WW1 Battlefield Tour
A tour to the Battlefields of WW1, including Flanders, The Somme and Arras.
We shall be catching the 08.00 train from Folkstone, arriving in Calais approx 09.30 local time on Fri 7 Oct, travelling to our first night accommodation, the hotel Ariane* in Ypres. We shall be calling at various WW1 sites on our way there including Sanctuary Wood, Tyne Cot Cemetery, Messines Ridge and Ploegsteert Memorial. During the evening we shall be able to walk into the town centre for drinks/meal in time for the Last Post being sounded at the Memorial.
FRIDAY 7th October 2011 - Day One, Flanders
YPRES
Ypres occupied a strategic position during World War I because it stood in the path of Germany's planned sweep across the rest of Belgium and into France from the north (the Schlieffen Plan). The neutrality of Belgium was guaranteed by Britain; Germany's invasion of Belgium brought the British Empire into the war. The German army surrounded the city on three sides, bombarding it throughout much of the war. To counter-attack, British, French, and allied forces made costly advances from the Ypres Salient into the German lines on the surrounding hills.
In the First Battle of Ypres (31 October to 22 November 1914), the Allies captured the town from the Germans. In the Second Battle of Ypres (22 April to 25 May 1915), the Germans used poison gas for the first time on the Western Front (they had used it earlier at the Battle of Bolimov on 3 January 1915) and captured high ground east of the town. The first gas attack occurred against Canadian, British, and French soldiers; including both metropolitan French soldiers as well as Senegalese and Algerian tirailleurs (light infantry) from French Africa. The gas used was chlorine gas. Mustard gas, also called Yperite from the name of this city, was also used for the first time near Ypres in the autumn of 1917.
Of the battles, the largest, best-known, and most costly in human suffering was the Third Battle of Ypres (21 July to 6 November 1917, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele), in which the British, Canadians, ANZAC, and French forces recaptured the Passchendaele Ridge east of the city at a terrible cost of lives. After months of fighting, this battle resulted in nearly half a million casualties to all sides, and only a few miles of ground won by Allied forces. During the course of the war the town was all but obliterated by the artillery fire.
Ypres was at least one of the sites that hosted an unofficial Christmas Truce in 1914 between German and British soldiers.
Sanctuary Wood
The Sanctuary Wood Museum Hill 62, 3 km (2 miles) east of Ypres, Belgium is located in the neighbourhood of the Canadian Hill 62 Memorial and the Sanctuary Wood Cemetery. The museum is privately owned by Jacques Schier, the grandson of the farmer who founded the museum and owned the site of the museum since before World War I, and it has a unique collection of World War I items, including a rare collection of 3-dimensional photographs, weapons, uniforms, and bombs.
A reconstructed section of the British trench lines are located behind the museum, and the attraction also has a small bar, café and gift shop.
The trenches feature a muddy maze of trenches.
Tyne Cote Cemetery
The cemetery lies on a broad rise in the landscape which overlooks the surrounding countryside. As such, it was strategically important to both sides fighting in the area. The area was captured by the 3rd Australian Division and the New Zealand Division , on 4 October 1917 and two days later a cemetery for British and Canadian war dead was begun. The cemetery was recaptured by German forces on 13 April 1918 and was finally liberated by Belgian forces on 28 September.
After the Armistice in November 1918 the cemetery was massively enlarged from its original 343 graves by concentrating graves from the battlefields, smaller cemeteries nearby and from Langemark.
The Cross of Sacrifice that marks many CWGC cemeteries was built on top of a German pill box in the centre of the cemetery, purportedly at the suggestion of King George V of the United Kingdom, who visited the cemetery in 1922 as it neared completion.
The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker. The land on which the cemetery stands is the free gift in perpetuity of the Belgian people to those who are honoured here.
Messines Ridge
The Battle of Messines was a battle of the western front of the First World War. It began on 7 June 1917 when the British Second Army under the command of General Herbert Plumer launched an offensive near the village of Mesen (Messines) in West Flanders, Belgium. The target of the offensive was a ridge running north from Messines village past Wytschaete village which created a natural stronghold southeast of Ypres. One of the key features of the battle was the detonation of 19 mines immediately prior to the infantry assault, a tactic which disrupted German defences and allowed the advancing troops to secure their objectives in rapid fashion. The attack was also a prelude to the much larger Third Battle of Ypres, known as Passchendaele, which began on 11 July 1917.
Ploegsteert Memorial
The Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing (also known as Hyde Park Corner and referred to colloquially as "Plug Street") is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorial for the missing soldiers of World War I who fought in the immediate area of the Ypres Salient on the Western Front.
The grounds were assigned to the United Kingdom in perpetuity by King Albert I of Belgium in recognition of the sacrifices made by the British Empire in the defence and liberation of Belgium during the war.
SATURDAY 8th October 2011 - Day Two, Arras
Wellington Quarries
Arras was devastated by bombing during 1914 and cut off by German troops, but in April 1917, the city played a key diversionary role in luring German soldiers away from the French offensive further south.
