• Soldiers

    Are you a family historian, trying to find what happened to a relative in 1914-1918?

    Or perhaps you are researching a local war memorial or the men of a particular unit?

    This is the place to start »

  • The British Army

    Are you a military historian, trying to find what happened to a unit or formation in 1914-1918?

    Or perhaps you are researching a battle or a technical aspect of the army of 1914-1918?

    This is the place to start »


Battles and battlefields

At this time of year, thoughts turn to planning spring and summer trips to the battlefields of France and Flanders.

My area-by-area battlefield and accommodation guides will help you decide where to go, what to do, the best things to see and the pitfalls to avoid. » Battlefield guides

 

 

Work in progress

The Long, Long Trail is undergoing a spring-clean. All pages are being brought into this new design and certain areas restructured. Please bear with me while this work goes on. The "Ask Away" interactive area is also temporarily disabled.

Latest from the Long, Long Trail

  • For their comparatively small size, the British Official History of military operations dedicates more space to the battles of 1914 than any other period. It dedicates as much attention to the actions of battalions as it does to entire Divisions in the final Allied offensive of 1918. Yet it also manages to miss, or give short shrift to, several localised and numerically small actions that proved to be of crucial importance in the British withdrawal from Mons and the long slog southward that ended with a crossing of the Marne in September 1914. There is a gap to be filled and Jerry Murland's "Retreat and rearguard" does it well: it comprises a series of vignettes that go a long way to explaining these actions and improving our understanding of the nature of early war experience of the "Old Contemptibles".

    Latest book review »

  • The list of discoveries of brothers who died on the same day as each other just keeps on growing. I have now, with your help, identified 284 instances and have more to add.

    My project on "Brothers Died" »

  • Tour the Somme with me and enjoy this photo gallery of the evocative battlefield of 1916

    Somme gallery »

  • The Long, Long Trail is owned, designed, built and written by Chris Baker. He is a freelance military historian, former Chairman of the Western Front Association and founder of the Great War Forum

    Meet the author »