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Longer, tougher and generally more painful than ever, Steve and I are dusting off the panniers and the padded shorts and will be getting back on the bikes for another gentle ride across a large chunk of continental Europe in order to raise a few quid for our service men and women: past, present and future.

This time we will be following La Voie de la Liberté (The Road of Liberty) – one of many routes taken by the Allies in 1944 after the successful sea-borne landings at Normandy in the summer of that year. This particular route is the one taken by General Patton of the US Third Army. It starts just inland from the Normandy coast and winds its way through France, into Luxembourg, and then up to Belgium, taking in the Ardennes, where it finishes at Bastogne. A total of  1,145km, or, in proper distance,  715 miles. (As a comparison the original cycling the line trek was 550 miles).

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Steve and I met last week to agree on the route and put the wheels in motion, so to speak, on this next adventure. The minutiae are yet to be completely finalised, but here is the general gist: We plan to do the cycle ride over 15 days; 12 cycle days with 3 rest days thrown in so we don’t kill ourselves. That works out to be an average of 60 miles a day for every cycle day. We will also be doing this trip a little bit earlier in the year, probably the last week of September/first week of October. This will mean it wont get dark at 4.30pm like it did when we went out last time – that was a real pain. Trying to cycle on main A roads in the pitch dark during evening rush hour was ‘interesting’ but not something either of us are keen to repeat again if we can help it.

It’s all for charity

As last time, the whole point of us killing ourselves for 15 days is to raise a bit of cash for our soldiers. Last time we raise nearly £3500 – which was absolutely amazing. I wonder how much we can raise this time round? I know times are tough, but if you can spare a couple of quid then we would be incredibly grateful.

This year, our charity of choice is………. Help For Heroes. You can donate at our dedicated Just Giving page:  http://www.justgiving.com/Cyclingtheline2

Thank you in advance!!

I have also been asked by The History Press to write a book on ‘Heroes of The First World War’. The contents of this book will be to take 20 soldiers or officers that served in the First World War and write a full profile on them, really getting into detail to understand the individual and their experiences during this conflict. If you have a family ancestor that had a remarkable story, perhaps they won a gallantry medal or fought at pivotal battles such as the Somme or Passchendaele, and you would like them considered for inclusion in the book, please just let me know! Just email me at mustangscottie@sky.com or contact me via Twitter @military_search

There is also some really exciting news on a new charity bike ride. I can’t say too much, as the details have not been nailed, but ‘Cycling The Line – Part Deux’ will be announced shortly, and it promises to be an absolute dandy!

2012 is already shaping up to be an absolute corker! If you want to come along for the ride, make sure you re-visit this blog regularly!

For those that know me, you will recognise the image that is being used on the t-shirt! They have been produced in white (with black logo), black (with white logo) and olive-green (with black logo).

The price of these t-shirts are £15 (incl post and packing). For everyone that is sold, I will donate £5 to Help for Heroes.

Black t-shirt modelled by my daughter Lenka

The e-commerce page is not yet ready, it should be live before Xmas, but you can buy these t-shirts from me via email/twitter/blog post:

• you can email me at mustangscottie@sky.com
• you can tweet me at @military_search
• you can contact me via a post on this blog.

Once I have your order and you have paid the £15 (incl postage and packing) I will donate £5 on your behalf to my dedicated JustGiving page. By doing it this way, you can actually see your £5 donation on the page, and you can give me a note or dedication that you want me to write on your behalf.

Hopefully together we can raise £500 for the Help for Heroes charity.

So, here is your opportunity to buy a great Christmas present with the knowledge that you are helping one of the best charities that our helping our armed forces, both past and present.

close up of logo (white)

What is Help for Heroes all about?

“It’s about the ‘blokes’, our men and women of the Armed Forces. It’s about Derek, a rugby player who has lost both his legs, it’s about Carl whose jaw is wired up so he has been drinking through a straw. It’s about Richard who was handed a mobile phone as he lay on the stretcher so he could say goodbye to his wife.

They are just blokes, but they are our blokes. They are our heroes.”

So if you would to buy one for yourself, or as a present for Christmas, just email me at mustangscottie@sky.com and together we can Help our Heroes.

Don’t get me wrong, history books that are meticulously researched and brimmed full of minute detail are vitally important but in reality only us geeks will read them. The bulk of the population are really only interested in getting an overview of what happened, why and to whom. It is one reason why I am writing my ‘everyman’s First World War’ book, which tackles the ‘history book’ genre in a completely different way to how it has been done before. (More on that in a later post).

