Recorded Tuesday 26 September 2017.

The battle of Polygon Wood, the second of the step-by-step victories east of Ypres, has often been depicted as a relatively straightforward victory: the AIF advanced behind an irresistible barrage that resembled a Gippsland bushfire, and there were inevitable casualties but no major hiccups. This interpretation is fundamentally flawed. Dr Ross McMullin explains why.

Ross's most recent publication Pompey Elliot At War: In His Own Words is available through the Shrine shop.