Paul Reed
@sommecourt.bsky.social
Military Historian, author and Battlefield Guide. Occasional wargamer. Host of the Old Front Line #WW1 #podcast.
www.oldfrontline.co.uk
www.oldfrontline.co.uk
Pinned
Caring For The Silent Cities
In this special edition, we’re joined by Jon Gedling, Director of Estates for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, to discuss the challenges and responsibilities involved in caring for…
oldfrontline.co.uk
In a special @oldfrontline.bsky.social Jon Gedling of the CWGC joins us to discuss the care of #WW1 cemeteries in France & Belgium: the “black spot” issue, evolving maintenance, recent findings & how visitors can help.
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/22/c...
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/22/c...
In a special @oldfrontline.bsky.social Jon Gedling of the CWGC joins us to discuss the care of #WW1 cemeteries in France & Belgium: the “black spot” issue, evolving maintenance, recent findings & how visitors can help.
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/22/c...
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/22/c...
Caring For The Silent Cities
In this special edition, we’re joined by Jon Gedling, Director of Estates for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, to discuss the challenges and responsibilities involved in caring for…
oldfrontline.co.uk
November 22, 2025 at 9:01 AM
In a special @oldfrontline.bsky.social Jon Gedling of the CWGC joins us to discuss the care of #WW1 cemeteries in France & Belgium: the “black spot” issue, evolving maintenance, recent findings & how visitors can help.
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/22/c...
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/22/c...
Reposted by Paul Reed
In the latest @oldfrontline.bsky.social we explore some lesser known battlefields on the Western Front, what happened to captured trenches, the rise of AI in military history of #WW1 & whether Great War generals were butchers or brilliant.
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/15/q...
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/15/q...
Questions and Answers Episode 40
In this 40th Questions and Answers episode, we explore some of the lesser-known battlefields of the Western Front, uncovering places where traces of the First World War fig…
oldfrontline.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 8:26 AM
In the latest @oldfrontline.bsky.social we explore some lesser known battlefields on the Western Front, what happened to captured trenches, the rise of AI in military history of #WW1 & whether Great War generals were butchers or brilliant.
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/15/q...
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/15/q...
Fantastic to see The Old Front Line featured and reviewed in this weeks Radio Times!
November 21, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Fantastic to see The Old Front Line featured and reviewed in this weeks Radio Times!
Worth a listen, and we really must do something about Blackadder for @oldfrontline.bsky.social at some point. Good to hear academics saying it is a useful teaching tool and not just dismiss it.
Was Blackadder Goes Forth the most powerful portrayal of the #FWW ever put on television?
This month we take a look at the show's enduring legacy & discuss how it evolved, historical realities behind its humour, & why the final scene still resonates. 🗃️
ohwhatalovelypodcast.co.uk/podcast/blac...
This month we take a look at the show's enduring legacy & discuss how it evolved, historical realities behind its humour, & why the final scene still resonates. 🗃️
ohwhatalovelypodcast.co.uk/podcast/blac...
Blackadder
Was Blackadder Goes Forth the most powerful portrayal of the First World War ever put on television?
In this episode of Oh! What a Lovely Podcast, Jessica, Chris and Angus take a look at...
ohwhatalovelypodcast.co.uk
November 20, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Worth a listen, and we really must do something about Blackadder for @oldfrontline.bsky.social at some point. Good to hear academics saying it is a useful teaching tool and not just dismiss it.
Officially the battle of the Somme came to an end #OTD in 1916. British units attacked on the Ancre & beyond the Bapaume Road, Canadians fought in the snow at Desire Trench near Courcelette: I took this there a few years ago: dappled snow echoing the shell-smashed ground of 1916.
November 18, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Officially the battle of the Somme came to an end #OTD in 1916. British units attacked on the Ancre & beyond the Bapaume Road, Canadians fought in the snow at Desire Trench near Courcelette: I took this there a few years ago: dappled snow echoing the shell-smashed ground of 1916.
The Old Front Line #YouTube Channel is only a small one but I was pleased to see it pass 8K subscribers last night. Looking for some #WW1 content then do have a look: youtube.com/@oldfrontlin...
