The drone view really highlights the futility (to us at least) of the fighting over a few nondescript fields. No doubt at the time they were seen very differently. Great content, thanks for all your efforts

I've been into WW1 history for a long time, and I've read about just about every major engagement on the western front, these videos really bring to life the realities of war in a way that few other sources do.

Excellent video, Steven. I visited that area in 2015 with several former army pals, one of whom's grandfather served in 2nd NF and was killed around Wittepoort farm in 1915. He laid a wreath at Wittepoort farm. Thank you for your great work.

Some great content coming out in quick succession recently.. good stuff.

Great video. I appreciate your work very much.

The lads who lay in poppy the fields ...would approve of your historic coverage ...we remember them ..cheers Steven thankyou ..

Great video Steven, and thank you. This year has been less than fun, but your videos really help keep my spirits high. Can’t wait for your next one!

Your video’s are brilliant and your voice is so relaxing! I really enjoy watching them!

Excellent documentary, as always. Thanks.

Excellent , I so love history and sights of battles like your presenting here. Its just so hard to imagine the death an carnage that happend here.

Outstanding video Steven!

Great footage taken at a time of year showing how boggy the ground gets.The lack of foliage provides a good view into those woods.It does,nt suit to film these battlefields in summer some how.Thanks for taking us there Mr Upton

Hi Steve This has really brought alive to me where my great uncle fought and died here.Thank You so much.We will remember them.,to all the brave men who had such tremendous courage to die for our country

Thanks so much for your informative videos. Sometimes it's so hard to visualise the front lines and battleground. You really do bring it all to life as sullyplaysgaem says. Could watch these for hours

Thank you for your in depth videos, it gives a clearer perspective of what happened. 3 of my Great uncles, my Mothers uncles, my Grandmothers brothers served in France during WW1 with the NZ rifles. 2 were gassed & 1 died in 1922 as a result. The other lived until 1969 & also served in WW2 as a aircraft loader with the RNZAF at Whenuapai, Fiji & the Solomon Islands. The other is still MIA. My Mother had photos of them in Egypt on the way over to the Western front & embroidered postcards (with the French flag & Union Jack) sent to my Grandmother from Paris.

I cant find anyone one on KZfaq who does content like yours steve, I've watch many of your videos more than once, i often find meself scanning google earth for battlefields after watching your videos, really hope you do some more soon. Thank you for the great content and effor you have put into your videos over the years!

Great video Steven

Very very interesting video. The pictures taken by the drone are amazing. Your explanations are very welcome and accurate. Well done!

Thank you so much, Mr. Upton, for this and your many other videos. I've walked up the little road to the RE memorial and the Liverpool Scottish Memorial many, many times. I've explored around the large craters near these memorials, but never knew (??!!) there were so many further in the woods. Something to see on my next trip!

Thanks Steven!

Another very interesting video Steven. Thanks for sharing your knowledge of WWI. On this date we should also celebrate VE Day. Thanks to all who served and especially those making the ultimate sacrifice.

Another excellent video Mr Upton. I’ve visited this site, and I wish drones AND your video were available then (though only few years ago). I used to think that there was absolutely nothing that better gives understanding of a battlefield than walking it. But your drone vids (and their red arrows) add another level.

Fantastic video again Steven. I have visited this area a few times now, having a keen interest in WW 1 and walked this very land. Your knowledge and skills would put many a documentary producer to shame. Thank you again.

I found your channel early today.....alas, I'm out of videos to watch. (!) Well made and much appreciated! Thank you for your service.

Steve Upton .. brilliant mind on first world war battlefields across France and Belgium..very good presenter ...bravo Steve Upton 😎👏👏👏

I really know so little about wwI you've inspired me to educate myself on the topic. Thanks for the videos.

Very much enjoyed your videos. I have visited most ww1 sites around the Somme and Passchendaele having a birds eye view shows how close the Somme actions were. Role on when we are free to visit again.

The video's are getting better and better. And crater wood is new for me, worth a visit. Thank you very much.

