Tour 9 – Three-day tour of the Somme, Arras and Flanders

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 – Arras

• The CWGC Experience

This is a unique interpretative centre which highlights the remarkable work undertaken by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in the remembrance of the war dead.

It was awarded the Best Tourism Project in Europe at the 2019 British Guild of Travel Writers’ International Tourism Awards.

• The Wellington Tunnels in Arras

Twenty metres below ground is a town within a town. Visit the impressive preserved Wellington system of tunnels underneath the city of Arras where at it’s peak over 24,000 soldiers were housed in the warren of chalk passageways.

• Faubourg d’Amiens cemetery, the Arras Memorial to the missing and the Arras Flying Services Memorial

In March 1916 the British Army moved into this sector of the Western Front and started to bury their war dead here along with the Dominion forces until the end of the war. The original French burials from 1914 were removed at the end of the war. Over 2,600 are buried here.

The Arras Memorial to the missing contains over 34,000 names of British, New Zealand and South African soldiers who were never identified.

The Arras Flying Services Memorial contains the names of 991 men of the Royal Naval Service, the Royal Flying Corps, and the Royal Air Force who were killed on the Western Front and who have no known grave. Many of the famous Red Baron ‘kills’ are commemorated here.

• Vimy Ridge Interpretative Centre and preserved trenches

Discover the part the Canadian Corps played to recapture the vital high ground in the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917 in the excellent Interpretative Centre.

The preserved trenches are stark reminders of how close they were in battle.

• Canadian National Vimy Memorial

After the war France gave Canada 100 hectares of land on Vimy Ridge as a note of gratitude for the role they played in successfully capturing the high ground and ultimately playing a vital part in winning the war.

The impressive and beautiful monument sits of the highest point of Vimy Ridge and rests on a bed of 15,000 tonnes of concrete, reinforced with hundreds of tonnes of steel. It stands as it’s highest point some 110 metres above the Douai Plain.

The memorial commemorates those 66,000 Canadians who gave their lives during the Great War of whom just under 12,000 soldiers have no known grave.

• The National Necroplois of Notre Dame de Lorette and the Ring of Remembrance

The plateau of Notre Dame de Lorette was a strategic position occupied by the Germans from 1914 and it was recaptured by the French Army in May 1915. There are over 40,000 French soldiers buried here, the largest military cemetery in France which shows the extent of their sacrifice in defence of their land.

The Ring of Remembrance is a striking contemporary memorial which commemorates 580,000 soldiers who fell during the Great War in the Artois region of France, who have no known grave.

• Lens 14 – 18 Great War museum

A must-see Great War museum in the heart of the front line during the Great War. The interpretation centre focuses on presenting the battles and events along the 90 kilometre front in the Artois region.

Itinerary Day Three – 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.