When people think of the Somme, they think of failure: men cut down in no man's land; shattered battalions; and catastrophic losses. Yet along much of the southern part of the battlefield, this is not what happened at all. Here, British troops broke into the German defences, captured villages and advanced further than anywhere else on 1 July. For a few brief hours, it even seemed that the offensive might achieve its planners' hopes. So why did this part of the battlefield look so different? If the attack was succeeding here, why is the first day of the Somme still remembered as such a disaster?

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At 7.30am on the morning of 1st July 1916, whistles blew along a front stretching more than twenty miles. Tens of thousands of British soldiers climbed from their trenches and began walking towards the German lines. By nightfall nearly 20,000 of them would be dead. It remains the bloodiest day in British military history. But that catastrophe was not evenly spread across the battlefield. Some sectors were disasters.

Others achieved limited success. To understand what happened, we need to begin in the north, where the British offensive would suffer its greatest failures.

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- Guest: James Taub

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What turns a unit into an elite?

Is it rigorous selection, a hard-earned reputation, or simply being thrown into the fiercest fighting and surviving?

In today's episode, we search for the answer through the story of the Blue Devils of the Vosges. From the Chasseurs to the Corps Francs, we'll explore what the French considered to be their elite units of the First World War.

- Guest: James Taub

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For eight brutal months in 1915, every Allied plan at Gallipoli had failed. However, on the final night of the campaign, the Allies finally managed to pull off one perfectly executed operation and evacuate.

This is the story of how a disastrous campaign came to an end with an almost flawless final action.

The Caribou Trail — Steam:

 https://store.steampowered.com/app/3065030/The_Caribou_Trail/

The Gallipoli Association:

 https://www.gallipoli-association.org/

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In this week’s episode and in a long overdue collaboration between Not So Quite on the Western Front and WW2 Both Sides of the Wire, four of us sit down to explore what we feel are the battles that, for one reason or another, shaped the course of the 20th century.

Written by four historians, each bringing their own unique perspective, Inferno explores war on land, at sea, and in the air — from Mons in 1914 and the trenches of the Somme, to Stalingrad, Normandy, and the brutal final battles of the Pacific War.

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In August, the Allies prepared for their largest offensive yet on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

This was intended to be the decisive breakthrough that would break the deadlock and end the stalemate once and for all. The plan involved a new landing, a night march and a dash for the heights. But how did the campaign's most imaginative plan become its most bitter failure?

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Four miles from the beaches of Gallipoli stood a small village called Krithia. Allied commanders believed it could be captured in a single day. Instead, thousands of British, French, Australian and New Zealand troops would die trying to reach it.

Beneath the heights of Achi Baba, repeated assaults collapsed in gunfire, confusion and bloodshed, turning the southern tip of Gallipoli into a battlefield of trenches, shattered scrub and mass graves.

This is the story of the Battles of Krithia

The Caribou Trail: https:/⁠⁠⁠/store.steampowered.com/app/3065030/The_Caribou_Trail/⁠⁠⁠

Guest Steve Chambers

Books:⁠⁠⁠ https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Stephen-Chambers/a/1865⁠

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Have you ever wondered what it was actually like to survive in the trenches of the Gallipoli Front in the First World War? Not the battles we read about in textbooks, but the heat, the flies, the constant shellfire, and only metres from the enemy. In this episode we ask, and answer those very questions.

The Caribou Trail: https:/⁠⁠/store.steampowered.com/app/3065030/The_Caribou_Trail/⁠⁠

Guest Steve Chambers

Books:⁠⁠ https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Stephen-Chambers/a/1865⁠

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Credits:

- Host: Dr. Spencer Jones & Dan Hill

- Production: Linus Klaßen

- Editing: Linus Klaßen

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In July 1918, the German spring offensives had reached their high watermark, and it was time for the French army to strike back. This is the story of the Battle of Soissons, the largest French tank attack of the entire First World War and a turning point for the Allied cause.

Guest James Taub Socials:

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Credits:

- Host: Dr. Spencer Jones & Dan Hill

- Production: Linus Klaßen

- Editing: Hunter Christensen

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In this episode, Spencer is joined by Professor Mark Connelly, a renowned expert in military and cultural history, to explore the cinematic legacy of the Gallipoli Campaign.

From the earliest newsreels of 1915 to the monumental impact of Peter Weir’s 1981 masterpiece, we discuss how film has shaped and sometimes rewritten our visual and cultural understanding of the Great War.

Connelly Contours: https://www.connellycontours.co.uk/

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If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Twitter:

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@DanHillHistory

@BattleguideVT

Credits:

- Host: Dr. Spencer Jones & Dan Hill

- Production: Linus Klaßen

- Editing: Hunter Christensen

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