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.

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In this episode, we travel to the Somme and begin our journey at one of the most iconic sites on the battlefield, the Basilica at Albert. We hear about its founding and discover more about the legend of the Golden Virgin.

We leave Albert, head onto the battlefields over the Tara and Usna line, and visit the Lochnagar Crater at La Boiselle. Just to the right of the crater on the 2nd of July 1916, a Victoria Cross was won by one of the great characters of the First World War. A man whose life was a real "Boy's Own" tale of dangerous escapes and seizing every moment of every day - of course, we are talking about Adrian Ghislain Carton de Wiart VC KBE CB CMG DSO. who, when asked about his experience of the Great War, famously replied, "The War? Oh, I rather enjoyed it!"

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In this episode, we visit one of the forgotten fronts of the Great War and look at the fighting in Palestine in 1917-1918. This was an unforgiving landscape that saw numerous battles, the removal of a Corps Commander and one of the most impressive military victories in history.

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In this episode, recorded live on the battlefields, we are at Festubert, the forgotten battle of 1915, and we visit some of the cemeteries around the battlefield to hear the personal stories of the men buried within them.

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Welcome to Season 7!

In our first episode, we look at poison gas, its development and use on the battlefield, and how the science of chemical weapons saw the militarisation of academia in the pursuit of developing more lethal and deadly weapons.

We discover how the Allies combated the German gas threat, what it was like to be a gas victim and how a common garden pest was, in fact, nature's most effective gas detector.

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Welcome to the final episode of Season 6 and our 150th podcast!

In this episode, we look back at the podcast since it began 3 1/2 years ago, examine some of the statistics about the pod, and contemplate some of my favourite episodes that have been released.

We then head over to Belgium and travel from Essex Farm to Elverdinghe, where we visit some of the smaller and less visited cemeteries in this part of the Ypres salient, including Talana Farm, Bleuet Farm and Ferme Olivier cemeteries.

The podcast will be back with Season 7 on Sunday 28th April 2024.

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