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Welcome to our first podcast of 2023!

In today's podcast, we are off to Carnoy on the Somme, a farming hamlet between Mametz and Montauban that was the scene of terrific fighting on the 1st of July 1916. Dominated by the massive Pommiers Redoubt, this area of the front line was one of the few successes for the British that fateful day.

We meet Captain Wilfred "Billy" Neville who brought footballs back from England for men of the 8th East Surrey's to kick across No Man's Land towards the Germans.  We hear about a wounded officer who was more concerned about a broken bottle of whisky than a serious wound to his arm and then look at the Pyrrhic victory that was the explosion of the Kasino Point mine.  We discover the story of the remarkable CO of the 12th Middlesex who was decorated for gallantry three times and finally encounter the mysterious "Mark VII", author of a superb personal memoir who resigned his commission as an officer to become a conscientious objector and a leading member of the Pacifist movement.

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