Why do we always do the same thing? This question was posed during a work call last week, and it got me thinking about travelling around the battlefields and why I always seem to take the easy route to Ypres.

In this episode, we meander up the coast from Calais to Nieupoort, taking in Zuydcoote, Adinkerke, Coxyde, Nieupoort and Ramskappelle to see what Great War history can be found when heading to Ypres along a road less travelled.

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Welcome to this latest episode.

We find ourselves in Ypres, on a part of the salient that offers real bang for the buck regarding military history. Our journey today covers just over a mile and a half from White House Cemetery to Kitchener's Wood, and we hear the stories of the cemeteries and memorials on this part of the old front line.

We visit White House Cemetery, where we also discover the social history behind a small wooden house opposite the cemetery entrance. We visit Oxford Road, the 50th Division Memorial and Mousetrap Farm, where we hear the remarkably tragic story of two fighting Irish brothers before heading to Kitchener's Wood. There, Marechal Foch described the actions of the Canadian soldiers in April 1915 as the finest feat of soldiering of the entire war.

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In this latest episode, we look at colonial soldiers' experiences in the Great War. Britain and France made full use of the human capital of their global empires to provide extra manpower for their armed forces.

Our journey begins in an art gallery in Belgium, and we look at the work of the famous German artist Karl Goetz and his most scandalously infamous medallion depicting "The Black Shame."

We examine the role played by French colonial troops and discover the story of the most decorated Division in the French Army.

King George V's intervention created the British West Indies Regiment, an organisation founded on maternal coercion and wild promises that the British Government had little intention of fulfilling.

We look at the military experience of black soldiers and discover how years of repression, racism and segregation exploded in the Taranto Riot of December 1918.

Support the podcast:
https://www.patreon.com/footstepsofthefallen
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/footstepsblog