For eight days, 24,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers – equivalent to the population of Arras at the time – lived in secret tunnels specially adapted by New Zealand sappers from Medieval chalk quarries beneath the city.
On Easter Monday, the troops emerged – seemingly from nowhere - directly before the German Front Line. The element of surprise – coinciding with the Canadian attack on nearby Vimy Ridge – pushed the Front Line back 10km and re-opened the city.
Arras Memorial
The Arras Memorial commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who were killed in the Arras sector and have no known grave.
Monchy Le Preux
The Monchy-le-Preux Memorial is a Dominion of Newfoundland war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during the Battle of Arras. The memorial is one of six memorials erected by the Newfoundland government following the First World War. Five were erected in France and Belgium and the sixth at Bowring Park in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. The memorials are all bronze caribou, the emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, with most standing atop a cairn of Newfoundland granite and surrounded by native Newfoundland plants. The Monchy-le-Preux Memorial faces a point known at the time as Infantry Hill and is slightly different from the other Newfoundland memorials in that it stands atop the ruins of what was a German bunker.
Vimy Ridge
Vimy Ridge, battle fought 9-14 April 1917 during WW I. The long, low ridge formed a key position linking the Germans' new Hindenburg Line to their main trench lines leading north from HILL 70 near Arras, France. Both British and French forces had tried unsuccessfully to take the ridge earlier during the war. In spring 1917 the task was given to the Canadian Corps, commanded by British Lt-Gen Sir J.H. Byng.
After careful training and rehearsal, and supported by almost 1000 artillery pieces, the Canadians attacked along a 6.4 km front on 9 April 1917. It was the first time the Canadians attacked together, and they achieved a magnificent victory, sweeping the Germans off the ridge. By April 14 they had gained more ground, more guns, and more prisoners than any previous British offensive had done. Canadian casualties mounted to 10,602, of which 3598 were killed. Nevertheless the sense of achievement and national pride created by this success gave the Canadians a great feeling of self-confidence. The Canadian Corps was to gain recognition as an elite corps.
Sunday 9th October 2011 - Day Three, The Somme
Peronne Museum
The Museum of the Great War in Péronne is the essential museum about the First World War and the obliged stage on the Circuit of Remembrance.
The modern part of the museum has been inserted into a very imposing fortification which, like the rest of the town, was damaged during the fighting. Here can be found the military or personal reminders of soldiers of the main combatant nations, the possessions of those wretched men who, like the writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline, "enriched the land". Here you can discover the daily life of the British, German and French civilians who where quickly drawn into the first "Total War".
La Boisselle Mine Crater
The attacks here on the 1st of July 1916 were made by the 34th Division, with the 8th Division to their north in front of Ovillers. They met with little success, and casualty rates in the attacking battalions were extremely high. A number of mines were blown on the first day of the Somme, and two large mines were blown here two minutes before the infantry attacked; Lochnagar and Y Sap. The crater made at Y Sap (which was located just to the north of the main D929 road) has since been filled in, and no trace remains. Lochnagar crater, however, remains as one of the best known sites in the 1916 Somme battlefield region.
Thiepval Visitor Centre
The Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in WW1 in the Somme sector before 20th March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90 percent of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.
The Thiepval memorial also serves as an Anglo-French Battle Memorial in recognition of the joint nature of the Somme 1916 offensive and a small cemetery containing equal numbers of Commonwealth and French graves lies at the foot of the memorial.
The Thiepval memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and was built between 1928 and 1932. It was unveiled by the Prince of Wales (later to become Edward VIII), in the presence of the President of France, on 31st July 1932. The dead of other Commonwealth countries who died on the Somme battlefields and have no known graves are commemorated on national memorials elsewhere.
Newfoundland Park Trenches
Newfoundland Park is one of those unique places on the old western front. It is an area where both original British and German trenches can still be seen. On 1st July 1916 this was the zone of the 29th Division attack. As with so many of the assaults in this area it failed badly with high casualty figures. The Newfoundland Regiment, as part of the 29th Division sustained heavy casualties following the failure of the earlier attacks. This area was purchased by the Newfoundland government after the war as a permanent memorial to the soldiers and sailors of that country.
Monday 10th October 2011 - Day Four
The last day can be spent either with a longer scenic ride back to the Eurotunnel Terminal, or further visits to WW1 sites on way back to Eurotunnel.
The cost of the trip will be approx £200 for members and £220 for non-members, to include return Train for Bike and Rider from Folkestone-Calais and three nights accommodation on a bed and breakfast basis, in sharing rooms.
Deposit of £50 will be taken by the 1st of July 2011 and the final payment by the 1st of August 2011
Numbers are limited and will be on a first come first served basis.
You will be responsible for all your fuel, meals (other than breakfasts), entry into any attractions/museums etc, as well as the normal Insurances and Bike Recovery etc.
*Hotels are subject to numbers and availability, and may have to be changed from those listed.
Any questions please email me: chilled[at]knightstemplarmtc[dot]org
