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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.

Episode 2.21 Fritz gave us hell

Mar 28, 2017

This episode is based on the letters home by Percy Smythe which were published in the Jerilderie Herald and Urana Observer in March and April 1917. They cover the same events as in the previous episode at Pozieres with a slightly different bent.

What does a soldier tell his family about one of the most intense battles...

Episode 2.20 The Battle of Pozieres

Mar 19, 2017

Drum-roll time ..... Here it is, The Battle of Pozieres. Percy drinks rum and smokes cigarettes and, those following the series know, things must be really bad for that to happen! He gets buried by a shell, dug out, digs others out ... some of them ..., shot at, blown up again, machine gunned, shelled and so and so...

Episode 2.19 And should the Madonna fall

Mar 7, 2017

Jack Prior almost gets himself killed, but many others succeed without trying. The boys are moved to the Somme and the Battle of Pozieres looms large before them.

What a charming place, Percy describes the dugout he and his Russian born mate, Alex Popoff, find, "There are some bodies buried just in front of our door,...