Footsteps of the fallen Matt Dixon

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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In this latest podcast, historian and author Tom Isitt joins us. Tom has a passion (or, he might say, obsession) with the Italian Front in the Great War. An inhospitable battlefield with appalling weather conditions and treacherous terrain, the fighting around the Isonzo River proved to be the graveyard of the Italian army in a series of 12 battles that cost hundreds of thousands of casualties.

In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about the fighting at Isonzo and Caporetto, the Asiago plateau, the problems of supply and fighting in the mountains, and meet a belligerent commander who dismissed no fewer than 270 Generals during the course of the War.

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

With the sad news of the passing of Martin Middlebrooke, this podcast heads to the Somme battlefield where we walk across the battlefield at the village of Fricourt.

Our journey takes in some of the cemeteries and memorials that cover this part of the Somme battlefield, and we look at some of the literary figures whose output provides so many insights into Fricourt and its surroundings during the Great War, including John Masefield, Siegfried Sassoon and Bernard Adams amongst others. 

Support the podcast:
https://www.patreon.com/footstepsofthefallen
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Many of you who listen to the podcast aren't on social media and are not followers of me on Twitter so please find attached a very brief update on what's happening with the podcast going forward.

I posted a video on Twitter on Sunday 18th February and this is the audio recording of that video.  

You can view the video on YouTube with the following link:
https://youtu.be/AmNHLbK_rWk?si=TVvX8atZEBm5sSNF

In this latest episode of Trench Talk, it's a real pleasure to be joined by military historian, battlefield guide and author Roger Steward.

Lockdown allowed Roger to write the book he always wanted to write about the German Cemetery at Langemarck. Very few places on the Western Front have as many myths attached to them, and in this wide-ranging chat we discuss the cemetery, what there is to see, the unpalatable history it played in the mindset of the Third Reich and debunk some of the myths.

You can buy the book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Studentenfriedhof-Soldatenfriedhof-Langemark-Cemetery-Self-guided/dp/1913491676/ref=sr_1_1?crid=372C8DU76FNP1&keywords=Langemark&qid=1707776314&sprefix=landmark%2Caps%2C77&sr=8-1

Interested in engaging Roger as a guide? https://www.ypresbattlefieldtours.be/

SUPPORT THE PODCAST:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/footstepsblog
https://www.patreon.com/footstepsofthefallen

In this latest episode, we visit the battlefield where my journey through the Great War began some 35 years ago - Vimy Ridge.

We look at what happened in this part of the front and have a brief look at the battle of the 9th April 1917, before we travel around some of the cemeteries and memorials that cover this part of the battlefield.

We begin at the French National Cemetery at Notre Dame de Lorrette where we discover the story behind how the Basilica got its name.  We hear about the death of a great French cyclist before we visit the remarkable Ring of Peace memorial.

Heading down into the valley, we hear about General Barbot, and visit the massive cemetery at Caberet Rouge before visiting the Canadian memorial on top of Vimy Ridge.

Support the podcast:

https://www.patreon.com/footstepsofthefallen
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/footstepsblog