Battlefields of World War I and II A JOURNEY OF REMEMBRANCE
	Literally millions of young soldiers were killed or wounded in the First World War. Many regions were totally destroyed, with the scars still visible after 90 years. After all the horrors, people thought it was “the war to end all wars” and it was hoped the League of Nations could solve all future conflicts. However, war broke out again in Europe 22 years later and soon the world was embroiled in a Second World War. The memory of these conflicts, horrors, suffering and heroism is not forgotten. This tour has been designed to give you the opportunity to visit sites sacred to the memory of those soldiers. All now in peaceful countryside, the museums, their relics, and the millions of white crosses, bear witness to the horrors those young men went through.

(For information on the background of this poem written by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae MD of the Canadian Army, see the website - www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

We are able to organise private, tailor made tours to the Battlefields. We have basic itineraries shown below for two day modules to each of the following:

Somme and Belgium Includes Ypres (Flanders Fields), Passchendale, Villers-Bretonneux, Menin Gate, Peronne
DAY 1	We take the train from Paris to Amiens to meet our Somme specialist. The tour commences with Peronne and the Mont St Quentin. We visit the Historial de la Grande Guerre in Peronne : “an international museum of comparative History. Its trilingual presentation compares the experiences of the war of the major participants...it shows what daily life was like on the front but also behind the lines, reflecting the heavy involvement of the civilian populations....links the past to the present, testifying to the impact that this conflict has had throughout the 20th century” After the visit to Villers-Bretonneux (Memorial and Victoria School museum), we have lunch in Albert. Afternoon visits include Lochnagar crater, Pozieres, Mouquet farm, Thiepval and Beaumont Hamel. The day will end with attending the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate, performed every night since 1929, except during World War 2. The names of 54,896 Commonwealth soldiers, including 6,176 Australians, are inscribed here: they died in the fields of Flanders and were never found.	Peronne Memorial - Grande Guerre Menin Gate
DAY 2	A specialist guide of Ypres and the Belgian battlefields meets you at the hotel and takes you on a guided tour of the museum in Flanders Fields. Lunch is followed by a guided exploration of the battlefields, the Passchendale disaster, Sanctuary Wood, “ the hell where youth and laughter go” and Tyne Cot cemetery which integrates German bunkers captured by the AIF 2nd division on 4 October 1917. Return to Lille to catch the TGV to Paris Gare de Lyon.	Yorkshire Trench, Flanders
The Ardennes, Maginot Line and Verdun Includes the Hackenberg, Fort of Douaumont and Ossuary, Memorial of Fleury, Vauquois
DAY 1	In the morning we take the TGV from Paris to Metz, where the local expert guide is waiting. The day is devoted to the “most formidable fortification system ever built with the exception of the Great Wall of China” - the Maginot Line. We start in the morning with a visit to the most colossal fort of the Maginot Line: The Hackenberg. The only fort which was engaged in the battle (Villy la Ferte) stopped a German Panzer division for days. How could the “impregnable” fortification built between 1929 and 1941 along the German border stretching from Belgium to Switzerland, with its 108 strong fortresses, fall? And so quickly, let alone at all! The answer to the enigma is in an understanding of the famous percée des Ardennes.	Fermont Bloc 4 Fermont - a main gallery
DAY 2	A whole day devoted to Verdun : right bank and left bank. For ten months two colossal armies hurled themselves at each other. The evidence of this unremitting war is still visible 90 years later. The battle of Verdun was the longest in the Great War and destroyed more human lives than any other battles in the First World War. To the 800,000 young men who died in the first battle of Verdun the Americans added a further 126,000 in the second battle of Verdun at the end of the war. In the morning we cover the right bank of the Meuse: the fort of Douaumont, at that time the strongest fort in the world, the Ossuary of Douaumont - an experience not easily forgotten, the Memorial of Fleury and the Bayonet Trench. In the afternoon we visit the Butte de Vauquois, taken and retaken over and over again where each side built deeper and deeper tunnels: twelve miles of tunnels honeycomb the knoll. It was here too that minefield warfare really came into its own! After “Côte 304” (Slope 304) and “Mort d’Homme” (“the death of man” - a moving but fitting testimony to the Western Front Battlefields) we take the TGV back to Paris.	Verdun - Ossuaire de Douaumont
Normandy Landing Beaches During these two days you will have a guided tour of the Normandy coast, which will recount the dramatic story of D Day as you visit the most important sites.
DAY 1	We leave Paris by train for Caen where we meet our specialist local tour guide. The first stop is Pegasus Bridge over the river Orne. The bridge had been seized on the 5th of June late at night by a glider-borne reinforced company commanded by Major John Howard who managed to link up with Lord Lovat’s Commando Brigade on the 6th. Then on to Arromanches, part of Gold beach which had to be taken as it had been chosen as the future site of the main Mulberry. The British reached their objective on the day of the landing. When watching the 360° film presented on the landing (compiled from filmed records made by journalists on the spot at the time) you will be totally immersed and share the feelings of terrible disorientation and fear that must have been felt by those young men trying to set foot on the coast of France. Into Bayeux late afternoon to discover the famous tapestry - a delightful contrast!	Gold Beach D Day landing Arromanches 360 degree theatre
DAY 2	Arromanches played a most important part in the landing until the American forces took Cherbourg which was the first real harbour they could use to bring in supplies. Without this Mulberry harbour the allies would never have been able to land an army of 150,000 men with all their equipment and weapons. We visit the small town and the techniques used by the landing forces will be explained. All along the coast we see the defences the German had established, known as “The Atlantic Wall”. It becomes obvious that without the fantastic and brilliantly organized deception thanks to which the secret had been kept, the landing would have been totally impossible : the Germans had created a fortress right along all the coasts of Europe which they held. Just behind, overlooking Omaha beach, you will discover the gigantic and beautiful American memorial and cemetery at Colleville-sur-mer. An extraordinarily moving experience even after all these years... After lunch when visiting Omaha beach you will realize why the landing there was (nearly) a tragic failure. Heavily defended, with a difficult terrain each pillbox had to be taken out by direct assault. At la Pointe du Hoc, evidence of the ferocious Allied bombing of German defences in preparation for the landing is still vivid. The Germans had in fact removed the guns replacing them with camouflaged logs and the Americans fell for the ruse: an intelligence-services failure... At the end of the day we are driven back to the train for Paris.	Arromanches - vestiges of artificial port German coastal gun Longues-sur-mer - German bunker Omaha Beach tank Pointe du Hoc - war remains