My grandfather, Hugh Walker, died on The Somme, July 1916, he left a widow and three young children in Liverpool, they lived in abject povert for many years afterwards, may they all rest in peace.

We'll never know the suffering of those brave lads. A really moving tribute . Thank you. ' Lest We Forget'

It always amazes me how quiet and serene these places are today. A farmer's field, a country lane, a small stand of trees. They speak not of the epic struggle of life and death waged in the same place you're standing. Time has healed the physical wounds upon the land (in most places), but the courage and sacrifice will forever remain. Thank you for your efforts, I truly enjoyed this video.

Thank you for your work. As a US citizen born 1954, i have studied WW1 maybe because I was married to a Bosnian born Serb. My journey in books has brought me great understanding of some of the battles. Sadly I ran in to much anger within Facebook groups where I tried to discuss and clarify matters. I have learned to be equally respectful to the dead of both sides now. I hope before end of my life to visit a few WW1 cemetaries and pay my respect.

What an interesting video which brought a tear to my eye.. Iv just returned from a motorcycle ride to the Somme from Northern Ireland following the foot steps of the 36th Ulster division (UVF). Our trip was a personal pilgrimage as after watching the Flog It program on TV i was horrified to watch people selling their great grandfathers war medals for next to nothing, reasons being they are only sitting in a drawer!!. I searched on Ebay WW1 medals of which there where thousands for sale. I found one in particular from a young lad W Martin Royal Army Corp. A google search gave us no information on him although there was some information on the Common Wealth Grave web site. I purchased the medal for a piffling £20 and on our trip we found his grave in Cambrai and buried it with him. We then recited For the Fallen by Binyon. It was a very emotional moment for remembering the life this young man gave and has been forgotten through out the years...

Would it be unreasonable for me to request a new one of these everyday? 😅 Excellent work. I enjoyed that.

This is an outstanding video....on a subject that should be constantly remembered and discussed. Good job!

Hearing about Eric Heaton and his sister never fails to move. Watching you in the landscape adds a new dimension to these already fantastic podcasts.

Brilliant video Paul. Word perfect. Always with emotion and care. Keep them coming I'm learning a lot

So poignant, Paul. Ever since I first heard of Eric Heaton via one of your podcasts I have taken a great interest in him and did visit his grave on my last visit to The Somme. His story always moves me to tears.

My daughter and I visited the Somme in 2015. My father and my daughter’s grandfather is buried in Normandy. So many wonderful boys and young women have lost their lives. God bless them.

I had the great pleasure of meeting and speaking to you Paul many years ago on a battlefield tour, I have never met a more knowledgeable man on this subject. Thank you once again.

Paul .. I’ve listened to and enjoyed everyone of your podcasts … You have a way of painting pictures with your words which is a gift to your listeners … After walking “ walking “ with you via this video I’m looking forward very much to see where you visit next .. Thank you 👍🏻

Real stories, movingly told. Thank you Paul. Your blogs are such a wonderful tribute to those who gave so much in the Great War.

I must have bumped into you at the mine crater just after you filmed this. As ever, fantastic history and retelling of personal stories.

Thank you for this video. I have an uncle buried Trios Arbres cemetery. He was in the fourth New Zealand machine gun company when he died of wounds on 4 August 1917.

Thanks Paul, I thought the podcasts were the best substitute for re-visting the Western Front. The images of the places we know and personal anecdotes are wonderful. Tim

James Davis So Movingly told. How right it is to remember the sacrifices they all made, often at the beginning of adulthood and all that brings. Your blogs should be in classrooms everywhere .

I’ve been to Hawthorn Ridge but didn’t know this story so thank you for telling it.

Lovely to see the ground too Paul. You often paint a vivd picture of these places through your words. However this added a new dimension to the podcast.

Paul, I've been a fan of your podcast since pretty much the beginning. I've definitely listened to every episode and just wanted to say thank you for your efforts. I'm always struck by the lingering thoughts and emotions afterwards. Keep up the good work, cheers.

I always walk along both rows in this iconic cemetery to acknowledge each of the non-Eric Heatons (as if they might otherwise feel neglected)😉

Thank you for this video Paul and all your work. Looking forward to this evening's talk.

Fantastic Vlog. First heard of Eric Heaton when visiting the Somme with you some years ago. Great to be able to see the ground as you guide us through it

Very interesting video. Got me thinking, back when I was in grade school my teacher took a small group to the rest home to visit the residents. I remember interviewing an old soldier, it really didn’t sink in till I was a lot older that I was talking with a WW1 hero. Happy new year to you from Montana

Thank you for letting me learn the story of Eric Heaton and his family. I found this video very moving had a tear in my eye watching and listening to you tell us the sad story. You make it look so easy Paul, a great video and story very interesting.

Outstanding as ever .

Great videos. I've been enjoying listening to your podcasts which I found recently. But I'm liking the videos a lot, especially since I'm across the ocean so I can't walk the old front lines, so the visuals help a lot.

Wow, what a heartbreaking story.

I watch a lot of videoes on WW1 & WW2, they are all fantastic but this video, I must say really for me is one of the best. Your story telling, knowledge and bringing to life the movements of the soldiers is unreal. What must the family have thought when they visited his grave in 1919 with the surroundings back then.

Thank you for this superb video Paul. Keep up the good work.

Thank you Paul, this is a thought provoking podcast reminding us all of the horrific loss of life on 1st July 1916. I recall last year when we visited here, with Leger & Andrew Thornton, that last letter of Eric Heaton's being read out. It was heartbreaking to hear the words from a man so obviously 'loving & loved' writing the night before his certain death. God bless him & all who perished ❤

Excellent Paul - even though I've been there several times, it's always good to hear more.

