Footsteps of the fallen

Our journey begins in the small village of Bazentin, at one of the smallest war memorials on the Western Front, that to the Nine Brave Men of the Royal Engineers, before we begin our walk down the valley to the south of us.

This valley,  Caterpillar Valley, was one of the main arteries that supplied the front for the never-ending mincing machine of High Wood, Delville Wood and Guillemont beyond.

Why was this location so important and what was it like for the men who served there?  

We finish our journey in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, where we look at the New Zealand Unknown Warrior, and his journey back to the Land of the Long White Cloud.

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The year 1915 had been a chastening experience for the men of the BEF.   Tens of thousands of men had been killed on the Western Front in the failed battles at Neuve Chappelle, Aubers, Festubert, and Loos.  The Gallipoli campaign had been an abject disaster, costing the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, his job.

Against this military morass of killing,  the senior command of the British Army were wrought with infighting, nepotism, backstabbing, intrigue, and gossip.  Sir Douglas Haig vociferously declared that his boss, Field Marshall Sir John French was utterly unsuited to high command., French's despatch from the Battle of Loos contained many mistruths and falsehoods that ultimately cost him his job.  New members of senior command were either inept or viewed with the utmost suspicion and distrust.

In this episode, we look at the situation at the end of 1915, examine the issues faced by British high command, and the monumental decision made in Parliament that was to bring the Great War to almost every home in Britain and was to sow the seeds for the killing fields of the Somme and Passchendaele. 

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For a period of three months between July and September 1916, the Allies and Germans battled for control of the fortified village of Combles, on the northeast of the Somme battlefield.

A coordinated Franco-British assault on the 26th of September 1916 finally took the village but at a very heavy price.  In this episode, we look at the battle from a German, British and French perspective, and draw on some of the remarkable primary sources that describe the fighting.

We also hear the story of a remarkable act of heroism by "Todger" Jones, a Private in the Cheshire Regiment, which resulted in the award of the Victoria Cross.

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The disease-ridden and inhospitable landscape of Salonika is one of the forgotten campaigns of WW1.   For almost three years soldiers from all over the world fought against each other in increasingly awful conditions.

More men became casualties from disease than from enemy action and the Allies had over 160,000 cases of malaria during the campaign.  We hear about the Allies first impressions of Salonika, how the creative output of two of the finest minds in English art and music were shaped by their experiences on the front, and the story of "Stokey" Lewis an eccentric fishmonger from South Wales who became the youngest Welsh VC winner of the Great War. 

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For a period of 8 days in early September 1914, the situation for the Allies was precarious. The Germans were just two days march from the French capital, and the situation looked desperate.

Through a combination of poor German communication, some inspired French leadership, and the commandeering of over 600 Parisian taxi cabs, the French and British successfully stopped the Germans, saved Paris, and undoubtedly changed the overall course of the Great War.

The German retreat to the Aisne saw the beginnings of trench warfare as we would recognise it.  This is a story of in-fighting, insubordination, and large quantities of wine, in the battle that went down in history as the Miracle on the Marne.

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The "Cold Meat Specialist" or Regimental Burial Officer was a vital cog in the military machine responsible for coordinating the retrieval and burial of the dead and ensuring that their grave locations were accurately marked.  With over 500,000 dead littering the battlefields of the Great War, the task was nothing short of monumental.

How did the Army manage casualties on a scale never before seen?  How were the dead recovered, and more importantly how were they identified? What was life like for the Corpse Collectors who scavenged the battlefields in the aftermath of the war searching shell holes, dugouts, and trenches for the remains of the dead?  How did they cope with this most gruesome task?

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For a period of six weeks in the summer of 1916, the British and Germans battled for control of the small but strategically important village of Guillemont..

The capture of the village was the story of the men from the south and west of Ireland, men from Limerick, Connaught, and Munster who successfully drove the Germans out, albeit at great personal cost.  Over 15,000 men died in taking this small village.

The sheer number of Victoria Crosses won in the fighting is a testament to the nature of the combat. We hear about Noel Chavasse VC and Bar who won his first VC at Guillemont, the England Rugby player who recruited his own company of men, a horrific encounter with rats, and the story of a brave man who became known as the "Better late than never" VC.

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The 14th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Forces was known as "Jacka's Mob" after their officer, the  profane, insubordinate, and much-loved larrikin Albert Jacka, a dairy farmer's son from Victoria.

A man more inclined to use his fists than his reasoning to solve a problem, Jacka would surely have been promoted higher in the ranks than he was, were it not for his temper, his argumentative personality, and his dislike of military discipline.   For an act of incredible bravery at Gallipoli, Jacka won Australia's first Victoria Cross of the Great War, and he went on displaying acts of bravery that many felt should have led to the award of at least a second VC.

Complex, intelligent, and fiercely loyal to his men, Jacka was a remarkable man - this is his story.

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In the dark waters of the Atlantic, the German U-Boat fleet was taking a monstrous toll on Allied merchant shipping, to the extent that Admiral Jellicoe feared Britain would cease to exist as a fighting force unless something was done to stop the U-boat menace.

Spurred on by the sinking of the Lusitania in May 1915 the Royal Navy introduced a new weapon to fight against German submarines - the decoy boat or Q Ship as they were known.

In a game of cat and mouse, merchant shipping losses began to fall thanks to the ingenuity of the Q Ship fleet.  We hear about so-called "panic parties" held onboard merchant ships, why sailors wore women's clothes whilst on deck, the reason why the Royal Navy commandeered a lorry full of dead parrots, and how a three-legged dead dog and a rolling pin combined to hoodwink the commander of a German submarine.

We also look at one of the great controversies of WW1, the Baralong incident in 1915, and hear the story of a heroic Naval officer whose clandestine activities lead him to become known as The Mystery VC. 

On the afternoon of the 14th April 1917 men of the 1st Essex and the Newfoundland Regiment were given the unenviable task of attacking and holding Infantry Hill, just to the east of the small but strategically vital village of Monchy le Preux.

By mid-morning, not a single man remained unwounded to the east of Monchy and men were being captured in their hundreds by the rapidly advancing Germans.

A party of just ten men commanded by Lt Col Forbes-Robertson collected weapons and ammunition from the dead and with only a hedge for cover mounted one of the most remarkable holding actions of the entire Great War.  For over 11 hours, these ten brave men held off over 300 German soldiers and prevented Monchy from falling into German hands.

This is their story. 

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