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The Hey, folks. Welcome to the Battles of the First World War podcast.

Joining the podcast today is Andrew Lucas, who together with Jürgen Smeiszek, wrote the book

Fighting the Kaiser's War, the Saxons in Flanders, 1914 through 1918.

Juergen is unable to join us this afternoon,

but we'll give his bio here and then we'll speak with Andy.

So Juergen,

Jirgen Smeischchek was born in 1959,

has lived in Dresden all his life and worked as a layout artist.

His first visit to Flanders in 1994 inspired his interest in the Great War,

particularly as experienced by his fellow Saxons,

and he began amassing the extraordinary collection which forms the basis of this book.

In his own translated words,

it is a strange but uplifting feeling to hold these almost 100-year-old photos, diaries, and letters from the field in one's hands.

And naturally, I am anxious to find out more about these people, their experiences and the places and circumstances in which they lived and died.

This includes visiting the old theaters of war.

I'm particularly fond of Flanders, although there was more left to marvel at elsewhere,

the Vosges or the Messerian Lakes.

Through his collecting and researching, he has made many friends in many countries

and contributed to book

projects in german flemish and english and so now we'll go to speaking with uh andrew so

...