As always so peaceful to look at then the memorial to the sappers brings you back to reality. The fact that over 1000 men died fighting for those 2 fields is hard to wrap your head around. Great video as always. I sit glued to every word with my face about a foot from the screen.

One aspect I like to bring up amatol is not a high explosive, but a slow explosive. A generally 30% tnt and 70% ammonium nitrate. At that time was not known you can use diesel instead of tnt.

Great film Steve! Many thanks. But like most people, you don't mention the stand of A and B companies of 1/7th DLI on this ground on 25th May, a prelude to this better known battle. The battalion lost 29 killed, 76 wounded or gassed, and 183 missing and prisoners. In total this was around two thirds of the men committed. The dead included my great-great uncle, Joseph Bell.

Steven. Many thanks for this post. As you may remember in previous conversations my grandfather attacked here with the Liverpool Scottish and was shot in the shoulder but fortunately survived. I have been to Bellewaarde Ridge a couple of times and your video really gives an excellent perspective of the battlefield. Thanks for all your efforts.

Good work Steven. Thank you.

So easy to follow and gain some understanding of the size of the battlefields. Such a small area vs lives lost and maimed. Thank you

Thankyou Stephen, we had an excellent view thanks to your drone. We toured the area of these WWI battlefields with Leger Tours out of Sheffield a couple of years ago. Leger Tours are excellent. The battlefield is much clearer from your videos. Lest We Forget.

Another excellent video Steven. It’s simply bonkers to see the tiny areas of the battles and think of the number of men killed and injured in them.

thank you, explanations are clear and concise, I've always been Fascinated by the world wars. In this video (and many others) a ridge = a upward slope of the terrain.

I have quietly looked at everyone of your videos of the WW1. Each video had a very somber reaction for me when I heard of how many people have died in just these locations that you have presented. Please keep making more of these videos of the horrors and tragedies that took place at these sites are told. History must never be forgotten, lest we are condemned to repeat it.

Thank you for the video. My maternal grandmother's brother, Lt. B.E.D.Warde, died here on 16th June 1915 in an assault on Bellewaarde Ridge and was buried in the trench where he fell. I have never known precisely where he is. However I now have a much better idea. Thank you.

I Really REALLY love this channel I’ve just found it but holy gosh was this the stuff I was always been looking for being in New Zealand it’s a bit hard to get out and see the world so thank you Steven for brining it to me!

I like all your videos, I am a subscriber and, you are great Steve. Please don't stop.

Subscribed ....Steven thankyou from robert ..my great grandfather fought at the battle of the Somme ....means a lot too me ..that we remember ..too deter us from it ever happening again ....

I've seen all your videos. Thank you for making them, very informative and your knowledge of the trench maps and history exceptional. Can't wait to see all these locations myself. Keep up the great work!

Another marvellous presentation Steven; informative and thought-provoking.

another splendid film. Thanks for the emphasis on orienting us to location as well as the time frame for different actions over the same ground.

A fantastic little short film, it really puts into perspective how short the distances were between the front lines. Even with all the battlefields I have visited I seem to always think the distances between the lines are closer to a mile + rather than within a few hundred meters. I'm looking forward to seeing any future videos you put out

Hi from San Francisco CA! You do a wonderful job and I really enjoy your commentary and videos. The drone footage really helps me understand the breath and scope of these battles-engagements. Keep up the excellent work!

Steven, Thanks and compliments on your very comprehensive WWI videos. Very good use of maps and aerial shots. The topic of underground mining in WWI is very interesting. Stay safe at this time and best wishes.

excellent footage, thanks for posting

I found this very interesting as I had a Great Uncle who fought in the DLI in WW1 and I have always been interested in history. I was in Ypres last May and I stayed in a hotel at the Hooge crater and I visited the cemetery just over the road from it. Alas It was a flying visit though I did attend the evening remembrance at the Menin Gate, very moving.

Just found this channel by accident , so glad I did !! Excellent Great War content !! Keep up the great work :)

Thank you for creating another great episode...

