Last updated November 15th  2011

Below we have produced the highlights of our latest touring year. We hope that this inspires you to engage us to help plan your own groups personalised tour of the Western Front:

October

We were pleased to welcome Lt. Colonel Digby Carter and his group again. The tour loosely followed in the footsteps of Seigfried Sassoon and other war poets and literary names. I had the chance to meet Digby and other members of the group, at the National Archives prior to the tour. The purpose was to share my knowledge of research which is fundamental to the success of our tours. Digby,  Bronwyn and Jeremy Best were keen to understand how you research your Great War Ancesters, of which I would be including in the tour.

The group was picked up from Ascot early on our first morning to ensure we could have a full day on the Loos battlefields. Amongst the first days' highlights included a visit to the Double Crassier, a walk in the footsteps of Jack Kipling and the reading of the poetry of Captain Charles Hamilton Sorley, (Loos Memorial, Dud Corner).

Our second day followed the exploits of "Mad Jack" Sassoon on his one man trench raid. With the help of "Linesman" trench sat nav and extracts from his diary, we were able to follow his route, embellished with His words. Thankfully the field which Quadrangle Trench crosses had recently been ploughed. Unfortunatley, part of the old railway embankment was fenced off. Battlefield touring at its best...and worst!

Day three followed in the footsteps of the 51st (Highland) Division on the first day of the Battle of Cambrai. We walked from Trescault to Flesquieres, where their second wave battalions were held up by un-cut wire on the Hindenburg Support lines. Both D and E tank battalion's suffered high losses by enemy artillery, firing over open sights. Tank D.51 - Deborah - received five direct hits as it moved through the village. Half the eight man crew were dead as the tank was abandoned. Fast forward to 1998 - from its grave in a garden in the village of Flasquieres - D.51 was unearthed. The facinating story of "Deborah" is faithfully retold by the tanks custodian, Philippe Gorczynski.

The group fall out at the ralling point for the Tanks of E Battalion		Philippe holds the attention of the group in the barn that houses D.51 Deborah. His aim is to open a museum with the tank at the centre of the story

Our last day started where we finnished the previous day - just outside Flesquieres - at Orival Wood Cemetery. I was keen to introduce the poetry of Ewart Alan Mackintosh; a relatively unknown Scottish war poet, killed in action with the 5th Seaforth Highlanders, as the 51st (Highland) Division sent forward their reserve brigade to capture its first day objective. We completed our visit to the Cambrai battlefields with a visit to the memorial to the missing at Louverval.

Unusually the tour was going to finish at the Menin Gate with our attendance at the Last Post; several of the group had not witnessed the ceremony which takes place each night at 8.00pm and had requested that I include it within the itinerary. Rather than stretch the tour to an extra day, I suggested we take a detour on the way back to the Tunnel.

The last day continued with Sassoon again in our thoughts as we tracked down the Hindenburg Line, close to the village of Heninel, south east of Arras. After the failure to build on the success of the first day, the Battle of Arras (9th April 1917) began to resemble all that had gone before. A further push was planned for the 23rd April and in the meantime fresh divisions moved in to the line. It was during this period that the 33rd Division relieved the 21st Division, with orders to improve their line in preparation for the next major offensive.With the help diary accounts, trench maps and "Linesman" we set off to retrace the actions of Sassoon which led to him being "sniped".

Our penultimate visit was to the Bois Grenier sector close to the town of Armentieres. Post tour research had tracked the movement of Bronwyn's grandfather - a sapper in the Royal Engineers - to this sector. He was wounded in January 1916 whilst working to drain front line trenches close to Burnt Farm.

Bronwyn stood by the current day Burnt Farm, close to where her grandfather, 2nd Corporal Arthur Matthew was wounded in January 1916. He remained on home service until the   end of the war		The grave of sapper Fred King, the first  casualty from 128th Field Coy. According to the war diary, the funeral was interrupted through constant enemy sniping

 August

A grandfather, son and grandson from Nantwich in Cheshire - visiting the battlefields for the first time - formed the backbone of our late August tour. They were joined by a life long battlefield tourer and another first time visitor. There are difficulties associated with organising tours for groups that do not neccesarily have a shared interest.  This tour with old,  young, experienced visitors and first timers, presented a real challenge to ensure everbodies needs and expectations were met. We spend a great deal of time on putting our tour itineraries together. Ideally it should follow the chronolgy of the Great War and each visit should follow on from the previous as you continue to build the groups knowledge. Tour itineries should not just consist of unconnected visits to the big memorials, endless visitors' centres and certainly not to too many cemeteries. Each visit must have a purpose.

 Our tour base was Peronne enabling us to spend much of our time on the Somme battlefields. 

