Welcome to the latest episode!Today we walk the battlefield from Ypres to Poelkappelle and discover the personal stories of some of the men who lie in the cemeteries in this part of the Salient, including that of the greatest French air ...

Happy New Year!By July 1918, the German offensive was running out of steam; heavy losses, combined with overstretched supply lines, put the Germans in a perilous position.  The German Commander, Ludendorff, gambled everything on one...

Welcome to the final podcast of 2025!In our second question-and-answer episode, we answer some listeners' questions, covering topics including Home Front recruitment, the evolution of gas masks, rum jars, and the Carlisle Programme.<...

In our latest podcast, we meander across the battlefield to the east of Ypres, starting at Polygon Wood and heading south to Hill 60.  We look at the cemeteries and memorials and find out some of the personal stories of men who fought and ...

In November 1914, the British attempted to capture the strategically vital port of Tanga in German East Africa.  Poor planning, an indecisive commander, poorly trained troops and the fanatical idealism of brilliantly trained Askari troops ...

Welcome to this latest episode of Trench Talk!Today I sit and talk with Briana Gervat, an author and photographer who, in the aftermath of the COVID lockdown, decided to connect with history and walk the length of the Western Front.<...

Welcome to the latest episode!In a slightly shorter episode than usual, we travel to Belgium and discover the story of two lieutenants, Lt Ronald Poulton Palmer and Lt Frederick "Tanky" Turner, rugby captains of England and Scotland resp...

Welcome to our first-ever questions and answers episode! In today's episode, we address questions posed by listeners and delve into a range of topics.If you have a question you'd like answered, please email me at chocolatemenier1915@gmai...

Welcome to this latest episode!Today we are in Belgium and walk the battlefield to the south of Ypres, beginning at Bedford House Cemetery and finishing at the Spanbroekmolen mine crater, the "Pool of Peace", created by the largest mine ...

In this latest episode of Trench Talk, it's a pleasure to be joined by international cricketer, battlefield guide and WW1 fanatic Martin Barry.Martin works as a battlefield guide and volunteer for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, ...

Welcome to today's episode!For the first time, we have created a listener's request podcast; I was contacted by a listener who discovered his Grandfather had been killed at Hill 70 while serving with the Cameron Highlanders at the Battle...

Welcome to the first Trench Talk of the season, where Taff Gillingham joins me.  Taff is a military historian and specialist historical advisor for the film, TV and theatre industries and has worked as an advisor on many well-known product...

Welcome to the first episode of Season 8!Today, we travel to the forgotten front and the village of Bois Grenier. The fields in this sleepy corner of agricultural France contain dozens of German bunkers and blockhouses from the time of W...

Welcome to the final episode of Season 7!In today's episode, we look at the little-studied role played by the Chinese Labour Corps during the Great War.Over 90,000 Chinese labourers served in France and Belgium, engaged in manual ...

Welcome to the penultimate episode of Season 7!Today we are on the Somme and walk the battlefield from Delville Wood to Courcelette via High Wood and Martinpuich.We begin we looking at "The Turning Point" a remarkable but little-k...

Welcome to the latest episode!Today, we walk the canal at Cuinchy, one of the forgotten battlefields of the Great War.  Cuinchy was the site of the infamous brickstacks and the scene of bitter fighting throughout the entire war....

Welcome to this latest episode in which we walk the battlefield of Fromelles.  On the evening of the 19th July 1916, men of the newly arrived Australian 5th Division were thrown into battle against the heavily fortified village of Fromelle...

The weather played its part in the Great War, perhaps in more ways than first imagined.  The Great War lasted over 1500 days, and over 600 saw rain on the Western Front.  The winter of 1914 saw torrential rain and temperatures drop to...

On the 110th anniversary, we travel to France and walk around the battlefield of the first major offensive launched by the British on the Western Front at Neuve Chappelle.Initial successes were tempered by poor decision-making and poor c...

Welcome to this latest episode of the podcast.Today, we walk the battlefield around the area of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, the formidable German strongpoint located on the battlefield at Loos, which was attacked by the 9th Scottish Divisi...

Welcome to the first Trench Talk of Season 7!It's a real pleasure to be joined by naval historian and writer Chris Sams as we talk about the Battle of Jutland in 1916.  The long-awaited showdown between the Royal Navy and the Kriegs...

Welcome to the first episode of 2025!Today, we head to Belgium and walk a less-trodden route south of Plugstreet Wood towards the hamlet of Le Gheer.  From the village of Ploegsteert, we head south and east across the farmer's fiel...

Welcome to the final episode of 2024!One of the great misnomers of WW1 is that soldiers spent all their time in the trenches fighting. Fighting battles took up a tiny amount of soldiers' time, so what did soldiers do when not in the lin...

A famous saying asserts that an army marches on its stomach, and in this episode, we examine food and drink for men on the front line.  The challenge of feeding an army was immense, and the war office employed science to calculate ...

In the early hours of the 30th July 1915, men of the Rifle Brigade and Kings Royal Rifle Corps were attacked near Hooge by German soldiers using a new and appalling weapon of war - liquid fire.  The subsequent counter-attack that afternoon...