WORLD WAR 1 – THE WESTERN FRONT

We are able to offer 4 and 5 day tours to the battlefields of Flanders and The Somme where a “lost generation’ perished.

A typical 4 day itinerary with half board accommodation (packed lunches on request) would be:

• Day 1 Depart UK for your daytime Dover- Dunkirk crossing and arrive in Northern France for your 3 night stay. Accommodation is on evening meal and breakfast basis. We use a number of excellent, clean, 2 star hotels such as the Lille Europe Hotel which is located only 5 minutes walk from the centre of the city. All rooms have en-suite facilities and food is taken in the hotel’s own dining room.
• Day 2 Visiting the battlefields around Ypres which was the main British battlefront in World War 1 and where more than 250,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers died.
• We will visit the Tyne Cot Cemetery and the Messines Ridge sector and the nearby Irish Peace Tower.
• Day 3 The haunting Somme Battlefield will be our focus today taking in the Historical Museum at Peronne and the largest British Mine Crater on the Western Front at La Boisselle before moving on to the Memorial and the visitors centre at Thiepval.
• Day 4 Return to the UK.

A 5 day tour will take in the Tunnels and Trenches around Arras and its Memorial and move on to Vimy Ridge where thousands of Canadians fought and died.

WORLD WAR 2 – D DAY LANDINGS IN NORMANDY

The landing beaches of Normandy offer a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by allied forces on June 6th 1944. Follow in the footsteps of the brave and visit the landing beaches, military cemeteries and other notable points of interest in this interesting area.

This 5 day tour will be based in Caen where we will use the 2 star Inter Hotel Les Savoy which is centrally situated. The hotel has a bar and lounge area and all rooms are en-suite.

A typical 5 day itinerary would be:-

• Day 1 Depart UK for your short sea crossing from Dover to Calais with P & O or DFDS. Onwards to the hotel for overnight stay.
• Day 2 We start our visit at Pegasus Bridge where the brave 6th Airborne Division landed on the night prior to invasion. We see the Café Gondre and the Pegasus Memorial Museum.
• We move on to the British sector and visit the Merville Gun Battery stormed by the 9th Battalion Parachute Regiment and Sword Beach where the British 3rd Infantry division and commandoes landed.
• Day 3 Today we visit the American Sector including the American Cemetery overlooking the famous Omaha Beach. There is the Airborne-Museum at Ste Mere Eglise scene of vicious fighting and casualties of the US Paras.
• We will see Utah Beach where the U.S Infantry landed to link up with the Paras to secure the Cherbourg Peninsula. We must not also forget the German Peace Garden Cemetery with its 21,000 graves.
• Day 4 On our last day before leaving we return to the British/Canadian Sector looking at Juno and Gold Beaches, the Museum at Arromanches and the well preserved German coastal battery at Longues-sur- Mer where you will be able to see the guns and Command Post featured in the movie “The Longest Day”

Hopefully we will also have time to visit the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetry at Bayeux together with other historical interests in Bayeux itself.