Very interesting video, I'm Belgian and I've been very often to the themepark of Bellewaarde. Now I know what happened there in the past. Thanks for your video's. This video was uploaded 6 months ago, are you going to upload more video's like this?

Every crater in this area has a name. There are approximately 15 craters conserved. The crater near the Royal engineers grave memorial is called the Roschmann crater. The largest crater, also visible in the video was called the Momber crater by the British, or the Allenstein Trichter by the Germans. There are a lot of tunnels beneath, and one of the most complex deep dugouts is laying under Railway wood. Is still happens that one of the tunnels collapses. The last one i have seen was in january 2018.

Loved the footage and the stories!

Many thanks Steve I don't know how many times I've driven past this yet haven't been to it. So it's now included in my next visit also including the Khaki Chums Cross, another new addition to the inventory which is down to you, so thank you. May I also suggest the "Battle of the brick stacks" and "Red Dragon creator" as items that would benefit from your unique aerial perspective.

Great video as usual, im fascinated with ww1 and your videos give a great insight to the war, thank you.

Great video. I appreciate how you include Google maps and trench maps to gauge the scope and size of the area. Hard to comprehend thousands killed in a couple of fields. Many thanks for another great video.

Absolutely superb aerial footage and orientation. Allows for excellent understanding of the battles at each site. My great grandfather won the first of his two DSOs at the Red Dragon Crater at Givenchy in June 1916. Any chance of getting your drone overhead sometime in the future ? 😃

Good work Steven👍 Thanks

Brilliant stuff. I find this stuff fascinating and your drone work really captures the landscape so well. I would love to see your film with an overlay of the trenches to highlight the positions.

Thank you!!.Love watching your videos.

Thank you

Please keep up this great work👍🏻

Hi Steven. I hope the time since your last upload is a reflection of Covid and that we'll see more from you very soon.

Great work. Respect for the research involved to be able to produce this kind of document. FYI, I live in Boezinge, about 2 Km from Pilckem Ridge on my right and 1.5 Km from Steenstraete to my left. Very infamous since april 1915.

Excellent Steven.

The story of the Canadians and how they were hurriedly rushed in their to plug the gap immediately after the first gas attack while the British got reorganised, is fascinating. They were basically abandoned there holding off the Germans for several days and when they were finally able to be relieved, the British soldiers were all cheering them as they marched out, because they all knew what they had being through and what they had achieved. The flag that the Canadians (Princess Patricias Light Infantry) carried into battle was hand sown by Princess Patricia herself and is now in the military museum in Calgary Canada.

excellent videos, just well made

I´m at ypres right now. I´m using this as a guideline. Thanks for posting.

Awesome!. Thank you

I love going to the Craterwoods, vist it often.. the former two years it was cleaned up to impressive scales, it really looked good... by now however, nature takes over again.. It's only a matter of time where there is little to see, as it was before..

great video.thank you.

Fantastic, thankyou.

Very well done thanks!

No more videos? Would like to see/hear about Belleau Wood -Cheers

Nice ... I actually lived in Menen when I was a kid, always been interested in what happened in the area during the great war.

Hey there Mr. Upton. It's nice to see a couple new videos. I wanted to say hello but your comments are disabled on the new videos. Very interesting stuff about your family. You're lucky to have such detailed information. I know what unit my gramps was in 'over there' in The Great War but that's about it.

I've never had an interest in visiting Europe, despite being Irish and German. But I've always wanted to visit the battlefields. I've been to the the American civil war fields including Antietam, which is where my great great grandfather's brother died. I've had family that fought in both world wars, the first on the kaisers side, the second on America's side.

I always wonder they went toe to toe instead of sending a raiding party around their flanks , but looking at your overhead drone footage I see there is no cover , I assume it was the same back then . I sometimes feel I was a soldier back then in another life when I see old film footage it look's familiar . Maybe because I have seen the footage sooo many times in my 60 years .

Thank - you .

Thank you !