So sad thank you for bringing this story to life, sometimes for people like me and others I'm sure we lose sight of what war is really about we get lost in history and forget everyone that fell on both sides had dreams 💔

Fascinating. I really appreciate your time and effort in putting this together. Very poignant and utterly moving.

thank you for your comments , very humbling. .

Wonderful, thank you. I'm going to be there this weekend coming. Over from the UK for the weekend with a group of friends and they've asked to visit the Somme. Your videos and the podcast are helping me to compile something resembling a bit of an itinerary with the little time available.

Excellent supplement to the moving story about Eric Heaton. I think that was the podcast that really connected me to this podcast series and made me realize what a fantastic way this is to study the Great War. Keep up the excellent work! 🙂

I've been to the WWI battlefields all the way to the Swiss border. Between 45 and 50 occasions (I don't remember exactly how many now). Each time, I see something different. Just before the Pandemic, I recorded the Western Front in 360 VR, both video and photos. I use the footage to show people that are too infirm or can't afford to go themselves. Although I am British, I enjoy the French former battlefields more as there is so much more to see that was just left. It's quite dangerous at times but very interesting.

Thank You , Never forget

Wow so sad. We had a similar situation in my own family around my great uncle who was killed on lancaster operations in ww2.

Go one great content all the best greetings from Holland

Superb film. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Thank you for this video Paul. Look forward to more.

Beautifully told, very thought provoking, thank you.

This deserves more likes. It was a personal connection and a close friend that finally convinced me to visit the Somme and Arras battlefields. His great uncle (Lt John Arbuthnott, Grenadier Guards) is buried at Bronfay Farm Military Cemetery, whilst mine (Pvt Edward Thomas Friend, Honourable Artillery Company) died at Bullecourt and having no known grave is memorialised at the Arras Memorial. In 2 1/2 days we visited 48 sites which for a first visit, gave me a sense of the ground over which this sector was fought and whilst a tad ambitious was more a reflection on how densely packed and how close the Somme and Arras battlefields are to one another.

That photograph is probably one of the most poignant pictures I have ever seen of the Great War. Those battlefields behind them were fresh. God knows what it must have looked and smelled like. They probably had no idea that the front was like that. Incredible.

Fantastic video, thank you 👍

Great video.Thanks.

Very moving. Thanks.

Very moving and interesting. Thank you.

That picture of the dead soldiers looks very much like the very young soldier in the video taken at the time who looks very nervous and worried staring into the camera.

Smashing video thank you!

I have walked the Somme,there's a small cemetery to the Devonshire regiment ,across the road from that cemetery is the Royal Welsh Fusiliers .

Well done Paul, nice video, was there 4 weeks ago (got soaked), I think I'm right in saying there is also Heaton trench named after him

Well done.

Excellent video

Well done! A+

Heading to the Somme in May. Grandfather was wounded west of Courcelette in late September 1916, 7th Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force

World War One is largely over shadowed by World War Two. I’m so glad we have people in the world, who care enough to make videos such as this and keep the history alive. 🤍. Well done.

Your pods are excellent Paul, I always feel I am there with a friend. The photo of Eric’s family in the cemetery is very similar to one I have (taken at Hooge Crater Cemetery) of my grandmother posing next to the wooden cross marking my great uncle’s grave. When the headstones were later erected it was decided he had no known grave and his name is on the wall at Tyne Cot. Have you any idea why this might be?

Completely humbling! The current state of our country could well do with recalling the sacrifice of our men and women in the last 100 years. I doubt these WW1 warriors would be impressed today with the country they so valiantly and bravely made the ultimate sacrifice for.

It's good to see the actual ground where WW1 was fought but an aerial view or map during your walk would really help me to visualize where you are walking in relation to the whole Somme area. How far apart were the german and English lines in this area? Thank you for a great video

What an incredible story, ref Heaton, Paul. Thank you for sharing.

My Grandad lost his Leg in WW1 Fighting at the Somme, RIP to all the British and Canadians and all Allied forces that defeated the Germans. Rule Britannia from Glasgow 😎🇬🇧

A very poignant story, respectfully told. Thank you. I've read that the 10 minute delay between the detonation of the mine and the advance of the British troops was at the request of the commanding office in this sector, and was longer than for the other mines fired on 1st July- is that your understanding?

It baffles me why Europe committed suicide in 1914-1918. 😢

Thanks very much Paul love ur videos and I'm much wiser about WW1. keep up the good work.

Lest we forget.

the intro film to those men, marching to certain death, nothing learnt by the ones following them today , however the ' masters to deciet ' then before and now know very well the game!;

Can't thank you enough for all your work Paul. Im working through your podcasts and have nearly caught up!. Do you happen to know the origin of that clip you have used just you mention the Hawthorn mine and the advanced party?. Ive seen the extended clip of what look like advancing or retreating troops but have never found out where it is from. Is it real or was as it staged?

A hundred years on and we have learned absolutely nothing !

Do you do alot of the research yourself? If so, my wife's great grandad was in ww1 an died in a mission at the beginning of ww1, I'd be very interested if you could find more info for me maybe an do a video.

Would have been better if you showed the area around you and pointed out places of interest rather than just yourself but good knowledge

No German graves?

why do you think people want to look at you? show the surrounding area where the battle was fought.

instead of focusing on you walking, how about you turn the camera around and show the battlefield.

I find it disheartening to listen to videos of the battle of the some and realise that there is no mention of the newfoundland regiment at all. Why did our little nation sacrifice so much for so little to the point that their sacrifice never warrents a mention? Not in this video or any other.

The beginning of the decline of the West and the nihilism of britaintoday. Sad.

Thanks you, we will never forget their sacrifice 🙏

Well done.