In today's episode, we visit the communal cemetery and extension at Mazengarbe on the Loos battlefield and discover the stories of some of the men who lie buried within.
We begin by reminiscing on an encounter in a cemetery on All Souls Day, hear the story of a Scottish VC winner who performed two remarkable acts of heroism on the battlefield at Hill 70, and meet one of the lesser-known poets of the Great War, the idealistic Canadian Bernard Trotter. We meet a man of the cloth who was awarded a Military Cross for bravery, hear the stories of some of the men who were shot at dawn and lie buried in the cemetery, and discover how the Mayor of Laventie and a parish priest ended up brawling in a British dugout, having tried to take on the Germans single-handed armed only with a bottle of eau de vie and stolen British rifle.
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