 The"Baker Pals" by the equestrian statue of Field Marshal Haig in the town square of Montrueil sur Mer.  In the background the old theatre, which doubled up as a cinema and a lecture hall. At it's zenith, Montrueil was home to more than 5,000 officers and men.

May

It is always extra special to organise an itinerary which coincides with a commerative date. May 3rd was the 94th anniversary of the Third Battle of the Scarpe, the last major battle of the Arras offensive. At 03.45 the 11/East Yorks. (Hull Tradesmen) 92nd Brigade, 31st Division, commenced a frontal assault against Oppy Wood. The attack failed. From a bayonet strength of 548 officers and men the Hull Tradesmen suffered casualties of over 45%; 67 other ranks were killed, including my customers Great Uncle, Private John Gelder.

A view from behind the German front (black) line on the edge of Oppy Wood back towards the attack of the 11/East Yorks. Their single assembly trench was between the two pylons. Although it was a night attack, the lack of any discernable cover and a full moon led to complete failure

We visited Oppy Wood on the last day of a three day tour and although the wood remains private property, there is a narrow footpath that allows you to walk around its perimeter and view the ground over which the three Hull battalions made their attack. 

Mr. & Mrs. Sanderson  became interested in visiting the battlefields of the Western Front through their family history research, which  identified three relatives who had all served and died whilst serving on the Western Front. Day one was spent on the battlefields around Ypres, in the footsteps of Driver Thomas Matthews (kia 6/10/1917). Our penultimate visit of the day was to see his name on the Tyne Cot Memorial before attending the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate.

Our second day was spent around the battlefields of Arras: Notre Dame De Lorrette, Vimy Ridge and Roclincourt, where we walked the battlefields in the footsteps of the 24th Tyneside Irish, 103rd Brigade, 34th Division. There are paths right across the British front lines from the 9th April, 1917 (first day of the Battle of Arras), with the remains of several craters still evident. Further paths take you across the German front lines and their "intermediate line"; marked as the blue line on the battalion's objective. It was whilst making the crossing from the black to the blue line that the majority of the battalion casualties were inflicted. Only once an enemy machine gun was silenced by Lance Corporal Thomas Bryan (25th Tyneside Irish) could the blue line be fully captured by 103rd Brigade.

Veronica Sanderson lays her wreath on the grave of her "grandfather", Ebeneezer Calderwood at Roclincourt Valley cemetery. In the next row (black arrow) is the grave of L/Cpl. George Bland from the same battalion; commemorated on a previous tour with the Gagen family.The majority of the officers and men from this plot were exhumed after the war from "King Crater", where five large temporary graves had been made shortly after the battle; mostly officers and men of the 24th/25th Tyneside Irish, including Captain Huntley, the officer who went forward with Lance Corporal Bryan to silence the machine gun. Bryan gained the V.C but Huntley was shot through the head as he observed through his binoculars

April

Spring is the most popular time with visitors to the Western Front; the weather is warming up, bank holidays are plenty, but more important, the crops are still to be planted or they remain low to the ground and the battlefields retain their vistas, particularly if the tour is a walking tour. We were please to guide the Western Front Association - North Wales Branch - on a five day tour of the Ypres Salient. With a tight budget we managed to cost it at £235 per person by using the excellent Talbot House as billets and self driving with mini-bus hire. With three full days and two half days on the battlefields, we were able to cover much of the Salient and tell its story chronologically.

 North Wales branch, WFA outside Lijssenthoek Cemetery. A new "interpretation" centre is currently under construction

Repeat custom is the best form of self assessment and suggests that one is doing "a good job". It was the Taylor families second tour and their experience of their first  last April enabled them to be very specific about what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go; exactly what Tailor-Made tours are about! Clarity of enquriy enables us to deliver the right tour. This clarity should not worry potential customers who don't have the experience of the Taylor families many visits to the battlefields. We work very hard to put the right itinerary together for every customer and deliver the personalised research, making our Tailor-Made tours the very best way to see the Western Front battlefields.

Hotel Beatus, Cambrai, our accommodation for the five day tour. The hotel is very popular with British tourists, particularly those interested in the tank battle at Cambrai in November 1917.

March 

Our touring year started with a six day walking tour of the Somme battlefields. This length of tour allows visitors to study more of the 148 days of the offensive than would usually be available. Chronologically, the walks included Serre, Montauban, the Dawn Attacks, the Thiepval Ridge and Beaucourt to Frankfurt Trench and the last actions. The weather was kind, remaining dry and sunny if not a little chilly on the exposed ridges. Our billets - our Somme favourite - Chavasse Farm - allowing us to offer the party the home comforts of self catering, with Nancy doing the cooking.