WW1 Digger History Podcast
119 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 48 ratingsTrue accounts of the First World War / The Great War / WWI as told by the soldiers themselves!
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Episodes
Episode 2.50 The Smythes
July 28, 2018 00:22 - 59 minutes - 51.6 MBIn the final 5oth episode of Percy Smythe's diary we interview his niece, WW2 WAAF veteran, Margaret Clarke and great niece and creator of the Smythe Family History website, Jacqui Kennedy. We also hear Percy's daughter Betty's account of his and Dorrie's later years, read by another great niece, Vivienne Smythe. The last minute will leave you numb as Vivienne reads Percy's poem about the Battle of Pozieres.
Episode 2.49 Too-ra-li oo-ra-li addity
July 12, 2018 07:51 - 1 hour - 70.6 MBAt a concert on board the ship home a scene had a "map of Australia depicted by boxes placed together with lights in them. Behind was a tableau, a "digger" just arriving home, met by his mother and his grey-headed old father, the latter holding a little child in his arms. It was very touching, and brought a choking pain into one's throat and a dimness to one's eyes." Then, at Adelaide when the ship docks, Percy hears some terrible news. This one covers the trip home on the SS Anchises, sig...
Episode 2.48 Everybody loves a parade
June 26, 2018 11:35 - 52 minutes - 58.9 MBPercy contemplates the great peace celebrations at London in 1919, "It marked the end of the years of cruel warfare and dreary hardships. It meant a lot to me. Those gaudy cloths and things expressed the joyous relief and thankfulness of thousands and millions of my fellow beings that the war is over and Peace is signed. All the people were rejoicing with me, and it touched the deepest chords of emotion in my heart. None but soldiers know, or even guess, what war is."
Episode 2.47 War Bride
June 09, 2018 05:24 - 1 hour - 62.8 MBAn English wedding... On again , off again. Finally after some deceitful behaviour from Dorrie's parents, the young couple have to go to Scotland to be married. A returned Chaplain from a Scottish Infantry Battalion handles the service and greatly helps the young lovers. This one covers the lead up to the wedding, the happy day and the honeymoon at Loch Lomond.
Episode 2.46 Occupation
May 26, 2018 05:03 - 1 hour - 79.1 MBThe aftermath of war..... "I saw something in the window of a house which caught my attention. It appeared to be a cut-out poster or picture of a hideous face like the cartoons one sees of mad Bolsheviks, thick grizzled beard and a mop of grizzled hair, and a horrible expression on the face. As I walked past looking at it in wonder at the very hideousness of it, the supposed picture suddenly started back violently as it caught sight of me, the eyes bulged out of their sockets and stared as t...
Episode 2.45 Peace
May 11, 2018 08:21 - 1 hour - 77.2 MBThis one is wide and varied. Percy writes something that I have read over an over again in these diaries. To him, Armistice Day was a relief rather than a cause for merriment, and that is not just because Percy isn't a party animal, it was common among the majority of the soldiers. I love Percy's description of Christmas and the farewell dinners .... At 6.30p.m. 54 officers sat down, and one glance at the artistic and lengthy menu dispelled all doubt -- if any doubt there had been -- ...
Episode 2.44 Fritz is on the run
March 28, 2018 17:56 - 1 hour - 75.3 MBIn the last of the battle episodes, Percy is somewhat on the sidelines but we get his interesting insights into what is going on around him and around the world. Meuse-Argonne, Bellicourt, Montbrehain are all discussed in some detail and the 24th Battalion wins their one and only VC.
Episode 2.43 The Battle of Mont St Quentin
March 07, 2018 01:09 - 1 hour - 96.1 MBI have no doubt that this is the best from Percy Smythe, absolutely full on account of one of the main defeats of the Germans in 1918. Don't believe me? Here is an extract; "A heavy, probably a 9.2 inch, had evidently landed fair in the trench. The carnage was awful. Dead, wounded, and dying, all lay huddled and twisted together in grotesque little heaps, a mass of mangled flesh. At first all was silent. But when those who still lived saw that we were there, they began to moan piteously for ...
Episode 2.42 Percy takes some prisoners
February 13, 2018 10:08 - 1 hour - 79.8 MBPercy: "I ordered the men to get the Hun gun, but again nobody seemed willing to go forward. I decided to go over first to encourage them, and sprang up on to the earth block. As I did so, a man called out, "Don't go over! There's a bomb not gone off!" The words were immediately followed by an explosion three yards in front of me! It was one of our Mills grenades with those treacherous 7-second fuses...."
