In this second episode, where we go back to the front, this week we travel to Arras and the Somme.

In the company of a ledger battlefields tour, we travel along these places connected with the events of 1916 and 1917,

but start at the headquarters of the Commonwealth Wargraves Commission near Arras at the new CWGC experience.

Since I made these recordings I've been back over again this time to Epe for the 11th of November for Armistice Day.

It was nowhere near as busy as it normally is but nevertheless there was a lot of people there, many from the Netherlands and many local people as well, and it was good to see the crowds assemble for the commemorative services at the Menning Gate.

For myself, I sneaked away to a quiet corner of Flanders onto the rampart cemetery near the Lill Gate and sat

there at 11 o'clock looking as the graves do out towards the battlefields and thinking of the

ground along the old front line and wishing so many more of you were there with me. But we will return. It gets easier. There's paperwork,

there's a degree of hassle, we have to be prepared for things, but it makes it worthwhile

travelling to those locations to be back there, to be seeing that ground again. And I'm lucky

that my job as a battlefield guide

allows me to travel so frequently.

I'm back over the coming week,

this time to the Somme with a group from Ulster

for the Centenary of the Ulster Tower,

something that we touch on in this podcast.

And I hope there on a crisp November day to record something else for a future

podcast but for now let's travel together along that old front line at arras and the song

i learned a lot making these recordings on the ground some of the sound is not the best and I've learned some lessons from that

and there's some new recording equipment coming shortly

for those next trips when I'm out there.

It's a different kind of experience recording these podcasts on the ground

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