We visit the Hindenburg Line battlefields of 1917 where the Battle of Cambrai was fought. We see the battlefield around Metz-en-Couture, visit the cemetery here and grave of Patrick Shaw-Stewart, and then walk down in Gouzeaucourt seeing a rare British bunker from WW1 and a memorial to the 11th Engineers of the US Army, ending on the high ground where the Welsh Guards counter-attacked in December 1917.

The book mentioned was Children of the Souls by Jeanne MacKenzie. 

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Our latest Questions and Answers cover the military importance of Ypres in WW1, the French Cemetery and Memorials at Notre Dame de Lorette in Northern France, weather on the landscape of the Western Front, and the role of Women in the British Army in France and Flanders.

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Our World War was a three-part BBC Drama series for the Great War Centenary in 2014 covering the fighting at Mons in 1914, the Somme in 1916 and the Battle of Amiens in 1918. It pioneered a new approach to film making about the Great War but a decade on is it still relevant and what does it tell us about the Great War?

The Paddy Kennedy interview is in the archives of the Imperial War Museum.

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In our latest round-up of Questions and Answers we look at Memorials to non-white soldiers on the Western Front, whether 'battle bars' were ever planned for WW1 British and Commonwealth campaign medals, the award of the 'Blue Max' to German soldiers, and were ordinary soldiers told about the explosion of huge mines like the one under Hawthorn Ridge on the Somme. 

Reading List:

Kevin Brazier - The Complete Blue Max: A Chronological Record of the Holders of the Pour le Mérite

Erwin Rommel - Infantry Attacks

Ernest Jünger - Storm of Steel

Christina Holstein - Walking Verdun

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Is there a 'culture' surrounding The Old Front Line? One that helps define it and enables us to understand that landscape of the First World War? If so, what is it, and how can we understand it? In this episode we take a major pathway across the Western Front battlefields: the Albert-Bapaume Road on the Somme, and we discuss what the this 'culture' of The Old Front Line might be.

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In our first Questions and Answers Episode of Season 8 we look at 'quiet' sectors of the Western Front, whether civilians got near the battlefields, discuss the 'best' photos of WW1 and ask if Stretcher Bearers were easy prey on the front line doing their vital work.

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We begin Season 8 back on the Somme Battlefields of 1916 and walk the ground around the village of Mailly-Maillet, located just behind the British trenches in front of Beaumont-Hamel and Serre and later much closer to the fighting in 1918. We visit cemeteries, see original graffiti and end our walk close to the final approach to the battlefield.

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In this special edition we look at how trace to service men and women who fought and died in the Great War. We cover a number of questions covering different aspects of how to trace your WW1 Ancestors from many different nations, but in particular from Britain and the Commonwealth. 

USEFUL LINKS:

Western Front Association Pension Files website

Grand Memorial - Tracing French WW1 Records

French War Diaries - WW1

Long, Long Trail website - Chris Baker

London Gazette - WW1 Notices

The British Newspaper Archive

QMAAC WW1 Records

British Nurses Records WW1

VAD Red Cross Records WW1

Women's Land Army website

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In this episode, we examine five iconic objects from the First World War which came to define the experience of Trench Warfare. These objects include barbed wire, helmets, duckboards, and trench periscopes. There is also a surprise artefact that millions of men carried onto the battlefield.

If you are interested in Trench Warfare also check out The Western Front: WW1 Trench Warfare, Why Was there Trench Warfare in WW1? and Five Weapons of Trench Warfare.

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Based on this weeks questions we look at the difference between Ordnance Survey and Trench maps, recommend some WW1 Channels and videos to look at on YouTube, look at how to study a particular regiment and examine souvenirs brought home by veterans.

Old Front Line Recommends on YouTube: click here to watch the playlist.

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