Episode 2.41 Ludendorffs black day
January 26, 2018 11:05 - 49 minutes - 49.5 MBAugust 8th, 1918. Here is a some of what Percy saw, "Moving on from Villers Bretonneux, we passed the wrecked aerodrome that we could see from the Villers line at the time of the Hamel stunt, the former front line and the late No-man's-land, then the old German front line. A few dead Germans lay singly here and there along the way. A couple of supply tanks lumbered noisily across country returning from the fray. Overhead, the 'planes were very busy, many returning from the front and many oth...
Episode 2.40 Battle of Hamel
January 15, 2018 00:57 - 1 hour - 70.2 MBWait for Zero Hour in the Battle of Hamel. Percy experienced this one from the sidelines. Learn about camouflage counter battery work, tanks, new kinds of shells, sneezing gas, German prisoners and much more. Here is a bit of it: "Suddenly the captain sat up and exclaimed, "It's quarter of a minute past zero and the bombardment hasn't started!" We tumbled out of the dug-out in order to witness the strafe, and, even as we did so, a machine gun started chopping the air on our left, and the n...
Episode 2.39 Priceless Percy
December 25, 2017 16:30 - 59 minutes - 67.3 MBPercy gets his commission on 1 June 1918, although he doesn't say a lot about it. This covers the final weeks up to departure and the trip through to Base Camp. Dorrie's Dad, Mr Jewel remains a gem, ha ha, and the two lovers bid a fond adieu. I found the best old WW1 song for our Perce, as you will hear.
Episode 2.38 A traitor and mongrel
December 01, 2017 23:21 - 43 minutes - 48.1 MBPercy gets a letter from his old friend, Jack Elliott, and you can guess the response from the Episode title! Here is a bit of what Percy wrote back: "Jack, if you've got any manhood left in you, cut adrift from that miserable soulless lot of cowards and come over here and do your duty as a man and a true Australian, and as a Christian." Take that Jack! Percy finishes his officer training and prepares to go back to France.
Episode 2.37 Viv sees King George
November 21, 2017 11:29 - 50 minutes - 53.8 MBFrustration and more frustration, bloaters again and more bloaters. Percy does something to Dorrie and is full of remorse, what it was, who knows? The engagement is on and off. Nonchalant brother Viv turns up .... Well, it's Viv's way, or.... Luckily, he didn't keep King George waiting! Finally, Percy passes and gets ready to go back to France.
Episode 2.36 The sports strike
November 02, 2017 00:46 - 48 minutes - 54 MBIn this episode, Percy continues officer training. He practices code, unfortunately no one seems to be able to break it. I guess that means he knew what he was doing. He spends his third Christmas away from home, this one much more pleasant than the first two... He is with his ummm, fiancee, Dorothy. Three of the Aussies are suspended from the Officer's Training School at Cambridge. Two for sleeping in and one for swapping a blown light bulb for a good one from the mess.
Episode 2.35 A very manly letter
October 22, 2017 00:03 - 46 minutes - 53.2 MBIn this episode Percy is at Cambridge training to be an officer. He and Dorrie are busted by her Dad and have a lot of explaining to do. He visits his new sister-in-law, Mary near Londonderry in Ireland and is pleasantly surprised to spend a few days there also with brother, Vern. Okay, no fighting, except maybe with his would be father-in-law, but still an interesting look at life during the war, and especially at Cambridge.
Episode 2.34 Passchendaele One grows callous
October 07, 2017 22:46 - 49 minutes - 56.3 MBOnce the sighing whine of a shell in flight ended with a savage hiss and an explosion just behind our dug-out, and I felt the sandbag wall heave in several inches. "That one nearly smashed our dug-out," I remarked, thinking it was a H.E., but the next moment a strong smell of gas rushed in. "Get your respirator on!" I yelled at Gus, making a grab for my own. I held my breath, but the powerful fumes got into my eyes, and the tears poured from them in streams. The tapes of my respirator were t...
Episode 2.33 Passchendaele Over the duckboards
September 20, 2017 10:50 - 45 minutes - 51 MBPercy has finally left Blighty, crosses the channel and ... "After crossing the ridge we left the duckboards and struck off to the right through the sloppy slippery mud, picking our way in and out between the shell-holes." Percy makes his way back to the trenches right into the tail end of the Battle of Passchendaele.
Episode 2.32 The party is over and so is the parting
September 03, 2017 00:02 - 44 minutes - 53.5 MBWouldn't you know it, Percy found his soul mate and then gets whisked back to war. Nevermind, he wants that promotion so he can afford a house for his "little girl" when the war is over. The parting is sad, well isn't it always, and then he has to sit out for a few lonely days in Southampton. Brother Vern causes him a real scare but Percy finds out more about his brother's time at Passchendaele; Vernon Smythe MC + Bar!
