A century on from the end of the Great War, there’s never been a wider choice of battlefield tours. Joanna Booth reports.
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With Brexit negotiations dominating the headlines, it’s easy to feel as if our relationship with Europe has never been more fraught.
But rewind 100 years, and our forefathers were crouching in freezing, mud-filled trenches on the Western Front, about to face one of the most comprehensive and successful German offensives of the First World War. If you’d told them the war would be over by Christmas, they’d have laughed at you – they’d heard that one too many times before. After March 3, 1918, when Soviet Russia signed a peace treaty and the Central Powers were able to concentrate all their troops on the Western Front, even a far-off Allied victory would have felt anything but certain.
“There is no more evocative way to trace the history of the Great War than by walking in the footsteps of the soldiers through strangely peaceful poppy-filled fields.”
And yet come it did, in November. One by one, the Central Powers fell, and at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the Allies sealed a final armistice with their last opponent, Germany.
The cost of the conflict was huge. Around 17 million people lost their lives, and the political face of Europe was changed forever. The names of those famous battlefields ring with a sad familiarity – the Somme, Passchendaele, Verdun, Ypres – and there is no more evocative way to trace the history of the Great War than by walking in the footsteps of the soldiers, through strangely peaceful, poppy-filled fields, and in the cemeteries, among the crosses, row on row.
Take a tour
And while clients can make the journeys alone, a tour really is a no-brainer. Not only will all the practicalities be looked after for them, including transport to and from the sights, which are usually located outside urban areas, they’ll also benefit from the expertise of their guide. Look out for operators that use specialist battlefield guides, particularly if clients have a strong interest in military history, as they’ll be keen to quiz them on details. But even passengers who have only a passing acquaintance with historical events will find a great guide invaluable – their accounts will not only summarise the tides of the conflict, but they’ll also bring alive the human experiences of the soldiers on the ground.
“If clients want to spend time finding a relative’s resting place at a particular cemetery or memorial, consider tours that run with smaller groups.”
There’s always an interest in visiting the battlefields of the Great War – countless tours run every year – but the centenary of the end of the conflict has signalled a surge in popularity for these trips, with clients wishing to mark the anniversary and pay their respects to those who lost their lives.
Tours range from a relatively general, introductory level suited to first-timers, to more-specific itineraries tailored to those who have certain areas of interest, or perhaps family connections to a campaign. If clients want to spend time finding a relative’s resting place at a particular cemetery or memorial, consider tours that run with smaller groups, as it’s likely to be easier for a guide to tailor-make the experience to individual needs.
New itineraries
Operators, including Insight Vacations, Travelsphere and Newmarket Holidays, are running their First World War itineraries as usual, but the increase in demand for battlefield tours has seen specialists increase their portfolios and newcomers join the market. Just Go, for example, is running a four-day, First World War – One Hundred Years On itinerary for the first time, for £250.
Leger Holidays, with its large range of battlefield tours, has introduced measures to make its itineraries more accessible to all sorts of traveller. There’s a dedicated tour for solo travellers, with passengers enjoying sole occupancy of their room with no single supplement. (It’s worth noting that solo specialist Just You also offers a First World War battlefields option.) And for families who want to help the national curriculum come alive, there’s a young adults discount on popular introductory tours. Children between eight and 17 get 50% off selected tours in the school holidays, when travelling with an adult.
Leger is also offering a range of tours travelling in November for those who wish to be in the region for the exact date of the Armistice. The Somme Advance to Victory Centenary Tour traces the last 100 days of the war, from the Battle of Amiens, where the Allies broke the German defences, to the end in Mons, where the last shots were fired. The five-day tour starts from £399.
“For families who want to help the national curriculum come alive, there’s a young adults discount on popular introductory tours.”
Shearings Holidays, which partners with the Guild of Battlefield Guides to ensure the expertise of its tour leaders, and donates money to ABF The Soldiers’ Charity for every tour sold, has created a tour for this year that includes the chance to see a performance of the play Journey’s End in an old ammunition store near Ypres. The drama was written 90 years ago by R C Sherriff, a soldier injured at Passchendaele, and portrays the lives of those who fought and died on the Western Front. Departing on October 14, the five-day tour starts from £319.
Also new to the operator’s portfolio this year is an itinerary celebrating 100 years since the founding of the Royal Air Force. The five-day RAF Centenary Tour, from £249, travels to aviation heritage sites in the East Midlands, and covers the history of the organisation from its founding during the First World War up to the present day.
Another new leftfield option comes from Back-Roads Touring, which offers a canal barging itinerary in France’s Champagne region with a Great War theme.
Second world war
In addition to the First World War centenary, 2018 marks a significant Second World War anniversary. It is 75 years since Operation Chastise, when a British RAF squadron – better known by its nickname, ‘the Dam Busters’ – used specially-created ‘bouncing bombs’ to destroy dams in the Ruhr Valley. Leger has launched a seven-day Dambuster’s 75th Anniversary Tour, which takes an in-depth look at the iconic military operation, travelling from the Derwent Dam in the Peak District to the Rheinberg War Cemetery in Germany, and to the dams themselves, from £599.
And although the 75th anniversary of the iconic D-Day Landings isn’t until next year, interest in the Second World War generally is already at a high. Back-Roads Touring has a new nine-day Battle of Britain tour, visiting associated sights around the UK, from £2,799. Experiences include a flight over Cambridge in one of the few fully restored Dragon Rapide aircraft still existing in the country, and the chance to sit in a Spitfire.
“Although the 75th anniversary of the iconic D-Day Landings isn’t until next year, interest in the Second World War generally is already at a high.”
For clients who want to combine their military history in one big hit, suggest Trafalgar’s WWI and WWII Battlefields tour, a 12-day trip that starts from £2,395. Beginning at London’s Imperial War Museum, it moves on to northern France and the Netherlands to include both First World War battlefields and sites central to the Second World War, including the D-Day Landings beaches and Dunkirk.
Or try…
While anniversary celebrations mean that the focus for 2018 is very much on the First – and somewhat on the Second – World Wars, the 20th century by no means invented conflict in Europe. So for clients who prefer their history a little more ancient, suggest Great Rail Journeys’ new The Plantagenets in France itinerary. Tracing the conflicts of one of the most notorious – and bellicose – British royal houses, the trip packs the history of the Hundred Years War, including visits to the battlefields of Agincourt, Crecy and Poitiers, into a five-day tour, from £895.
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