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WW1 Digger History Podcast


WWI Digger Stories Podcast reproduces the diaires, memoirs and letters of the real participants in the war that changed the course of the 20th Century. What was it like to be in the trenches, on the ships or behind the big guns where death stalked in infinite ways and it was impossible to make friends unless you were prepared to lose tham at any moment.

This podcast is formatted with each diairy or memoir forming a series, usually taking the listener through the war from beginning to end, from raw recruit to returning veteran, as it was experienced by the soldier and in his (or her, when I include Nurses stories) own words.

Jun 29, 2016

This episode covers much of 1917 including The 2nd Battle of Bullecourt and "Passchendaele" or the 3rd Ypres offensive. Len as usual provides great insight into the life of a digger on the western front. His description of signalling during the Battles of Polygon Wood and Broodseinde Ridge are awesome. You'll never forget the "s"es beers!

This episode covers Len's Chapter 8 of his memoirs and is quite long, but that is how he wrote it. Here is some of it:

"In charge of a sergeant, off we went, quite a mob, for Division was also sending up a wireless set. We were loaded with scopes and lamps and we were shelled all the way. Heavy stuff. We missed a lot of congestion going across country, but the ground! It was quite spongy, for underneath were mules, horses, Fritzes and Tommies of 1914 vintage on. And the stench rising from cracked, drying ground was pretty awful. Many of the division chaps, new to this smell, were not looking too good and one chap was promptly very sick over some brand new accumulators he carried. We had some narrow escapes, for we just had to plod on heavily laden. Anyway, he was ‘sweeping’ all over the place. Looking across to that dreadful Menin Road, I saw mules, men and ammo go up with a roar. Noise everywhere and up aloft scores of planes: Fritz planes, very aggressive. In fact, he seemed definitely to be ‘on top’, new Fokkers, etc. The dog fights fascinated us but on we went."