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Welcome to the first Trench Talk of the season, where Taff Gillingham joins me.  Taff is a military historian and specialist historical advisor for the film, TV and theatre industries and has worked as an advisor on many well-known productions from Downton Abbey to the film 1917.

Taff is an expert on WW1 uniforms and kit, and in this fascinating and wide-ranging conversation, he shares his encyclopedic knowledge. 

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Welcome to the first episode of Season 8!

Today, we travel to the forgotten front and the village of Bois Grenier. The fields in this sleepy corner of agricultural France contain dozens of German bunkers and blockhouses from the time of World War I. The sector was a nursery sector - a relatively quiet location where new battalions could learn the regimes of trench warfare. The peace was shattered on the afternoon of the 25th September 1915 when a diversionary attack for the Battle of Loos had disastrous effects for the men of the 2nd Rifle Brigade and the Royal Berkshires.

We walk the fields and hear about the infamous "Dicky's Dash", the tragic end to the life of a Canadian flying ace, listen to stories of murder most foul and unbelievable gallantry, as well as boomerangs and the mystery and unknown fate of Clifford the monkey.

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Welcome to the final episode of Season 7!

In today's episode, we look at the little-studied role played by the Chinese Labour Corps during the Great War.

Over 90,000 Chinese labourers served in France and Belgium, engaged in manual labour and the dangerous work of clearing munitions and bodies from the battlefields.

Who were these men, and how did they end up so far from home? 

The podcast will be back for Season 8 on Sunday July 6th 2025.

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Welcome to the penultimate episode of Season 7!

Today we are on the Somme and walk the battlefield from Delville Wood to Courcelette via High Wood and Martinpuich.

We begin we looking at "The Turning Point" a remarkable but little-known narrative of the Somme battle written by the eccentric Harold Perry-Robinson.  We visit Delville Wood cemetery and memorial and hear the history of the site, as well visiting the only remaining tree from the Great War.

We walk to High Wood - "Ghastly by day, ghostly by night, the rottenest place on the Somme" and discover some of the memorials around this great killing ground.  We then head to Martinpuich and conclude at Adanac Cemetery in Courcelette.

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Welcome to the latest episode!

Today, we walk the canal at Cuinchy, one of the forgotten battlefields of the Great War.  Cuinchy was the site of the infamous brickstacks and the scene of bitter fighting throughout the entire war.

We walk the battlefield to discover the military history of what happened here, and hear the personal stories of the dead as we visit some of the nearby cemeteries. 

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Welcome to this latest episode in which we walk the battlefield of Fromelles.  On the evening of the 19th July 1916, men of the newly arrived Australian 5th Division were thrown into battle against the heavily fortified village of Fromelles in Artois.  In one night, over 5000 men were killed, wounded or missing and the line remained staunchly in German hands.

We begin at Pheasant Wood and meander across the battlefield, visiting some key sites and hearing the stories of the men buried in the cemeteries in and around the old front lines.

A walking map can be found on the website to allow you to follow the route - please see https://footstepsofthefallen.com/gallery/

My apologies for the sound quality in the final segments of the episode. I don't know what happened with the microphone, but it all went wrong! 

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The weather played its part in the Great War, perhaps in more ways than first imagined.  The Great War lasted over 1500 days, and over 600 saw rain on the Western Front.  The winter of 1914 saw torrential rain and temperatures drop to -10 in France, and the autumn of 1917 in Flanders saw four months' worth of rainfall in just 33 days. 

London's Met Office offered to help at the outbreak of war, but a terse telegram from GHQ rebuffed this offer.  However, the increased use of aircraft and poison gas quickly made senior command understand the importance of meteorology, and the Meteorological Service of the Royal Engineers soon started providing masses of valuable data.

Who were these men, and what did they do? In this episode, we look at the work of "Meteor" HQ and their vital role as the war progressed. 

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On the 110th anniversary, we travel to France and walk around the battlefield of the first major offensive launched by the British on the Western Front at Neuve Chappelle.

Initial successes were tempered by poor decision-making and poor communications between divisional commanders and the offensive ground to a halt in the face of heavy German resistance.  Casualties were 11,000 killed, wounded and missing in three days, but no fewer than nine VCs were awarded for the fighting in this area. These quiet farmers' fields hide the secrets of the past, but there is much history to be found if one knows where to look.

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Welcome to this latest episode of the podcast.

Today, we walk the battlefield around the area of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, the formidable German strongpoint located on the battlefield at Loos, which was attacked by the 9th Scottish Division on the opening day of the battle of 25th September 1915.  Fighting continued until the middle of October when men of the 46th Midland Division tried and failed to retake the redoubt.

What happened here, and what can be seen when you walk the battlefields today?  

Supporting maps and the walking route can be found in the gallery section of the website: https://footstepsofthefallen.com/gallery/

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Welcome to the first Trench Talk of Season 7!

It's a real pleasure to be joined by naval historian and writer Chris Sams as we talk about the Battle of Jutland in 1916.  The long-awaited showdown between the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine turned into an unexpectedly bad day for the British.  We look at what happened that afternoon off the coast of Denmark and talk about other naval matters in this fascinating and wide-ranging conversation.

Chris' book on the German navy can be found here.

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