The Old Front Line

Join us on the Somme battlefields as we explore the remarkable story of Hawthorn Ridge Crater, one of the most iconic and historically significant sites of the First World War. In this episode of The Old Front Line, we are joined by Terry Berry and Rick Smith of the Hawthorn Ridge Crater Association, the dedicated team working to preserve, research and interpret this extraordinary piece of the battlefield. The conversation looks back at the dramatic events of 1 July 1916, when the massive min...

In this week's Question and Answer Episode we look at: why did German intelligence understand so much about the coming Battle of the Somme, yet the Allies were caught so badly off guard by the German Spring Offensive of 1918? We also examine the changing role of cavalry after the war of movement ended in 1914. How did commanders such as Haig reconcile traditional cavalry doctrine with trench warfare, and why were substantial cavalry formations maintained even as infantry numbers fell? W...

As the Battle of the Somme entered its final, bitter weeks, fighting continued across the ground between Thiepval, Grandcourt and Courcelette. In this episode of The Old Front Line, we explore the October and November 1916 battles as autumn turned to winter and the Somme battlefield became a landscape of mud, rain and continuous shell craters. We follow the fighting, examining the attacks around Regina Trench, Stuff Trench, Grandcourt and Courcelette, and the challenges faced by British and C...

In this Old Front Line Q&A, we explore four fascinating questions from the First World War, taking us from the Ypres Salient to German-occupied France and Belgium, and from wartime prisoners to the fate of battlefield cemeteries during the Second World War. We begin in the Ypres Salient and the often-overlooked French presence in 1914–15. When did French troops arrive, how was the Allied sector divided, why did the British eventually take over, and what was the relationship between French...

Between August and December 1914, the British Expeditionary Force fought its first battles of the First World War across Belgium and northern France and some 19,000 officers and men were missing. From Mons and Le Cateau to the Retreat and the First Battle of Ypres, thousands of men were killed and never recovered, becoming part of the great story of the Missing of 1914. In this episode of The Old Front Line, we explore the history behind the 1914 campaign and discuss the memorials that commem...