November 18, 2025 at 8:30 AM
The Old Front Line #YouTube Channel is only a small one but I was pleased to see it pass 8K subscribers last night. Looking for some #WW1 content then do have a look: youtube.com/@oldfrontlin...
Reposted by Paul Reed
The Death of WW1 Poet Wilfred Owen - the latest video on the Old Front Line YouTube Channel:
youtu.be/7MtStuNE4Zc?...
youtu.be/7MtStuNE4Zc?...
WW1 War Poet Wilfred Owen: where he fell in November 1918
YouTube video by Old Front Line
youtu.be
November 16, 2025 at 10:34 PM
The Death of WW1 Poet Wilfred Owen - the latest video on the Old Front Line YouTube Channel:
youtu.be/7MtStuNE4Zc?...
youtu.be/7MtStuNE4Zc?...
Reposted by Paul Reed
Right folks, we’re into mid-November so here’s your latest monthly reminder for #FestiveTankChallenge2025.
It’s the Sherman - any variant or scale.
Get those kits stashed and ready for December!
#FestiveTankChallenge #Wargaming
It’s the Sherman - any variant or scale.
Get those kits stashed and ready for December!
#FestiveTankChallenge #Wargaming
🚨 #FestiveTankChallenge2025 🚨
Warning Order!
Folks, 2025 #FestiveTankChallenge is the Allied Sherman.
Any scale & variant - completed between 21st-31st Dec 2025. Here’s my kit - 1/56 Rubicon M4A4 Firefly VC.
Hope you get involved - so get those kits stashed!
#Wargaming #ScaleModels #Nerdlings
Warning Order!
Folks, 2025 #FestiveTankChallenge is the Allied Sherman.
Any scale & variant - completed between 21st-31st Dec 2025. Here’s my kit - 1/56 Rubicon M4A4 Firefly VC.
Hope you get involved - so get those kits stashed!
#Wargaming #ScaleModels #Nerdlings
November 16, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Right folks, we’re into mid-November so here’s your latest monthly reminder for #FestiveTankChallenge2025.
It’s the Sherman - any variant or scale.
Get those kits stashed and ready for December!
#FestiveTankChallenge #Wargaming
It’s the Sherman - any variant or scale.
Get those kits stashed and ready for December!
#FestiveTankChallenge #Wargaming
In the latest @oldfrontline.bsky.social we explore some lesser known battlefields on the Western Front, what happened to captured trenches, the rise of AI in military history of #WW1 & whether Great War generals were butchers or brilliant.
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/15/q...
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/15/q...
Questions and Answers Episode 40
In this 40th Questions and Answers episode, we explore some of the lesser-known battlefields of the Western Front, uncovering places where traces of the First World War fig…
oldfrontline.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 8:26 AM
In the latest @oldfrontline.bsky.social we explore some lesser known battlefields on the Western Front, what happened to captured trenches, the rise of AI in military history of #WW1 & whether Great War generals were butchers or brilliant.
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/15/q...
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/15/q...
The Battle of the Ancre took place #OTD in 1916. Among those killed was Leonard Hasman of the Anson Battalion, an 18 year old from Barrow Hill. He’d enlisted at 17 and joined the unit France being killed in his first battle. I rescued his Memorial Plaque some time ago.
November 13, 2025 at 9:40 AM
The Battle of the Ancre took place #OTD in 1916. Among those killed was Leonard Hasman of the Anson Battalion, an 18 year old from Barrow Hill. He’d enlisted at 17 and joined the unit France being killed in his first battle. I rescued his Memorial Plaque some time ago.
Reposted by Paul Reed
On the cusp of WWII, in 1938, my grandfather Charles W. Bridgen shot a colour film of his journey to revisit the Northern Front. It documents a Europe on the brink of war, still scattered with the fragments of the last. The full film is on Youtube here: youtube.com/watch?v=esA9...
And in the Sky the Larks: 1930s Colour Footage of the Western Front & Northern France. WWI.
