The fight in the farmyard

Footsteps of the fallen

In our first episode of 2022, we pay a visit to one of the lesser-known killing fields of WW1. Covering just a few acres of arable land between Cambrai and St Quentin, the strong points of Gillemont Farm, The Knoll, and Quennett Copse, were the scene of some of the most brutal hand-to-hand fighting between the British and Germans anywhere on the Western Front. One veteran described the aftermath of a British attack on the farmyard, as looking like an abattoir, with the blood of the dead running like a river through the farmyard drainage system.
We hear the moving stories of some of the men involved in the fighting. The remarkable eulogy of a Major in the Queens Own Oxfordshire Hussars provides a unique insight into a much-loved officer and allows us to discover the story behind "M" of James Bond fame. We meet the macintosh-wearing "Chocolate Soldier" and hear the tragic tale of a severely wounded officer of the Gloucestershire Regiment who managed one last act of defiance in the face of horrific injuries, to win himself a posthumous Victoria Cross.
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