Episode 142: French Army on the Somme

Picture a soldier with a trench dagger tucked into his belt and a satchel full of grenades on his shoulder, carrying a spiked club in one hand and a revolver in the other: a man ready for a deadly encounter in the dark. The weapons of trench raiding are among the most unsettling objects left behind by the First World War, and today, we explore how these weapons were used and why the less fearsome equipment could be just as important.

What happens when an army built for a short war finds itself fighting in a long one? In 1915, the British Army found out, and learned the answer the hard way. Short of guns, short of shells, and up against defences that no one had previously seen, the Army would experience a year of courage without glory.

In this episode, a continuation of our Germany at War series, we take a deep dive into the fighting on the Western Front throughout the crucial year of 1915. From poison gas and pillboxes to elastic defence, we explore the tactics, technology, and brutal realities of the war and much more in this week’s episode.

Charles de Gaulle was wounded and captured at Verdun in March 1916, but this marked the beginning of a new phase of his First World War. Over the next two and a half years, he would dedicate himself to escaping captivity and rejoining the fight. This is the story of how the future president of France became one of the most notorious escape artists of the First World War.

It is difficult to imagine Charles de Gaulle as a young man before the képi, the presidency, and his famous silhouette. But in August 1914, he was a 23-year-old lieutenant about to be wounded and tested in the inferno of combat. Ultimately captured in the brutal fighting at Verdun, he would do all in his power to escape from captivity in Germany. This is the story of Charles de Gaulle's First World War.