Tour 3 – Two-day tour of the Somme and Flanders Battlefields

Itinerary Day One – Somme

• The Thiepval Memorial to the missing and Interpretive Centre

Our tour begins in the Interpretive Centre to put into context the Battle of the Somme during the Great War. Following this we will visit the impressive Thiepval Memorial to the missing which contains over 72,000 names of the fallen who have no known grave, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

• The Newfoundland Memorial and preserved WW1 trenches

An impressive set of British and German trenches remain from the battles of the Somme. Here you will hear the tragic story of what happened to the Newfoundland Regiment on the 1^st July 1916 as we walk the battlefield and also the success here in Autumn/Winter of 1916 with the 51^st Highland Division.

• The Hawthorn ridge mine and the famous Sunken Lane

One of the most famous historical places to visit on the Somme is the Hawthorn ridge mine. This mine was detonated 10 minutes before the start of the Battle of the Somme and was filmed by Geoffrey Malins.

• The Ulster Tower Memorial

This Tower is a replica of a tower near Belfast in Northern Ireland which overlooked the former training ground of the 36^th Ulster Division. The Memorial represents the heroism of this Division on July 1^st 1916.

• The South African Memorial in Delville Wood

Heading east, one of the main woods is Delville Wood or more widely known as ‘Devil’s wood’. Within the wood is the South African Memorial dedicated to those South African’s who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. Remaining within the wood close to the memorial is the only surviving tree, a hornbeam, from the battle in 1916.

• The Lochnagar mine crater

This was the largest crater to be blown in the Great War and serves as a reminder of the Great War.

• Fricourt German cemetery

Finally we will head to the German cemetery at Fricourt which contains over 17,000 graves. This is where the famous German air ace, the Red Baron, was laid to rest after the war until 1925, when his brother Bolko had him re-interred in Germany.

Itinerary Day Two – Flanders

• Ploegsteert Memorial and Messines Ridge

We travel to Flanders today to discover the historic Ypres Salient in Belgium or more commonly known as ‘Wipers’. At the southern tip of the battlefield there is one of the many Memorials to the missing which contains the names of over 11,000 soldiers who were never found and identified.

• Christmas Truce 1914 Memorial

The site of the famous meeting in No-Mans Land of both the British and German soldiers who had laid down their arms on Christmas Day 1914. Well documented on both sides of how the  soldiers sang Christmas carols, exchanged gifts such as rum, cigarettes and famously a football match was played.

• Hill 60

Fierce fighting took place at Hill 60 and changed hands several times during the Great War. It was a place you feared being sent to. Today the grounds remain relatively undisturbed since the end of war and are a stark reminder of the extensive mining that took place during that time.

• Essex Farm cemetery and John McCrae Memorial

The land just south of Essex Farm was used as an Advanced dressing station and there are original concrete remains of some of the buildings. Here was the location where medic John McCrae’s famous poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ was inspired where he witnessed the war torn ground following the battles. Buried in Essex Farm cemetery is a young soldier who volunteered at the age of 14 years old.

• The Menin Gate Memorial

The Menin Gate Memorial is a vast portland stone archway which leads into the city of Ypres. It contains the names of over 54,000 soldiers who have never been found or identified. Field Marshal Plumer described during the inauguration of the Memorial in 1927 that ‘He is not missing; he is here’. Every evening at 8pm the Last Post is sounded during a short act of remembrance.

• Hooge crater museum

This museum is located in a restored chapel and is situated where many fierce battles took place during the Ypres Salient. It is one of the best private collections of Great war memorabilia with a vast collection of weapons and uniforms. 

• Tyne Cot cemetery and Memorial to the missing

Tyne Cot is truly a ‘silent’ city with 12,000 graves and with just under 35,000 names recorded on the Memorial to the missing. It sits on the path to the advance on Passchendaele in the autumn of 1917. German pill-boxes can also be seen here with one being reused as an Advance dressing station following it’s capture.

• St Julien Canadian Memorial at Vancouver Corner

This Memorial also known as the brooding soldier stands on the ground where the Canadians and the French army sustained a ferocious gas attack in April 1915 with over 2000 casualties.

• Langemarck German cemetery

This imposing German cemetery contains the remains of over 44,000 German soldiers with 25,000 of them buried together in a mass grave, known as the ‘Comrades Grave’. German bunkers can still be seen and also a statue of four bronze mourning soldiers.