YouTube video by Flash of Splendour
youtube.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:15 PM
On the cusp of WWII, in 1938, my grandfather Charles W. Bridgen shot a colour film of his journey to revisit the Northern Front. It documents a Europe on the brink of war, still scattered with the fragments of the last. The full film is on Youtube here: youtube.com/watch?v=esA9...
Today in 1918 the Guns Fell Silent on the Western Front, and more than a century later on Armistice Day we continue to reflect on the meaning of the Great War, and all those ordinary men and women in extraordinary times.
November 11, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Today in 1918 the Guns Fell Silent on the Western Front, and more than a century later on Armistice Day we continue to reflect on the meaning of the Great War, and all those ordinary men and women in extraordinary times.
A daughter’s hand places a cross against her father’s name on the Cassino Memorial to the Missing. #RemembranceDay #RemembranceSunday
November 9, 2025 at 9:51 AM
A daughter’s hand places a cross against her father’s name on the Cassino Memorial to the Missing. #RemembranceDay #RemembranceSunday
We Will Remember Them - sunset on the Somme at Courcelette British Cemetery. #RemembranceDay #RemembranceSunday
November 9, 2025 at 8:11 AM
We Will Remember Them - sunset on the Somme at Courcelette British Cemetery. #RemembranceDay #RemembranceSunday
Reposted by Paul Reed
During War people had no humour... wrong
Just a standard group photo of WW1 soldiers?
Something in this picture is very curious...
No caption on the photo, just my educated guesses:
▶️103e Régiment d’Infanterie
📅Likely Winter 1915/16
📍Ville-Sur-Tourbe to Melzicourt area
Just a standard group photo of WW1 soldiers?
Something in this picture is very curious...
No caption on the photo, just my educated guesses:
▶️103e Régiment d’Infanterie
📅Likely Winter 1915/16
📍Ville-Sur-Tourbe to Melzicourt area
November 7, 2025 at 10:44 AM
During War people had no humour... wrong
Just a standard group photo of WW1 soldiers?
Something in this picture is very curious...
No caption on the photo, just my educated guesses:
▶️103e Régiment d’Infanterie
📅Likely Winter 1915/16
📍Ville-Sur-Tourbe to Melzicourt area
Just a standard group photo of WW1 soldiers?
Something in this picture is very curious...
No caption on the photo, just my educated guesses:
▶️103e Régiment d’Infanterie
📅Likely Winter 1915/16
📍Ville-Sur-Tourbe to Melzicourt area
Forgotten Battlefield is about to start on BBC4 - a few photos from the filming in 2001. One of the more incredible experiences I’ve had on The Old Front Line.
November 6, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Forgotten Battlefield is about to start on BBC4 - a few photos from the filming in 2001. One of the more incredible experiences I’ve had on The Old Front Line.
Forgotten Battlefield returns tonight at 19.30 on BBC4 looking at the groundbreaking work of The Diggers to recover the archaeology and the dead of Ypres. Made in 2001, it was the first BBC film I worked on.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
BBC Two - Meet the Ancestors, Series 5, The Forgotten Battlefield
Life on the World War I front line near Ypres is pieced together by archaeologists.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 7:28 AM
Forgotten Battlefield returns tonight at 19.30 on BBC4 looking at the groundbreaking work of The Diggers to recover the archaeology and the dead of Ypres. Made in 2001, it was the first BBC film I worked on.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
In the latest @oldfrontline.bsky.social we discuss:
- How big is the 'Zone Rouge' today?
- Was morphine use in the trenches ever misused?
- When did British and Canadian troops first get steel helmets?
- Which #WW1 slang terms are still in use today?
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/01/q...
- How big is the 'Zone Rouge' today?
- Was morphine use in the trenches ever misused?
- When did British and Canadian troops first get steel helmets?
- Which #WW1 slang terms are still in use today?
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/01/q...
Questions and Answers Episode 39
In this episode we ask what is the current size of the ‘Zone Rouge’ and are there plans to clear it? We then look at the use of morphine to treat pain and was this misused? We then look…
oldfrontline.co.uk
November 1, 2025 at 4:20 PM
In the latest @oldfrontline.bsky.social we discuss:
- How big is the 'Zone Rouge' today?
