Tour Details
The cost – includes breakfast, hotel accommodation, coach, museums and guide, although food and drinks are not included – is £1,250 per person.
A detailed tour covering the British and French involvement in the major battles of 1915. Largely conducted in the areas between Ypres and Arras, British and French forces fought incredibly costly battles at Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge and Festubert in the early part of 1915, along with major French attacks on Vimy Ridge and the Lorette Spur. All will feature on the itinerary of this walking tour. The trip will finish with a look at the infamous battle of Loos and subsequent attacks on the notorious Hohenzollern Redoubt.
Itinerary
Trenches and Tunnels: Travelling from the UK to France this morning we head southwards to pick up the western front, with a stop at the iconic Vimy Ridge en-route to gain a key perspective of the Western Front as it lay in early 1915. Our afternoon visits include to the small village of Givenchy where the first of thousands of mines to be employed in the Great War were detonated. Crossing the La Bassee Canal we move on the explore the small but important action conducted by the 4th Guards Brigade at the ‘Cuinchy Brickstacks’ in which Guardsman O’Leary of the Irish Guards earned one of the most famous Victoria Crosses of the Great War.
Neuve Chapelle, Festubert and Aubers Ridge. Our time today is spent largely on foot, exploring key sites relating to three major battles fought in the area between March and May 1915, each with huge casualties. This day will be a detailed on the ground journey through many locations which still hold many signs of the fighting in the area thanks to the famous ‘Iron Harvest’. Also included are visits to a number of intimate battlefield cemeteries, which though less visited than some major sites, contain incredible stories of remarkable soldiers.
Unfavourable Ground: Our day today is spent following the fortunes of the major British battle of 1915 – Loos. Travelling from North-South we visit each part of the September 1915 battlefield to study the ground and development of the battle in detail. This includes the Hohenzollern Redoubt, Hulluch, ‘Field of Corpses’, Chalk Pit Wood, Loos village and the distinctive ‘Double Crassier’.
Our final morning on the battlefield sees us visiting the infamous Hohenzollern Redoubt to study the Midlanders attack on the German strongpoint in October 1915. A detailed exploration of the site will round off our tour before we return to Calais and the UK.
