Voices of the First World War

Latest Episodes:

From Beneath: Mines at Messines Jul 05, 2017

Show notes

Reaching 1917, Dan Snow explores the events of the year through the recollections of those who were there. As the fighting became more and more desperate, in the air, on the Western Front - even below ground in extensive mining operations - the morale of those being sent into battle was at times becoming dangerously low. In archive interviews survivors of the war recall their role in the attack on Messines Ridge in June 1917, which began with the devastating use of more than 20 huge mines, and the horrific destruction wreaked, both on the Germans and the landscape.

French Mutinies Jun 28, 2017

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Dan Snow presents the story of WWI through the voices of those who were there.

In the Air: Bloody April Jun 21, 2017

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The return of the major series tracking the development of the First World War through the archives of the Imperial War Museums and the BBC.

Morale was never worse in the Royal Flying Corps than in spring 1917, which became known as 'Bloody April'. Germany had the upper hand at this point in the war, with superior tactics, training, and technology. With outclassed aircraft, the RFC suffered disastrous losses throughout the month, and beyond. Cecil Lewis and Norman Macmillan eloquently describe the intensity of the dogfights of spring 1917, and others recall the leading flying ace at the time, Captain Albert Ball, who was lost in early May.

In the first five programmes of this year's series, Dan will be also looking at the French mutinies of May 1917 onwards, and the extraordinary feats of military engineering - and deadly cost to German soldiers - involved in exploding 20 huge mines at the Messines Ridge. Soldiers and officers speak about the issue of rank and class in the British Army of 1917, by which time many of the ex-public school officers had been wiped out. There are conflicting versions of events when it comes to the British mutiny at Etaples in September, but Officer Jim Davies, at the centre of the action on the bridge between the army camp and the town, tells his story.

Voices of the First World War is made in partnership between the BBC and the Imperial War Museums.

Omnibus 1916 Series 2 Nov 18, 2016

Show notes

Dan Snow tracks the development of the First World War through the recollections of those who were there.

Drawing on the sound archives of the IWM and the BBC, in this omnibus edition of five programmes looking at the course of the war in 1916, interviewees recall the impact of the Battle of the Somme on Sheffield, through the recollections of a soldier who fought with the Sheffield City Battalion and two people who were schoolchildren at the time. They recall the lists of dead in the newspapers, the frequent announcements in school assemblies of older brothers who had been killed, and the sight of the many returning wounded on the streets. Gertrude Farr's husband Harry, injured at the Battle of the Somme, refused to carry on fighting. In the second programme Gertrude and her daughter reveal the effect the execution of her husband for cowardice in 1916 had on her life. In the third programme, men recall the first appearance of tanks during the war, at Flers as the Battle of the Somme carried on. Dan also looks at what troops got up to off the battlefield, when they were out of the front line in France. British soldiers spent the majority of the war behind the lines with brief, often appalling, spells in the trenches. Football matches, construction projects, training, drinking, theatres, religious observation and sex took up more time than the fighting. Finally, in 'Prisoners of War of Kut-al-Amara', men recall the 'death march' from Kut to Baghdad and northwards, and their experience of years of captivity after the end of the siege of Kut in April 1916, and we hear how differently officers were treated in contrast to lower ranks.

After Kut Nov 18, 2016

Show notes

Men recall their 'death march' to Baghdad and northwards after surrender to the Ottoman Army at the end of the siege of Kut-Al-Amara in April 1916, when, already weakened by dysentery and starvation after five months trapped inside Kut, they had to march hundreds of miles in searing heat, without water, to Prisoner of War camps. Drawing on the sound archives of the IWM and the BBC, and on a journal written by an Indian soldier and hidden in his boots, Dan Snow explores the varying treatment of the men according to rank, race and religion, as they travelled through villages and even lived in villas that had belonged to Armenians, but were now deserted.

At Rest Nov 17, 2016

Show notes

Dan Snow looks at what troops got up to off the battlefield, when they were out of the front line in France. British soldiers spent the majority of the war behind the lines with brief, often appalling, spells in the trenches. Football matches, construction projects, training, drinking, theatres, religious observation and sex took up more time than the fighting, and crucially kept morale up. Drawing on interviews in the sound archives of the BBC and the IWM.

Tanks Nov 16, 2016

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The very first appearance of tanks during the war was at an attack on the German held village of Flers in September 1916. It was not as successful as hoped, but British soldiers who witnessed their approach, and those who drove them into the village (before they broke down), describe how they could see their potential in future. Drawing on interviews in the sound archives of the IWM and the BBC, and narrated by Dan Snow.

Cowardice Nov 15, 2016

Show notes

Gertrude Farr heard about her husband Harry Farr's execution for cowardice in October 1916 by letter, and was never given any more details of the circumstances surrounding his death, apart from by the vicar who had attended his shooting, who revealed that Harry had refused to be blindfolded. Gertrude and her daughter reveal the effect Harry's execution had on their lives and the stigma that was attached to such a death, while two former soldiers talk about why they think such punishments were necessary. Narrated by Dan Snow.

Sheffield and the Somme Nov 14, 2016

Show notes

The return of the archive series tracking the development of the First World War through the recollections of those who were there.

Sheffield and the Somme: Dan Snow looks at the impact of the Battle of the Somme on the Pals battalion raised in Sheffield, and on the city itself, through the recollections of a surviving soldier in the Sheffield City Battalion and two people who were schoolchildren at the time. They recall the lists of dead in the newspapers, the frequent announcements in school assemblies of older brothers who had been killed, and the sight of the many returning wounded on the streets.

The Somme: Over the Top Jul 01, 2016

Show notes

The final programme in this instalment of Voices of the First World War focuses on the first catastrophic ten minutes of the Battle of the Somme, with men recalling the orders they were given, the reality on the ground as it became clear the German wire hadn't been cut by the British bombardment and their memory of those around them being mown down by machine gun fire as they attempted to cross No Man's Land. Dan Snow brings together first hand accounts drawn from the sound archives of the IWM and the BBC, some vivid and detailed and others clearly clouded by the trauma of their experience and the intervening years, to reveal the devastation on the battlefield, and surviving soldiers' feelings about the heavy losses suffered by the British by the end of the day on 1st July.