Podcasts by Voices of the First World War
Dan Snow brings together the sound archive collections of the Imperial War Museums and the BBC to tell the story of World War I through the voices of those who were.
Further podcasts by BBC Radio 4
Podcast on the topic Geschichte
All episodes
25/12/2018 from 2018-12-25T07:00
In an omnibus edition of selected programmes from the final series, Dan Snow looks at some of the key events of 1918, from the German Spring Offensive in March, to the impact that the arrival of...
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11 o'clock from 2018-11-09T14:00
Dan Snow presents the final episode of Voices of the First World War, veterans recall what they were doing when the armistice took effect at 11 o'clock on 11th November 1918, and how they felt n...
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Mutiny in the High Seas Fleet from 2018-11-08T14:00
Dan Snow hears accounts of those who witnessed the restlessness, disorder and eventual mutiny of the sailors of the German High Seas Fleet in early November 1918, and recollections of one of the...
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Open Country from 2018-11-07T14:00
'Green fields, no barbed wire, nothing…'. Those who were there recall what it felt like to be advancing at last in the autumn of 1918, after years of stalemate. After a series of assaults on t...
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Enter America from 2018-04-06T13:00
Dan Snow hears the recollections of US soldiers who were sent to fight in France in 1918, and looks at the reactions of British and German soldiers to their arrival. They had received formidable...
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Spanish Flu from 2018-04-05T13:00
It was a tragedy beyond comprehension. Soldiers who had survived the trenches, civilians who had weathered shortages and bombardment, now faced a new enemy: influenza. The virus tore through soc...
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Morale and Manpower from 2018-04-04T12:45
Oral History tells a very different story to the propaganda of contemporary accounts when it comes to the state of morale in 1918. On the British side, the army that had sailed to Europe with a ...
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The Last of the Great Aces from 2018-04-03T12:45
Dan Snow looks at the war in the air in the first months of 1918, when a pilot's expertise began to matter less than an aircraft's bombing capabilities. Airmen recall that most of the great flyi...
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Operation Michael from 2018-04-02T12:45
The return of the major series tracking the development of the First World War, presented by Dan Snow. After 40 episodes looking at the war through interviews in the sound archives of the IWM an...
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The Battle of Cambrai from 2017-12-14T14:00
Members of the Tank Corps describe the excitement and rapid gains of the first day of the Battle of Cambrai, where new tactics and new technology helped the British to achieve that most elusive of ...
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Passchendaele: John Palmer from 2017-12-13T14:00
Among the recordings made for the BBC's landmark series 'The Great War' in the early 1960s, one in particular stands out. John Palmer, a British Gunner who served as a signaller from 1914 onwards o...
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Towards Passchendaele from 2017-12-12T14:00
Dan Snow, surveying the landscape around Ypres, hears the recollections of veterans of the Third Battle of Ypres, and maps their painfully slow progress eastwards. As the front line crept towards t...
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Third Ypres - Conditions from 2017-12-11T14:00
The return of the major series tracking the development of the First World War through the sound archives of the Imperial War Museums and the BBC. The name Ypres has become shorthand for the most ...
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Omnibus 1917 from 2017-07-28T21:00
In the first five programmes looking at 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,...
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Etaples Mutiny from 2017-07-19T08:45
There are conflicting versions of events when it comes to the British mutiny at Etaples in September 1917, from the soldiers who took part in it, to the military policeman who witnessed it. They te...
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From Beneath: Mines at Messines from 2017-07-05T08:45
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 be...
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French Mutinies from 2017-06-28T08:45
Dan Snow presents the story of WWI through the voices of those who were there.
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In the Air: Bloody April from 2017-06-21T08:45
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. Reaching 1917, Dan Snow explores the events of the year...
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Omnibus 1916 Series 2 from 2016-11-18T22:00
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 prog...
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Sheffield and the Somme from 2016-11-14T14:00
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 Bat...
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The Somme: Over the Top from 2016-07-01T13:00
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 ...
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The Somme: From Sunrise to Zero Hour from 2016-06-30T13:00
The last two programmes of the week cover the Battle of the Somme. On 30th June we hear about the build up to the battle exactly 100 years ago, with descriptions of the seven day bombardment of the...
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Conscientious Objectors from 2016-06-29T13:00
By mid-1916 conscription had been introduced to replenish the forces of the British Army, which was now engaged in huge and costly battles on the Western Front. Dan Snow hears first-hand accounts f...
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Kut: Sand, Mud, Mirage from 2015-11-06T14:00
Before the last survivors of the First World War passed away, the memories of many of those who fought it were captured in sound recordings. Speakers recall in great detail as though it were yester...
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Battle of Loos from 2015-11-04T14:00
Before the last survivors of the First World War passed away, the memories of many of those who fought it were captured in sound recordings. Speakers recall in great detail as though it were yester...
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Gallipoli - Conditions and Evacuation from 2015-06-26T13:00
Dan Snow hears soldiers experiences of the First World War as it was fought on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915 - from enduring the constant threat of shell and sniper fire, the intense heat and lac...
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Gallipoli - Landings from 2015-06-25T13:00
Drawing on sound archive from the Imperial War Museums and the BBC, Dan Snow looks at the experiences of veterans of the First World War who took part in the landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles ...
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Reinforcements from 2015-06-24T13:00
By 1915 the intensity of the war was increasing. After the first gas attacks at Ypres, a new unit of Territorials was thrown in to the battle without full training or reconnaissance, within days of...
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Neuve Chapelle from 2015-06-22T13:00
There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who actually took part. The Imperial War Museums' holdings include ...
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The Christmas Truce from 2014-12-25T13:45
There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who actually took part. In a unique partnership between the Imperia...
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Prisoners of War from 2014-11-06T14:38
There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who actually took part. In a unique partnership between the Imperia...
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The Trenches 1914 from 2014-11-05T14:00
There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who actually took part. In a unique partnership between the Imperia...
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Outnumbered and Outgunned from 2014-10-29T14:00
There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who actually took part. In a unique partnership between the Imperia...
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Battle and Retreat from 2014-10-28T13:45
There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who actually took part. In a unique partnership between the Imperia...
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First Impressions from 2014-10-28T11:21
There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who actually took part. In a unique partnership between the Imperia...
Listen