We return to the memories of WW1 veteran Malcolm Vyvyan MC, who served with 96th Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery on the Western Front from 1916, and then latterly the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force. We follow him from the Somme to Arras, until he leaves his Battery for flying training in 1918.

The previous episode covering Malcolm's memoirs: A Siege Battery Gunner.

Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin.

You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop.

Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.

Send us a text

Support the show

In this WW1 Q&A episode, we explore the lives and social backgrounds of British Army officers, ask whether First World War veterans hated their German enemies, and share the remarkable stories of soldiers who were discharged but re-enlisted to fight again. We also look at how people living on the Western Front battlefields today connect with the war, and whether interest in the Great War is fading—or still as strong as ever.

Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin.

You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop.

Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.

Send us a text

Support the show

What was the “Forgotten Front” of Northern France? In this episode, we explore the stretch of battlefield from Armentières on the Belgian border through La Bassée to the ground near Loos, scene of the Big Push of September 1915: fought 110 years ago this weekend. We uncover the history, walk the landscape, and share the stories of the men who fought and fell on this often-overlooked part of the Western Front.

The Road to La Bassée Poem on the Great War Forum: The Road to La Bassée

Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin.

You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop.

Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.

Send us a text

Support the show

In our first QnA Episode for Season 9 we look at what happened to the German forces when the guns went silent on 11th November 1918, discuss the use of poison gas and it's legacy on the battlefields today, examine if British and German dead were buried in the same trenches on the battlefield, and ask what happened to the horses used by the British Army when the war came to an end?

Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin.

You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop.

Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.

Send us a text

Support the show

In our first episode of Season 9, we walk the northern part of the Somme battlefield from Foncquevillers out to the ground before Gommecourt, and examine the attack here by the 46th (North Midland) Division on 1st July 1916. We examine the Court of Enquiry, the roles of the commanders Major-General Edward James Montagu-Stuart-Wortley and Lieutenant General Sir Sir Thomas D’Oyly Snow, and hear the voices of the ordinary soldiers who fought and fell at Gommecourt on the First Day of the Battle of the Somme.

Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin.

You can order Old Front Line Merch via The Old Front Line Shop.

Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.

Send us a text

Support the show

In our third and final Bonus Episode that brings Season 8 to a close, we have a live recording from the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, recorded while out leading a battlefield tour a few weeks ago. We reflect on the subjects we have covered on the podcast, on what the Menin Gate means to us, and how the whole subject of the Great War continues to develop. 

Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin.

Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.

Send us a text

Support the show

In this second Bonus Episode to end Season 8 of the podcast we look at the subject of Great War veterans and in particular Malcolm Vyvyan who served as a Siege Battery officer in the Royal Garrison Artillery on the Somme, Arras and Flanders, and was awarded the Military Cross in 1917. 

Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin.

Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.

Send us a text

Support the show

In the first of three Bonus Episodes of the podcast to end Season 8, we travel to Fricourt on the Somme and examine the journey to unveil a memorial to the 17th (Northern) Division in the church there in July 1938, just over a year before the outbreak of a Second World War. Who made that pilgrimage to Picardy, and what does it tell us about the experience of the Great War? 

The image used for this episode shows men of the 17th (Northern) Division on the steps of a captured German dugout at Fricourt in July 1916. The image was taken by Ernest Brookes. (IWM Q 814).

Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin.

Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.

We now have a shop for Old Front Line Merch: Old Front Line shop.

Send us a text

Support the show

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)

Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin.

Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.

Send us a text

Support the show

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.

Sign up for the free podcast newsletter here: Old Front Line Bulletin.

Got a question about this episode or any others? Drop your question into the Old Front Line Discord Server or email the podcast.

We now have a shop for Old Front Line Merch: Old Front Line shop.

Send us a text

Support the show