Western Front Battlefield Tours

Every battlefield tour we organise is different. We do not pre book any hotel accommodation until the itinerary has been agreed. Itineraries are specific to your group and take in to consideration your groups age profile and your preference to "walk" or "drive" the battlefields. We are happy to arrange battlefield tours within the scope of a larger tour itinerary - pick up in one European city - drop off in another. Additional days can be added that are not specific to the battlefields of the Western Front.

This is a selection of our 2009 tour highlights, demonstrating the variety of battlefield tours we can offer:

September

An 8 day 7 night walking tour of the Western Front. This was sold through Ramblers Worldwide Holidays and as such I was employed as the guide leader, although this ignores the fact that we organised the accommodation, the meals, the transportation across the battlefields and of course the itinerary.

14 customers made up the group with the youngest 49 and the eldest 77. There was a good mix of male and female customers, from as far afield as America and Australia. 3 days were spent on the Somme battlefields and 2 days in the Ypres Salient, with a day for travelling either side and a day off mid week to allow for travel from the Somme to Ypres. This day also gave members of the group some free time in either Arras or Ypres.

This was my first time as an "employee" and unlike WFBT, where we are usually in full communication with our customers before a battlefield tour, on this occasion we would not meet until the first day. Therefore trying to balance the right ammount of walking with the right ammount of battlefield information, was the greatest challenge. Each customer was presented with their own tour pack with the usual WFBT information sheets and their own day by day maps - a trench map overlaid with the days walk. 

Each morning there was a briefing to put the day's walk in to context of the Western Front battlefields and each day there was an opportunity to learn something different: battle tactics, the artillery, burial and commemoration; these topics would be further supplemented with special visits and the obligatory notes.

It took a couple of days to get the balance right between walking and stopping to download battlefield information. The groups level of questioning was brilliant and continued well after the days walking, to the dining table in the evening!

The walks varied between 3 and 7 miles; the shorter walks usually entailed two walks per day. From the dress of the group you can assume we had some great early autumn weather!		The obligatory group photograph was taken by the headstone of Sergeant Varey, 1st battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, in R.E cemetery on the Messines Ridge. He was killed in action on the 15th June 1915. He was the Great Uncle of Kevin and Paula Varey, who accompanied the tour.

August

To commemorate the 95th anniversary of the Battle of Mons and the ensuing retreat, we organised a Tailor-Made tour by invitation only to some of our most loyal customers. It offered an opportunity for them to experience the battlefields of the early weeks of the Great War, which are rarely covered by the more commercial battlefield tour operators.

The four days was a combination of walking and vehicle touring, including Mons, Audregnies, Le Cateau, and Compiegne (including the Armistice Clearing). We also covered the  Actions at Nery, and the crossing of the Marne and Aisne rivers. Our tour concluded at the "Cavern du Dragon" on the Chemin des Dames.

Marietta, aswell as a good customer, has become a very good friend. Here, she tells the story of Captain The Hon. Fergus Forbes of the 2/Royal Irish Reg. killed during the Battle of Mons and buried in St. Symphorien Military cemetery; in my opinion the most interesting war cemetery on the Western Front. Perhaps we should be thankful it is off the normal tourist trail! Buried next to Forbes is Captain Walton Mellor; the first soldier associated with North Wales to be killed in the Great War. His name is on the Abergele war memorial.		Unusual to find anything in the fields during the summer months, but this large quantity of predominantly German rounds, were found on the Aisne battlefields, at La Cour de Soupir Farm. Heavy fighting took place here in September 1914 as the B.E.F supported the much larger French forces in securing the Aisne heights.  Earlier in the day we had visited the memorial to the missing at La Ferte Sous Jourre, to pay our respects to those officers and men of the 3/Coldstream Guards, who were heavily engaged at La Cour de Soupir Farm, during the Battle of the Aisne.

The success of our "Invitation Only Tour", has inspired us to repeat this tour format next year.

June

At the end of June we took three Australian customers to the battlefields; a husband and wife and a lady travelling on her own. All were based in London, so it was nice and convienient to create a Tailor-Made tour, just for them. The tour included Australian memorials and battlefield sites, but the main reason for the tour was for the customers to see the battlefields where their ancestors had fought.

