The teaspoon of Talana

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On the 6th July 1915, hundreds of British soldiers left their trenches near the small Belgian village of Boesinghe in an attack against the German lines. Men from the Hampshire Regiment were tasked with the unenviable task of attacking a German strongpoint called Fortin 17.

Over 600 men were killed that day, and thousands wounded.  Almost 100 years later a team of amateur Belgian archaeologists unearthed a teaspoon that belonged to a man who was killed that afternoon.

In this episode of the podcast, we walk the canal from Ypres to Boesinghe, before we look at the events of the 6th July 1915.  A series of coincidences culminated during a shopping trip to a grim leisure centre in Leamington Spa, where a chance purchase brought a remarkable connection to a man who lost his life in this small corner of Flanders.