Our latest podcast begins at the Guards Grave in the Retz Forest near the village of Villers Cotteret on the Aisne battlefield. It contains the graves of 98 men of the Guards Brigade who fought one of the most remarkable rear-guard actions of the Great War near this spot on the 1st of September 1914.
We meet the eccentric and dangerous-to-know Irish Guards officer Lt Aubrey Herbert. A loose cannon with a volcanic temper, Herbert was almost blind, but despite this, he proved to be a capable officer. Opinionated, argumentative, and dangerous to know, Herbert successfully delivered a vital message that allowed reinforcements to be rushed up into the forest to help rescue the beleaguered Guards Division.
We also discover the story behind one of the most impressive private memorials anywhere on the Western Front, and the remarkable perseverance of a formidable woman, desperate to find out what happened to her only son.
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