Passchendaele: John Palmer

Among the recordings made for the BBC's landmark series 'The Great War' in the early 1960s, one in particular stands out. John Palmer, a British Gunner who served as a signaller from 1914 onwards on the Western Front, admitted to being at his lowest ebb by November 1917. Towards the end of his time in Flanders fields, he admitted considering a self-inflicted wound to get out of Passchendaele, and the apocalyptic landscape he was crawling around in night after night. Finally, on his last night in the front line, sheer exhaustion left him unable to react as he heard a shell coming towards him. According to the historian Peter Hart, who recorded many of the interviews with First World War veterans for the Imperial War Museums' collection, John Palmer is the voice of the British soldier of 1917: suffering, drained, and almost broken.

You can listen to Passchendaele: John Palmer online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Passchendaele: John Palmer is an episode from Voices of the First World War by BBC.

This episode is 12:36 long.

This episode was published on Dec 13, 2017.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Voices of the First World War when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.