In the final episode of our Air War series we travel across the landscape of the First World War and discover what we can find that connects us to the story of the Royal Flying Corps and RAF in WW1, from memorials to cemeteries and sites of former aerodromes. 

Along the way we examine the stories of some of the Aces from James McCudden VC to Manfred Von Richthofen - The Red Baron - to Bob Little from Australia and Major Lanoe Hawker VC, before seeing the battlefields where Albert Ball VC's war ended and the fields where Mick Mannock VC crashed in 1918. 

We end at the Air Services Memorial at Arras which commemorates nearly a thousand British and Commonwealth aviators of the First World War.

Mike O'Connor 'Airfields and Airmen' books published by Pen & Sword:

• Airfields & Airmen: Arras (2004)
• Airfields & Airmen: Cambrai (2007)
• Airfields & Airmen: Channel Coast (2007)
• Airfields & Airmen: Somme (2001)
• Airfields & Airmen: Ypres (2000)

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In this special and extended QnA Episode we look at Parachutes in the Air Services in WW1, the Ground Crew who kept the planes in the air, what are the best RFC/RAF memoirs of WW1, how the filming of the Red Baron's funeral was received, and how men applied for transfers to the Air Services and what was the selection process for Pilots and Observers.

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In the second of our special interviews for the War in the Air series, we are joined by historian and broadcaster Josh Levine to discuss the war in the air in WW1, based on his best-selling book On A Wing and A Prayer.

Josh's book 'On A Wing and A Prayer' is now published in paperback at Fighter Heroes of WW1 ( Harper Collins 2011)

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For our 250th episode of the podcast, and as part of our continuing Air War series, we are joined by aviation historian and author Andy Saunders to look at the life, and death, of Edward 'Mick' Mannock VC DSO & Two Bars, MC & Bar and the search for his potential burial place on the Western Front. Is the grave of an Unknown Aviator at Laventie British Cemetery Mick Mannock's final resting place?

Andy's book: Mannock: The Life and Death of Major Edward Mannock VC, DSO, MC, RAF by Frank, Norman and Saunders, Andy. (Grub Street 2008)

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For the start of our War in the Air Month, we begin with a look at the real story of the 'Twenty Minuters', the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force in the First World War. We look at its history from formation in 1912, its role in the opening months of the conflict, and how the war on the Western Front changed military aviation forever.

A good overview of the Air War from the Imperial War Museum: What impact did the First World War have on aircraft and aerial warfare?

Photographs of some of the aircraft mentioned in the podcast can be found here: Old Front Line website.

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For our latest questions submitted by podcast listeners, we examine what my first visit to the battlefields of the Great War with my school meant to me, ask what the Wiltshire Regiment did in the First World War, what sources in English can we look at to understand the German side of WW1 and what did British veterans think of their German foe?

Brigadier E.A. James book - British Regiments 1914-1918. 

Main image: Group portrait of officers of the 1st Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment, after their return from fighting at Thiepval, photographed at Bouzincourt, September 1916. (IWM Q1151 - photo by Ernest Brookes)

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Our latest questions from podcast listeners discuss what role German steel helmets, Stahlhelm, had on the First Day of the Somme, how did Great War veterans feel about WW2, how were women who fell pregnant from British soldiers treated during the conflict, and when we visit British and Commonwealth cemeteries are we walking over the graves of those buried there?

For more information on the Battlefield Tours I do: Leger Battlefields.

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As the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme approaches, we walk part of the battlefield across the iconic Mash Valley, visit Ovillers Military Cemetery and walk through Ovillers village to the far end of the valley facing the Pozières Ridge.

Alf Razzell discusses the burial of the dead at Ovillers: A Game of Ghosts.

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Our latest questions from listeners range from could Britain have stood back from conflict in 1914 and not been part of the Great War, how accurate was the final dugout scene in the film 1917, what duties did Royal Field Artillery Drivers have on the battlefields of WW1 and what was the story of the Canadian soldiers who rioted in Britain in 1919 while awaiting demobilisation?

The Old Front Line Youtube Channel: Old Front Line on YouTube.

Recommended novel on 1914: Robert Harris - Precipice (Penguin 2024)

Books on The Canadian Riots:

• The story of the Kinmel Park Camp Riots in 1919 by Julian Putkowski (1989)
• Riots Death and Baseball - Robert H. Griffiths (2019)

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In a Trench Chat special we speak to the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre Commemorations team - otherwise known as 'The MOD War Detectives' - who work to recover and identify the dead on the former battlefields of the Great War. Thanks to the Ministry of Defence for their help in making this possible, and special thanks to Rosie Barron, Nichola Nash and Alexia Clark who all appear in this episode. 

The images used are Crown Copyright.

Discover more about the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre Commemorations team and visit their Facebook page.

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