Episode 2.31 Dodging Dorothy's Dad
August 19, 2017 00:34 - 41 minutes - 50 MBThis one starts with Percy coming back from leave and within two days he looks up Dorothy, the jewel of a girl he met on the train. Not a slow worker, our Perce, they are engaged in less than a month! Okay, so there are no battles in this one, except of the father - suitor kind, but this is probably the most significant thing to happen to Percy in the war. Enjoy!
Episode 2.30 Percy finds a jewel
August 11, 2017 10:53 - 45 minutes - 55.4 MBThere were almost 13,000 war brides to diggers in WW1 according to the Australian War Memorial. Brother Vern found Mary in Ireland, but what about Percy? Well, our Casanova finally meets his "one and only," but does he know it yet? There is one problem, Percy is still in Blighty, but not for much longer!
Episode 2.29 Death of a brother
July 29, 2017 23:58 - 43 minutes - 52.9 MB"He felt no pain and knew nothing of the terror of approaching the brink!" So wrote one of the Smythe brothers to Percy. Which brother dies? Well, you'll have to listen. That letter is read in this episode by a real digger not me and that is another reason to listen. Percy is still in England and the anxiety over his brothers heighten. He loses one then doesn't hear so much from another. Then the letters of condolence sent home are lost when the SS Mongolia his a mine. Things can only ...
Episode 2.28 French and English
July 15, 2017 07:54 - 59 minutes - 68.9 MBBickering soldiers, solving disputes, isolation for mumps, drunk soldiers, "F* the Ordinance Officer. Take me to the Ordinance Officer." This one covers a three month period in camp and looking around old Blighty. Meeting up with brothers Viv and Vern, but not Bert. Pictures from home and from Vern's new wife. Meanwhile the 24th Battalion does the Battle of Bullecourt and Viv and Bert almost cross paths at the front. Vern is injured in the foot and he and Viv both win Military Crosses....
Episode 2.27 Murdered in cold blood
June 24, 2017 01:11 - 1 hour - 70.6 MBWell, Percy is in Blighty at the 1st Southern General Hospital at Edgebaston when he hears disturbing news about an old mate from the 3rd Battalion who was killed in his sleep. He recovers fairly quickly at the 3rd Australian Auxillary Hospital and gets furlough, when he finally catches up with brother Bert and meets the alter-matriarch of the family, Mrs Morgan. Then there is Miss Tess, or is it Tilly, Pugsley, Mrs Caborn, Mrs Cooper, etc etc. Flirting, ...... well Percy is a master at ...
Episode 2.26 Plastered in mud
June 03, 2017 00:12 - 42 minutes - 51.7 MBDo you have queer ideas of warfare? Met young Burrows, and asked him had he seen any Germans while on post. "Yes," he, "had seen a few." One he observed was putting up barbed wire entanglements. "And did you shoot at him?" I asked. "No." "Why didn't you?" "Well, he was about three hundred yards away." I was staggered. Burrows, of course, was a new reinforcement, but it seemed incredible that anyone should think three hundred yards too great a distance to hit a man. He had not eve...
Episode 2.25 About Fromelles and Devil's Wood
May 27, 2017 00:22 - 53 minutes - 58.1 MBWe get descriptions of the Battle of Fromelles, although painfully brief, from brother Vern, a good look at Delville Wood and the aftermath of the Flers engagement. Here is a bit of what Percy has to say; "Turned off to the left, to some old disused trenches, near where was a wrecked "tank", one of those Hun-dreaded monsters which are the latest development of modern warfare. This one did not look such a very terrible thing, and was much smaller than I had expected them to be. It was heavi...
Episode 2.24 Piano Man
May 20, 2017 00:43 - 40 minutes - 43.8 MBA nice quiet little stint in the Ypres Salient for our armed plebeians is a prelude to a return to the Somme. Anyway, Perce has a fight with rats, dangling wires and a Tommy sentry before he realises that he and three mates were left behind. The boys give their opinion on the Conscription Referendum in no uncertain terms to a couple politicians. Not so quiet on the Somme, you bet! Perce and Viv take a horse trip to Memetz Wood. "Once, being held up by a block, we left the road to get ar...
Episode 2.23 Hill 60 or Hell 60
May 06, 2017 00:44 - 30 minutes - 32.5 MBWhat can I say. Nothing, Percy says it all. This time he goes from the Somme to the dreaded Hill 60 and back to the Somme. He sees his first tanks, there are more mates killed, etc! Enough said!
