World War 1 Battlefield Tours – 2012 (page 4)

The tour list gives the full index of all of our battlefield tours, pilgrimage tours and war graves tours for the First World War. Expanded details of all tours is also available in our brochure, contact us for a copy.

WORLD WAR 1: Verdun and Somme

Including a visit to 'Des flammes... à la lumière'

5th – 9th July
5 Days, 4Nights

£540.00

NOT TO BE MISSED!
On this tour we will visit Des flamme... à la lumière – a magnificent outdoor show depicting the history of Verdun before, during and after the War – with over 300 actors, 1000 projectors and 900 costumes.

This tour visits Vimy Ridge Canadian Memorial and trench systems en-route to our overnight hotel.

The following day we will visit the Somme Battlefields, seeing Delville Wood, Thiepval, Lochnagar Memorial Crater and Albert, before making our way south to Verdun.

We visit the, now beautiful and quiet, countryside surrounding this ancient Citadel of France, now the World Peace Capital and see for ourselves the terrible pounding that the French troops took throughout the First World War and in particular in 1916. We visit the site of the huge German gun that fired the first shells on Verdun and see the German concrete village where engineers were experimenting with concrete to build blockhouses.

We will visit Fort Vaux and see the Pidgeon Memorial, Fort Douamont, the destroyed villages, Bayonet Trench, The Ossuary, Verdun Memorial Museum, Colonel Driant’s Headquarters, the Maginot Memorial, the Mort Homme Skeletal Memorial, Hill 304, the Butte De Vauquois and the Underground Citadel.

We will see where the French Unknown Soldier was chosen and where his comrades in death lie in the Cemetery. Visit the Meuse-argonne, American Cemetery and Montfaucon Memorial and many other places of interest. Special Visits will be made during our stay.

WORLD WAR 1: Mons, the First and Last Shots

The Marne, Aisne, Compiegne, Armistice Clearing, Nery

31st Aug – 5th Sept
6 Days, 5 Nights

£599.00

Can't make a trip? Want photographs of a Grave, Memorial or Battlefield site? Contact Ian at the War Research Society Headquarters.

The flexibility made the tour, easy going, caring friendly, thank you for an amazing 5 days.

John Chapman

Mons Memorial

This tour visits Vimy Ridge en route to the Hotel. The next day will be spent in and around Mons, where the First World War started and finished as far as the British and Commonwealth were concerned.

We follow the cavalry charge at Elouges, the saving of the Guns and see where Corporal Thomas fired the first shot of the 'War to end all Wars', and where his Officer, Captain Hornby, drew his sword and charged, putting the Germans to flight.

We will visit Nimy and see where the two first Victoria Crosses of the War were won. Visit the graves of the first and last soldiers killed, and the grave of Lieutenant Dease VC in St. Symphorien Cemetery. Finally, we will follow the route of the retreat from Mons down through Le Cateau.

On day three, having visited the site of the signing of the Armistice in the Forest of Compiegne, we will spend a day in the Marine area to see where the German army were halted. We will visit to the site of the famous affair at Nery, where Captain Bradbury, his colleagues and L Battery Royal Horse Artillery turned the tide of the German advance, and where he was awarded a posthumous VC.

We also visit La Ferte sous Jouarre and see the magnificent Memorial to the Missing standing alongside the River Marne.

On the fourth day we will cover the Guards at Villers Cotterets in 1914, and the British and French armies actions in the autumn of 1918, through Buzancy and on to Fere En Tardenois with the American forces, through the Ardre Valley and Marfaux.

The next day we will cover Soisson, and the Chemin de Dames, visiting the Dragon Cave. And the final day will be spent travelling home.

Two nights will be spent in Cambrai and three in Chateau Thierry.