However, we live in a society that demands immediate results and answers. Whether that is in sport, business or learning. We live in a 140 character society and even short, punchy books are too cumbersome for many. Which is why I am embarking on www.thegreatwar100.com - a website dedicated to the memory of the First World War that uses infographics to get the main statistics and points across. As far as I am aware it has never been done before for this particular conflict and I really hope that all kinds of readers,(but particularly those who do not have a library full of 800 page epics!) will visit, look, read and appreciate the format and hopefully enhance their knowledge of a war that effected every single British family at the time.

Please have a look at the holding page – the final website is still in production, but the idea is to more content including a day by day account of the conflict, more infographics covering different aspects of the war and I will also be ‘following’ a particular battalion through the war, using their official front line war diary to give readers a day by day account of what it was like being part of a British infantry battalion during the first world war.

There will also be merchandise for sale including t-shirts and posters of the infographics, also individual icons from the infographics can be used to put on t-shirts, cups, caps etc. 20% of the profits from these items will go to The Royal British Legion. I will be setting up a dedicated Just Giving page for this so you can see exactly your contribution to the whole project. You can even give me a message you want to put on the just giving page and I will make sure that is included.

I hope you all think this is a good idea – I would welcome any feedback and ideas. Please visit the website www.thegreatwar100.com and have a look at the first infographic. If you like it, please share the page via Twitter or Facebook using the ‘share icons’ that are on the page. I would like as many people to see this page and learn a little bit if possible.

The problem is, the annual ritual of remembrance is predominantly a British (and Commonwealth) phenomena. Some other countries perhaps see it as a week or two when old guys with medals hang about shopping centres giving out plastic flowers and rattling collection tins; i.e. it is nothing more than a fundraising gimmick. But it is more than that. Much more. The whole act of remembrance is deeply engrained within the British psyche unlike any other nation. It is more than just collecting a few bob for some old soldiers, and it goes beyond watching a few war documentaries on the history channel. It is one of the few times that the whole nation unites as a whole and works together for the greater good. People do wear their poppy with pride (I know I do), it brings us together as a race, it is part of what makes us British.

FIFA are obviously applying the letter of their laws here, but I think they just do not understand how deeply engrained in our society the wearing of the Poppy, and the act of Remembrance during this time is in the British culture.

I had a similar issue at work, a few months ago. I was asked to put on a partner event in November. Great!! To no great surprise for those people who know me, I booked the Imperial War Museum as the venue, I also managed to secure Cpl Johnson Beharry VC as a keynote/motivational speaker. I planned to turn the event into a quasi charity event where our partners would be asked to make a voluntary contribution of £50 to the Poppy Appeal, and what ever total these contributions made at the end of the day, I would match it. I reckon it would have raised about £500 for the British Legion.

However, my VP of marketing (American) heard of it and made it very clear to me that if I valued my job I was to cancel the event. Asking partners to pay to attend an event was an absolute no-no. He (the VP) was outraged – it was an absurd idea! And another thing, who was this guy speaking? We don’t ‘do’ motivational speakers – they don’t work, our partners want to know about our products, Scott. Nothing else. It is not a circus yadda yadda yadda….and so it went on.

I tried to continue with the event without him knowing, but there were too many people involved that couldn’t be trusted to blab…so I had to shelve the project. It annoyed me greatly on many levels…but I need to feed by kids, so I allowed my head to over-rule my heart.

It was a shame really because when i mentioned this event idea to a few partners in London they were really excited about and thought it was a great idea. But of course they loved it – because they get it.

I think both situations are nothing more than a lack of understanding and perhaps a bit of ignorance on the part of the non-British  people involved who don’t  really get the whole Poppy Appeal/Armed forces charity feelings that are incredibly strong in this country and is indeed  part of our national identity.

Let’s hope the FA stand up to FIFA a bit better than I did to my VP and tell them to stuff their rules and regulations where the sun doesn’t shine.

The Silver War Badge Records, 1914–1920, reveal more than 800,000 servicemen who were entitled to one of the Great War’s most distinguished awards. The Badge was given to men who were discharged due to illness or wounds—they wore it at home so they wouldn’t be accused of not doing their duty.

Details included in the database include their rank, when they started and finished in the Forces, the unit they were discharged from, and why they were discharged.

visit www.ancestry.co.uk for more information.

