – I did not see you but Mummy taught me to love you.” In this episode we travel to one of the largest military cemeteries to discover the stories of the men, and one woman, who are buried there. We look at a battlefield pilgrimage from 1923, and discover the story of a Mother who arranged for her own ashes to be buried with her son. We also experience the sounds of nature, as we listen to the birdsong and observe the wildlife living in this “Silent City”
In this episode we travel to the Somme and discover how a group of historians from Cheshire have restored 2 forgotten memorials at Bazentin. What is their story? We also discover a new memorial to 16 Submariners who drowned off the coast of Norfolk in 1941. And we pay tribute to a member of the Royal Marines band who died recently.
In this episode we visit the Anglican church in Ypres that was built when Ypres was redeveloped in the 1920’s. Why did Ypres need a British church? Who were the worshippers? Why did they build a British school next door? And what happened in 1940 when the Germans occupied Ypres? How did the British people escape and what happened to the church? We go on a tour of the church and look at some of the hundreds of memorials displayed on the walls, and we have a chat with the Chaplain, Reverand Richard Clement.
In this week’s episode we travel to the small village of Le Paradis in Northern France to discover the awful story of a group of BEF soldiers who were murdered by the SS during the retreat to Dunkirk in May 1940. We listen to the words of the only 2 survivors and find out how another man escaped the shootings by going through a different door as the SS waited for them to surrender. We are joined by Peter McDonough, a relative of one of those who died that day at the hands of the Nazis. How did he feel when he visited the location of the massacre with me?
In this episode we once again travel to the Somme battlefield and discover the story of the 8th Battalion of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry on the first day of the battle. We discover their story in their own words, rather than the history books. We find out what it was like to be stranded in No Man’s Land for several days, whilst being sniped at by German marksmen. And how a Mother, whose son had been killed, received his Military Medal from the King when he visited their home town of Hull in 1917.
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