Dan Hill

speaker

2,064 appearances 11 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 7 Sep

Dan Hill’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 11 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 5.

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WW1: Not So Quiet On The Western Front! · Episode 135: The Somme’s Northern Disaster · 6 Jul 2026 podcast

Somme is classically agricultural land.

It's the kind of place, had there not been a First World War there,

You wouldn't see any tourists there probably ever.

It's beautiful countryside, but there's not a huge amount going on.

Very agricultural, ancient villages, which actually typically are sited in prominent locations, usually on top of hills or slight ridges.

And then you get this kind of rolling terrain interspersed with old country roads and then importantly, lots of woods.

Now, those things offer a good opportunity for a defender.

You can dig in and fortify woods.

You can dig in and fortify villages.

You can use ridges and particularly the reverse slope of ridges to protect and screen your troops whilst also having an observational advantage down over your enemy.

And more importantly, Spence, if you've been there a long time, you can do all of those things very, very scientifically.

And that's the thing.

And the mindset really plays into this in a huge way.

And we've discussed this a number of times in the past.

But the important thing to recognize here is that the Germans at this point in the war have switched over, with the exception, one very big exception of Verdun, to a largely defensive mindset.

And it's quite simply, we're not going anywhere.

As a result of that, it's let's put some effort into our defences, which is very different to the British offensive mindset, which is, well, why are we digging a big, deep underground bunker with beautifully carved steps because we're moving forwards next week?

Well, the Germans aren't thinking that way.

They're thinking we're here to stay.

We're going to put the effort in.

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