If you are successful finding your ancestor on the SWB  and want to know more about what was happening on the day he was wounded or made ill, then a search of the relevant battalion war diary around the time of his discharge may unveil more information. The war diaries are held at Kew Gardens and will need a personal visit, but it may well be worth it. If you cannot get down to London for a personal visit, then a researcher such as www.military-research.co.uk may be able to help you search on your behalf.

Plumer set about planning for yet another advance, duly scheduled for the 9^th October. As he did so the rain returned to Flanders with a vengeance. With it’s complicated drainage system completely smashed to bits, it didn’t take long for the entire landscape to be transformed into a sea of endless oozing mud.

As well as reducing life in the front line trenches to abject misery for the infantry on both sides, the rain completely messed up Plumer’s organisational plans for the new offensive. The rains meant it was almost impossible to re-arrange the artillery and get them in the correct positions to enable the proper support for the infantry. As a result much of the infantry were stuck in their original positions, which meant they were having to fire at their extreme range just to hit the German front line positions. German artillery batteries were out of range, as were their machine guns. Not good.

The same issues of movement affected the attacking infantry. Movement was painful as the troops had to inch forward towards the front line over narrow duckboard paths. Every time a shell landed anywhere near these advancing troops the explosion would knock many of them off the duckboards and into the morass of mud, often sinking up to the waste and needing to be pulled out. It was a nightmare.

While the British and Allied forces struggled to prepare for their next advance, the German army were busy reinforcing their defensive lines. They had rushed reserves from the south to bolster the Flanders front. They may have been broken but with fresh men reinforcing the line, they were far from beaten. The rain continued to pour. Some senior British officers were in favour of cancelling the offensive. But Haig was desperate to seize the moment, and ordered that his forces would attack regardless of the weather.

His forces duly attacked at dawn on the 9^th October. The accompanying creeping barrage was woefully inadequate, and for the first time since August, failed to establish any kind of dominance over the battlefield. Ironically, as the advance began the weather cleared. The rain stopped an d in perfect visibility the German machine-gunners cut the advancing infantry to pieces. With little or no artillery support the Allied advance didn’t stand a chance. Anyone who somehow avoided being blown to bits by artillery or cut to ribbons by machine gun fire found that the defensive belts of barbed wire placed in front of the German trenches were largely untouched.  As a result, the offensive was an unmitigated disaster. Only in the very north of the line did the British and French enjoy slight success, but it was hardly significant.

However, not deterred by the artillery disaster, the continuing rain, the formidable defensive fortifications of the enemy, the thousands of wounded still laying out in No Man’s Land, the atrocious conditions and the slaughter, Haig and Plumer decided to have another go at the Ridge in three days time. Yet again preparations were practically impossible. Senior Artillery officers approached GHQ and admitted they couldn’t guarantee any artillery cover for the planned assault due to the extreme range and the instability of the ground making firing the guns practically impossible. Yet again the assault troops had a torrid time getting to their forward positions. Yet again Haig was asked to re-assess the planned offensive. Yet again he refused to waver. The attack would commence as planned.

As zero hour approached the rain fell again. Along a six mile front the assaulting troops advanced in a sea of mud. Once again there was little or no artillery support. For the assaulting troops struggling across No Man’s Land in direct view of the enemy, having no artillery support was suicide. They were attacking elevated defensive positions riddled with pill boxes and other fortifications, they had no cover, they had no place to hide, they were sitting ducks. The result was inevitable; they lost 13,000 casualties in just a few hours.

And so ended the First Battle of Passchendaele. A distinct case of mandatory suicide.

The exhibition will open on October 22nd and entry to the museum is free! Why not visit www.nam.ac.uk to find out more?

I will definitely be going – might see you there!

They are small, taken with an iPhone, completely random and contain some tasty language, but they bring back some wonderful memories and watching them I do have the urge to do it all again…we have been throwing around the idea of cycling from Normandy to Aachen or maybe all the way to Berlin..so watch this space.

But back to the videos. There are 12 of them, they are not in any kind of date order (for example the first one you will see is Steve explaining our trying day to Verdun when my back wheel collapsed and we had to walk 10 miles to find a shop to fix my wheel) also, Steve got one or two of his historical dates/facts mixed up in his commentary -  he doesn’t pretend to be a history buff, but he did however cycle the best part of  600 miles to raise a bucket load of cash for our old soldiers, so don’t give him a hard time about it!

Also, there is fair amount of…erm…naughty language, so if you are easily offended please do not watch!! (You have been warned!)

So, here they are, happy viewing!

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL47CAEAC532C3D7C6&feature=viewall