Living History With Mat Mclachlan

On September 26th, 1917, at Polygon Wood, three cousins from the same Australian pioneering family waited in the pre-dawn darkness. Raymond Single would soon be shot by a sniper who saw his luminous watch glow. Within hours, Hubert Thompson and Wilfred Single would also be dead.At 5:50 AM, a thousand guns opened simultaneously in what Frank Hurley called "a blinding sheet of flame." The Battle of Polygon Wood had begun.Six days after the success at Menin Road, General Plumer launched his second "bite and hold" attack. In this episode, Mat McLachlan reveals how Polygon Wood became both a perfect victory and a terrible revelation: the British Empire had finally learned how to win battles, but winning provided no relief from the slaughter.From Pompey Elliott holding the line while his brother died, to Patrick Bugden's five rescue missions into no-man's land, we follow the 4th and 5th Australian Divisions through what Charles Bean called possibly Elliott's greatest achievement—and one of the bloodiest days in Aus