Looks like the sound files were missing for some reason.
I copied them back in the West Front folder and it seems to be working ok now. How they got deleted I have no I idea.
Thanks for you suggestions.

<t> I am posting to the forum to help fix a strange problem I am having with West Front. My game was purchased at the end of last year and loaded from the CD. I then updated the patches and started playing.<br/>
Now the strange part, I have been playing EastFront and Rising Sun without any problems ...