Episode 2.22 Snipers at Moquet Farm
April 30, 2017 01:45 - 42 minutes - 48 MBWell finally! My apologies at the lateness of this episode. family visiting, work, yada, yada yada (as Seinfeld might say). Anyhow, this one is another cracker with the boys fighting at Moquet Farm and then coming back out again.
Episode 2.21 Fritz gave us hell
March 28, 2017 00:21 - 13 minutes - 16.1 MBThis episode is based on the letters home by Percy Smythe which were published in the Jerilderie Herald and Urana Observer in March and April 1917. They cover the same events as in the previous episode at Pozieres with a slightly different bent. What does a soldier tell his family about one of the most intense battles of the western front?
Episode 2.20 The Battle of Pozieres
March 19, 2017 04:50 - 58 minutes - 53.8 MBDrum-roll time ..... Here it is, The Battle of Pozieres. Percy drinks rum and smokes cigarettes and, those following the series know, things must be really bad for that to happen! He gets buried by a shell, dug out, digs others out ... some of them ..., shot at, blown up again, machine gunned, shelled and so and so on. He loses a lot of good mates, Bert Newland and Smith among them. Come into this most infamous of #Somme battles of #WW1 , #Pozieres
Episode 2.19 And should the Madonna fall
March 07, 2017 11:08 - 45 minutes - 42 MBJack Prior almost gets himself killed, but many others succeed without trying. The boys are moved to the Somme and the Battle of Pozieres looms large before them. What a charming place, Percy describes the dugout he and his Russian born mate, Alex Popoff, find, "There are some bodies buried just in front of our door, and having swollen, they have forced the earth up over them, and it is spongy and springy to walk on." Percy has hardened to a veteran and is disgusted with the waste of lif...
Episode 2.18 Gas bombs and scared noobs
February 28, 2017 11:24 - 55 minutes - 50.8 MBStannard, Green, Hall, Wise etc etc all dead but why worry about that? Bad news from home worries Percy much more when he learns a couple girlfriends are drowned. Such is life!.... Hey, what a great title if only it hadn't been used before! Anyway, the boys get a hammering from a heavy barrage and worse than that, some are out in no-man's-land when friendly fire - if artillery can be friendly - kills a bunch of blokes. Ohh, and Nugget Byrne belts up a poor sniper he captures "Camerade, c...
Episode 2.17 Stripped of a stripe
February 17, 2017 04:00 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MBIn this episode, one man gets his head blown off while gas alarms brings out, "goggle faced ogres," who, "moved about in the moonlight and the shadows." Percy mellows on the puritanical side, feeling sorrow for a bloke with VD, avoids getting into a philosophical argument with chaplain and prefers to talk to a pretty blonde girl named Georgette, ooh-la-la. He visits Armentieres too! Oh and the Prime Minister visits and gives a speech .... yes, politicians were just as bad then as they are now!
Episode 2.16 Sniper to sniper
February 07, 2017 10:12 - 40 minutes - 36.6 MBWell, finally Percy has us in the front line. Sniping and being sniped at, machine gun bullets over our heads in no-man's-land and heavy shelling behind the lines. Percy has no qualms about taking a dead man's water bottle or another's jack-knife. Percy is really becoming the old soldier now and .... his bad luck also holds out at the end!
Episode 2.15 Pity the 9th Battalion
January 29, 2017 10:41 - 41 minutes - 38.1 MBCome with Percy into the reserve trenches at Sailly-sur-la Lys, which is near the soon to be infamous Fromelles. Listen to why Private Ogilvie nearly kills Private Williams and how does the 9th Battalion loses a lot of men without ever firing a shot! And finally Percy catches up with ..... no spoilers, but if you have followed every episode you will know who. This is the last episode recorded with my old microphone, good things to come.
Episode 2.14 A pretty face like a girl
January 17, 2017 20:37 - 31 minutes - 28.6 MBWho does Percy think looks like a girl? Find out when he sees out his time at Suez and then travels to France, dodging submarines and circling around Malta. Yes, we finally make it to France!
Episode 2.13 Percy gets a stripe
January 10, 2017 07:24 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBThirsty, huh, Perc? Chase after that "furphy" water wagon and watch out for the dead man's bones out in the desert. Percy does some time near the Suez Canal but when will they go to France? Oh, and yes he does get that elusive stripe.
Episode 2.12 A walk in the desert
December 26, 2016 04:00 - 31 minutes - 37.2 MBWell do something Percy! He does, he goes to Egypt, meets up with his brother Vern, marches around the desert, looks at old battlefields and studies to become a non commissioned officer. This episode was re-recorded in May 2019.