So near and yet so far! My Great, Great Uncle, Sydney Hadlow Clements, was killed at Hooge Chateau (very near to the crater that you mention but more toward Ypres). On the 29th of September, 1915 The Middlesex Regt were holding the line that ran the corner of our positions, as they turn north, to run alongside the Menin Road, alongside Hooge Chateau (as shown on your first 1915 Trench Map). At 1630 Hrs, on the 29th of September, the Germans detonated a mine that had been dug in, under the left hand Sap in the Middlesex position, after which the Germans stormed across the very small “no man’s land”, grenaded (“bombed” as we called it then), their way into our frontline and started to force the Middlesex boy’s back into their own communication Trench....luckily, fresh supplies of British “bombs” were quickly brought up and the Middlesex boys “bombed” the German assault force back out of the frontline Trench, forcing them to scarper back across “no man’s land” and their own trenches. Prior to the Battle of Loos starting (early September, 1915), this area that you have filmed was where the war was at! Bellewarde, Hooge, etc being shelled 23 hours a day...yes, 23 hours a day, every day...it was absolutely deadly here. Sydney either died in the mine explosion, or was killed in the shelling that followed the ejection of the German assault force, either way, his body was never found and Sydney is recorded in three places on the Menin Gate Memorial to the missing. Thank you for getting on to this sector. I have thoroughly enjoyed your previous films and now look forward to more of them....if you could take us up to Hooge, that would put the icing on the cake! 👍🏻👍🏻

Hello Steven, any plans to get some more drone footage soon? It was truly fascinating seeing what you had done prior to the covid shutdown, and very engaging to hear the history of the area, while exploring it from this unique aerial perspective.

Hello Steven, what better use of time during lockdown than watching your WW1 battlefield films! Can I ask if you will be covering the area around Bellacourt Military Cemetery? The Grandfather I never knew is buried there (T.W. Sands, Royal Artillery, DOD July 1918) but although I have photos of his grave and vistas of the cemetery I have no idea what battles or skirmishes took place in the vicinity despite my online research. Many thanks!

Love your videos. Extremely thorough and passionate. I was wondering if you had any footage from the Reims/Second Battle of the Marne, particularly where the US 3rd Infantry(Rock of the Marne) fought at?

Hey, Beautiful and interesting video. We are the new owners of the Bellewaerde farm.

Hello you have made an excellent documentary series on World War 1. I noticed that you haven't made any videos in a while now and I wonder why that was. Also have you considered traveling to to eastern Europe to show the World War 1 trench lines there?

Thank you Steven for sharing. I take great interest in ww1 and 2 from a historical and human perspective. Visiting the places makes a more profund impression. Having been to several of the places before and after watching your films adds to the experience. Bothe the stories, explanations and the use of drone. As I recently purchased a small drone, less than 250 grams, may I ask if there are any special regulations related to the use of drones on these sites and in general in France, Belgium?

Amazing. Thank you

Hi Stephen, brilliantly informative as always. Can I ask where you get your trench maps from please?

Amazing

0:15 How high up was this image taken? In the middle there is a copse of trees with what looks like mine craters. Those must have been pretty powerful for them to be that obvious.

I enjoy your videos. Thank you! Also, I have often wondered about the present day farmers fields that were once no mans lands. It would seem to me that the soil would consist heavily of steel, iron, shrapnel, blood and remains, etc. What is your take on it?

What is the origin of the map at 2:57? I noticed it has "Idiot Trench", "Idiot Lane", "Idiot Avenue"... who picked those names? Was it just macabre humor? Would be fascinating to know! And thanks for another great upload! eta: I see someone else already commented on the "idiocy". Maybe someone just said "you'd have to be an idiot to attack here!"

You’ve been busy lately. Our good fortune.

Please do a video on Belleau Wood

I would absolutely love if you could draw some lines over the video/stills to indicate where the lines were

Nice

Great video. Could you make a video about cote 304? And do you make the frontline maps yourself or can you find those on the internet?