Lynette Morwood finds the name of her uncle on V.C corner memorial. He was Private John Valentine Ross, 8th Machine Gun Company. He was killed in action during the Battle of Fromelles; the war diary recorded, "The Brigade Machine Gun Coy. was a tower of strength and all ranks did everything that was possible for men to do". The work on recovering both British and Australian fatalities from shallow graves in Pheasant Wood will culminate next year in the opening of a new Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery, close to the site of the original burials.		The group at the newly reburbished Australian Corps memorial park at Le Hamel, close to Villers Bretonneaux. It was rumoured that the previous memorial (as well as damged by the weather) was vandalised because the image of Monash bore a striking resemblance to Adolf Hitler! The new memorial (innauguarated November 2008) was designed by a good friend of Mary-Lynne and Ted Taylor

May

The "Baker Pals" are regular customers and this was to be their third consecutive battlefield tour. The itinerary is carefully planned to offer something new each time.For this tour the main theatre would be Ypres. The group had been here before but wanted to visit more of the battlefields associated with the 3rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele). As friends it was important that the hotel offered good facilities and was centrally located for bars and restaurants. The Ypres cat festival coincided with our tour dates, so I opted to base the group in the town of Menin; 20 minutes from Ypres.

On a personal level, the tour would include visits to battlefields and  cemeteries where members of the Baker Pals had indicated they had relatives who had served and died in the Great War.

As the group size exceeded our normal vehicle capacity, we hired a mini bus, picking the majority of the group up at their club, with other pick ups close by.

Mick views the visitors book at Talbot House. The original visitors books dating back to 1915 have recently been discovered in Talbot House archives		Les finally lays flowers and a cross on the grave of L/Cpl. McGrath,killed in action 4th November, 1918

 April

 We have gained a great deal of experience in tailoring battlefield tours for our Commonwealth customers. Careful planning and flexibility are paramount.

To witness the increase in visitor numbers to the Western Front from Australia, one only had to attend the Dawn Ceremony at Villers Brettoneaux, on Anzac Day 2009. It is extraordinary and humbling to see hundreds of our Commonwealth friends making the 24,,000 mile round trip to pay their respects to their fallen countrymen. It was my pleasure to organise a battlefield tour for one such Australian family.

The Mason family had contacted us in late 2007 with their plans for a European tour which was to include the battlefields of the Western Front, specific to the actions of the A.I.F and culminating at the Dawn Ceremony on Anzac Day.

After many months of reciprocal emails, the itinerary was planned around 5 days based in the town of Arras. In addition to the battlefield sites, the Masons' had wanted to include a visit to the Champagne region of Eperny. As they had three children, the tour needed to engage their interests. We agreed to pick them up and return them to Paris, enabling them to continue their European tour.

The village of Villers Brettoneux has been closely linked to Australia since the end of the Great War. On Anzac Day it becomes home from home for hundreds of Australians. Here, the  Mason family "thaw out" with a cup of hot choclate		Andrew and his wife, Malani were very mindful  that any European tour should also be educational for their three children and had organised various  projects for them to undertake whilst overseas. I particularly enjoyed bringing learning down to their  level. Here, Jamie and Jack get to grips with a German 77mm gun.

The age profile of our customers range from 89 years of age, to 3 months! Not sure if this may be some form of record! Our early April tour included baby Caitlin (not even born when the first enquiry was made!) and 8 other members of the Shepherd family from Lincolnshire and Essex. The tour was an 80th birthday present for John Shepherd. But soon after the cat came out of the bag, John was happy to organise his own Tailor - Made battlefield tour for his family.

The brief for the tour would include the research and exploits of two family members who had been killed in the Great War and John's own interest in military history. Similar to the previous tour, there was the needs of children to take in to consideration, both in the planning of visits and the logistics of toilet stops, meal times and feeding the baby.

Close to this spot, now Ovillers Military Cemetery the 2/Devonshires crossed Mash Valley, during the first day of the Battle of the Somme. For many Devonshires, it became their final resting place.  John's uncle was wounded in the same attack and was later transferred to the Labour Corps. Here the group pose in front of men from the 2/Devonshire battalion, killed on the 1st July, 1916, perhaps just yards from where they fell.		John had wanted to include a visit to the grave of Lt. Col. E.W. Hermon.  A book of his letters had recently been published and had found its way in to Johns impressive book collection. Hermon was killed on the 9th April 1917, leading the 1st Tyneside Irish during the Battle of Arras. He is buried in Roclincourt, Arras. On my return to the U.K I received a lovely thank you letter from the family, with a copy of Hermon's book.

 March

One of the most pleasing aspects of running your own business is securing repeat custom. Lawrenceville School, U.S.A, are one of many repeat customers. The school run a two year European history course which includes a field trip to the battlefields of the Western Front. We encourage partipation: reading war poems, adopting a soldier for the tour and dressing up! (see image below)

The group prepare to visit the trenches in Thiepval Wood as part of their learning experience