- Was morphine use in the trenches ever misused?
- When did British and Canadian troops first get steel helmets?
- Which #WW1 slang terms are still in use today?
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/01/q...
- How big is the 'Zone Rouge' today?
- Was morphine use in the trenches ever misused?
- When did British and Canadian troops first get steel helmets?
- Which #WW1 slang terms are still in use today?
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/11/01/q...
Reposted by Paul Reed
Battle of Loos with Peter Doyle: in the latest @oldfrontline.bsky.social we are joined by @profpeterdoyle.bsky.social to discuss the offensive of September 1915.
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/10/25/b...
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/10/25/b...
Battle of Loos with Peter Doyle
In a special episode we are joined by Professor Peter Doyle who delivered this talk on Loos at a Podcast Supporters Evening for the 110th Anniversary of the battle last month. Peter’s new edi…
oldfrontline.co.uk
October 25, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Battle of Loos with Peter Doyle: in the latest @oldfrontline.bsky.social we are joined by @profpeterdoyle.bsky.social to discuss the offensive of September 1915.
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/10/25/b...
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/10/25/b...
Thanks to all who joined me for an @oldfrontline.bsky.social Supporters Evening where we discussed the Official Images of the Battle of Messines in June 1917.
October 30, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Thanks to all who joined me for an @oldfrontline.bsky.social Supporters Evening where we discussed the Official Images of the Battle of Messines in June 1917.
Very pleased that the BBC will be specially re-showing my first ever TV programme ‘Forgotten Battlefield’ made in 2001 by John Hayes Fisher about the work of The Diggers at Ypres. BBC4 6th November at 19.30:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
BBC Two - Meet the Ancestors, Series 5, The Forgotten Battlefield
Life on the World War I front line near Ypres is pieced together by archaeologists.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 27, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Very pleased that the BBC will be specially re-showing my first ever TV programme ‘Forgotten Battlefield’ made in 2001 by John Hayes Fisher about the work of The Diggers at Ypres. BBC4 6th November at 19.30:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
Battle of Loos with Peter Doyle: in the latest @oldfrontline.bsky.social we are joined by @profpeterdoyle.bsky.social to discuss the offensive of September 1915.
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/10/25/b...
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/10/25/b...
Battle of Loos with Peter Doyle
In a special episode we are joined by Professor Peter Doyle who delivered this talk on Loos at a Podcast Supporters Evening for the 110th Anniversary of the battle last month. Peter’s new edi…
oldfrontline.co.uk
October 25, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Battle of Loos with Peter Doyle: in the latest @oldfrontline.bsky.social we are joined by @profpeterdoyle.bsky.social to discuss the offensive of September 1915.
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/10/25/b...
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/10/25/b...
Reposted by Paul Reed
In the latest @oldfrontline.bsky.social QnAs we look at:
- Was there only one “Hill 80”?
- How did armies supply millions of men in #WW1?
- Did regiments fight with multiple battalions at the front at once?
- Who were the “whippers-in” at the front line?
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/10/18/q...
- Was there only one “Hill 80”?
- How did armies supply millions of men in #WW1?
- Did regiments fight with multiple battalions at the front at once?
- Who were the “whippers-in” at the front line?
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/10/18/q...
Questions and Answers Episode 38
In this latest QnA episode, we tackle a fresh set of listener questions about the First World War, ranging from battlefield geography to the realities of supply and discipline at the front. We star…
oldfrontline.co.uk
October 18, 2025 at 3:16 PM
In the latest @oldfrontline.bsky.social QnAs we look at:
- Was there only one “Hill 80”?
- How did armies supply millions of men in #WW1?
- Did regiments fight with multiple battalions at the front at once?
- Who were the “whippers-in” at the front line?
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/10/18/q...
- Was there only one “Hill 80”?
- How did armies supply millions of men in #WW1?
- Did regiments fight with multiple battalions at the front at once?
- Who were the “whippers-in” at the front line?
oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/10/18/q...