The Kaiser's Oak

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, we walk the battlefield of Gommecourt, the scene of a diversionary attack on the first day of the Somme battle which saw almost 6000 men become casualties.Untried and untested the men of the 46th and 56th Divisions found themselves attacking one of the most heavily defended strongpoints on the entire Western Front, a mass of machine guns, barbed wire, and dugouts.  We hear the tragic tale of an 18-year-old 2nd Lieutenant who lost his life that day, the idiosyncrasies of a Divisional Commander and his pipe-smoking dog, the symbolic significance of a majestic oak tree, and hear the remarkable diary entries of a London Sergeant who survived the day and recalled in graphic detail the horrors of the battlefield.