Episode 2.11 News of Gallipoli
December 09, 2016 22:00 - 29 minutes - 27.1 MBPercy has almost recovered and is full of introspection, apprehension and a touch of mischief. This episode covers Christmas Dinner at St John's Hospital, New Years Eve, the death of an orange tree, or was it a peach tree? ... and the night the old cow died! My apologies to Paper Lace! Now I used some backing music, here is a link to St Monicas Choir Facebook pageThey are a Maltese Choir and worth a listen. Okay, so hang a sock on Christmas Eve and see if Percy's Mum leaves half a crown...
Episode 2.10 The Maltese Tourist
November 26, 2016 01:25 - 34 minutes - 29.9 MBPercy does the tourist "thing" in Malta, moving from hospital to a convalescent camp. Come explore Valetta and other places around Malta. This episode was re-mastered in February 2019.
Episode 2.9 Comin' thro' the rye .... at Malta!
November 18, 2016 01:14 - 29 minutes - 28.1 MBIn this episode Percy wants to die, no, really, he wants to die! He is sick, probably delirious with pneumonia, on a troop ship from Gallipoli and gets put off at Malta into a hospital for infectious cases. Find out what he gets up to, who he meets and how he gets on. You'll love Sister Suzie!
Episode 2.8 Chats Beachy Bill and other nuisances on Gallipoli
November 09, 2016 00:30 - 30 minutes - 29.3 MBPercy describes his time at Anzac Cove dodging shells from "Beachy Bill", chats, Turkish bullets, diarrhoea and the 'flu. Did any of these horrors get him? Listen and find out! Here's a "snippet": After tea, I went for a walk up to Lone Pine. I met a couple of casualties on the way. They were 24th battalion men. A "75" had got four of them. The first one I met was wounded in several places, and the next was dead. He lay still and silent on the stretcher, and it made me feel quite "skeery" ...
Episode 2.7 Dead Man's Gully and other charming places on Gallipoli
October 31, 2016 23:47 - 34 minutes - 31.3 MBPercy is at ANZAC and settles in to the shells, flies, maggots, dead bodies, bullets, and other problems. He visits Lone Pine, Shrapnel Gully and Dead Man's Gully. He meets up with his brothers Bert and Vern. Bert is not so well and Percy starts to get sick himself. Vern has a stellar career and Percy learns of his brave actions at Lone Pine.
Episode 2.6 To Gallipoli
October 25, 2016 21:27 - 30 minutes - 29.2 MBHe is almost there! In this episode Percy spends time at Cairo, travels by train to Alexandria and finally by ship to Lemnos Island and Gallipoli. Percy explores the Cheops Pyramid, the Sphynx and the infamous "Wozzer" where ANZAC troops rioted twice in 1915. Percy is a good religious boy, though, and shuns the activites at the Wozzer (The Can Can is evil, my wife will like that comment) and is disgusted when he accidentally drinks a bottle of beer!
Episode 2.5 Baksheesh
October 15, 2016 09:02 - 30 minutes - 24.3 MBJust a little warning. This episode includes content that could offend modern sensibilities. Some racist terms and descriptions are used. If you can handle that, Percy describes his trip to Egypt and stopovers in Melbourne, Freemantle, Aden and Suez. We finish with him spending his first night in Egypt. It is worth a listen if you don't mind the "N" word.
Episode 2.4 Through the heads
October 08, 2016 01:31 - 33 minutes - 26.6 MBWhen I was a young man I carried a pack and waltzed me Matilda all over..... This is a tear jerker as Percy says goodbye to his family and sets sail on the SS Orsova for fate and destiny. Before he goes, his unit is set to Obelisk Bay in Sydney Harbour to fight fake Turks for the movie cameras, a clip of that movie is available at the Smythe family website if you care take a look... well worth it!
Episode 2.3 Bert at ANZAC
October 04, 2016 08:08 - 22 minutes - 19.4 MBThis is an extra special episode. 15 Year old Tom Wark is guest presenter and does a fantastic job at presenting a letter written by Bert Smythe to his family where Bert recounts the landing and first few days at Gallipoli before he gets shot by a sniper. If you have any interest at all in the Gallipoli legend this is the episode to listen to. Bert gives a great account of the Turks, deaths in the First Brigade of the AIF, the work of the Third Brigade and Turkish attacks. This one is seriou...
Episode 2.2 Crimed for what?
September 22, 2016 10:37 - 52 minutes - 41.1 MBIn this episode Viv Smythe gets married before going to war, Percy renews old acquaintances at Taree and he gets charged with something he did not cause. We meet more diggers and learn more about camp life at Liverpool, including the infamous Colonel Kirkland.