In this latest Questions & Answers episode, we tackle some intriguing, and often misunderstood, aspects of life and fighting on the Western Front during the First World War.

Who actually decided what a battle was called? Did the ordinary soldier know, at the time, which battle he was fighting in – or even when one battle had ended and another begun, during almost four years of near-continuous combat? We explore how battles were named, dated, and defined, and what that meant for the men experiencing the war on the ground.

We also examine the introduction of the policy that 10% of a battalion was held back during attacks, particularly on 1 July 1916, the First day of the Battle of the Somme. When did this practice begin? Was it standard throughout the war? And where were these men actually positioned? Was it in support trenches, reserve lines, or further back with transport and logistics?

For those who engage with the First World War through the landscape itself, we answer a listener’s thoughtful question about walking The Old Front Line at Ypres. Thinking about the surviving terrain, memorials, and traces of trench warfare, we recommend one particularly powerful walking route in the Ypres Salient that still tells the story of the war in a way that just maps and books sometimes cannot.

Finally, we address a sensitive but important topic: did British Army officers really receive more leave than their men? If so, how was this perceived by the ranks, and what impact did it have on morale within the British and Commonwealth armies?

Main image: British troops arriving on leave at Victoria Station, London. (IWM Q30515)

The Battles Nomenclature Committee Report 1919: Naval and Military Press website.

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