Questions and Answers Episode 53

Questions and Answers Episode 53

Author: Paul Reed May 16, 2026 Duration: 44:33
In this wide-ranging listener Q&A episode of Old Front Line, we dive into some intriguing and human questions thrown up by the Great War. We begin with the fate of the missing. With hundreds of thousands of men listed as “missing” across the Western Front, is there any real evidence that some chose to disappear, seizing the chaos of war to start new lives elsewhere? We explore the realities of desertion, the systems used to record the dead, and whether the idea of men slipping away into a...

Imagine standing on a quiet French field, the same earth that once shook with the fury of the First World War. The Old Front Line is your guide to that landscape, hosted by military historian Paul Reed. This isn't a dry lecture from a distant studio; it's an audio journey built on a lifetime of dedication. Paul draws from more than forty years of research, weaving together the poignant first-hand accounts of veterans he met with his own unique perspective gained from living for over a decade right in the heart of the Somme battlefields. Each episode of this podcast feels like walking alongside him, tracing the contours of history that are still etched into the land. You'll hear the human stories behind the maps and monuments, understanding the conflict through the very ground where it was fought. It’s a deeply personal and evocative exploration, connecting the peaceful present with the tumultuous past. For anyone fascinated by history, landscape, or the powerful echoes of the Great War, this series offers an unparalleled, grounded perspective that only someone with Paul Reed's intimate experience can provide.
Author: Language: en-gb Episodes: 100

The Old Front Line
Podcast Episodes
Questions and Answers Episode 25 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:46
In this episode we cover subjects from how the British and Commonwealth soldier named the 'Battle of the Somme' in 1916 to how Irish soldiers on the front line in France thought about the Easter Rising in Dublin in April…
Live From Ypres: Bayernwald Trenches [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:29
From a recently recorded livestream on the battlefields of Ypres in Flanders, join us on a walk around the reconstructed First World War trenches in Bayernwald - 'Bavarian Wood' - called Croonaert Wood on the British tre…
Questions and Answers Episode 24 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:05
This weeks subjects include how trenches in the First World War got their names, what happened to the pay of Missing soldiers and were men who were Prisoners of War paid at all, why did the Western Front stop at the Swis…
Walking Cambrai: Gouzeaucourt 1917 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:32
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 Go…
Questions and Answers Episode 23 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:46
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 o…
WW1 on Film: Our World War [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:33
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 ab…
Questions and Answers Episode 22 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:02
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…
Somme: Albert-Bapaume Road [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:03
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…
Questions and Answers Episode 21 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:08
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…
Walking the Somme: Mailly-Maillet [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:26
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 th…