WW1: Not So Quiet On The Western Front!

Episode 142: French Army on the Somme

Today in popular memory the Battle of the Somme is often seen as titanic struggle fought between Britain and her vast Empire an the military might of the German War Machi

Episode 141: Thiepval 1916: Storming the Impossible Ridge

By late September 1916, the British Army stood ready to attempt something it had failed to do on the war's bloodiest day: capture Thiepval. Once a village, now a fortifie

Episode 140: Flers-Courcelette: The Somme's Tactical Turning Point?

In this episode we continue our exploration of the 1916 Battle of the Somme with a focus on a key crucial stage famed for the global debut of a new weapon - the tank - Bu

Episode 139: Pozières: Australia's Bloodiest Battle of the Somme

The struggle for Pozieres would become one of the most infamous campaigns of the Battle of the Somme: some 23000 Australians would become casualties over six weeks fighti

Episode 138: Somme's Woodland: Mametz, Trônes, Delville & High Wood

There was no terrain on the Somme that soldiers feared more than woodland - a maze of broken stumps, fallen branches, and hidden barbed wire. In this episode we explore h

Episode 137: Night Attack on the Somme: Bazentin Ridge 1916

Just two weeks after the catastrophe of 1 July 1916, the British Army launched another major assault on the Somme - this time with dramatically different results. Attacki

Episode 136: The Somme in the South - Forgotten Victory

When people think of the Somme, they think of failure: men cut down in no man's land; shattered battalions; and catastrophic losses. Yet along much of the southern part o

Bonus Episode: Reichs & Republics The Turnip Winter of 1916/17

What happens when an entire nation runs out of food? This is one of our favourite episodes from our sister podcast, Reichs and Republics: The German History Podcast, and

Episode 135: The Somme’s Northern Disaster

At 7.30am on the morning of 1st July 1916, whistles blew along a front stretching more than twenty miles. Tens of thousands of British soldiers climbed from their trenche

Episode 134: France's Elite Units

What turns a unit into an elite? Is it rigorous selection, a hard-earned reputation, or simply being thrown into the fiercest fighting and surviving? In today's episode

Episode 133: The Gallipoli Evacuation: A Forgotten Success Story?

For eight brutal months in 1915, every Allied plan at Gallipoli had failed. However, on the final night of the campaign, the Allies finally managed to pull off one perfec

Episode 132: Battles that Shaped the 20th Century

In this week’s episode and in a long overdue collaboration between Not So Quite on the Western Front and WW2 Both Sides of the Wire, four of us sit down to explore what w

Episode 131: The August Offensive: Gallipoli’s Last Great Hope

In August, the Allies prepared for their largest offensive yet on the Gallipoli Peninsula. This was intended to be the decisive breakthrough that would break the deadloc

Episode 130: Why the Allies Failed at Krithia — Gallipoli’s Fatal Mistake

Four miles from the beaches of Gallipoli stood a small village called Krithia. Allied commanders believed it could be captured in a single day. Instead, thousands of Brit

Episode 129: What Was It Really Like to Survive Gallipoli?

Have you ever wondered what it was actually like to survive in the trenches of the Gallipoli Front in the First World War? Not the battles we read about in textbooks, but

Episode 128: The Real Black Day of the German Army? | Soissons 1918

In July 1918, the German spring offensives had reached their high watermark, and it was time for the French army to strike back. This is the story of the Battle of Soisso

Episode 127: From 1915 Newsreels to Mel Gibson - The Evolution of Gallipoli Movies

In this episode, Spencer is joined by Professor Mark Connelly, a renowned expert in military and cultural history, to explore the cinematic legacy of the Gallipoli Campai

Episode 126: Gallipoli 1915 - France's Forgotten Battle

In 1915, France sent an army to Gallipoli. Few in the English speaking world know this, and few in France remember their efforts. In this episode, we recover the forgotte

Episode 125: Gallipoli 1915: What Really Happened at Anzac Cove?

In 1915, Anzac troops landed on the rugged coastline of Gallipoli in an attempt to break the Ottoman defences from the north. What they encountered were steep cliffs, cha

Episode 124: Gallipoli 1915: The Brutal Landing at Helles

In 1915, allied Forces tried to storm the beaches of Gallipoli and push in land through the heavily fortified ottoman positions. Instead, they faced devastating fire from