The Western Front - The Road to Victory

Led by military historian Hugh Macdonald-Buchanan, we will visit the principal battlefields of the British Expeditionary Forces, starting at the notorious Ypres Salient which saw intense action throughout the war. We follow the progress of the troops until we reach Amiens where in August 1918 the Allies began their journey to victory. In between, we visit Passchendaele, Arras, the Somme and Cambrai. Visits to some exceptional museums help tell the story of how the troops fought both underground and above, in the mud and on horseback. The Great War was not the ‘war to end all wars’ but it left an indelible impression on Europe and the world.

ITINERARY

• DAY 1 - ARRIVAL
  We depart from St. Pancras International station and travel on Eurostar to Lille, continuing by coach to Ypres where we stay for two nights. After checking in at the hotel we visit the Flanders Fields Museum where the story of the invasion of Belgium unfolds through a series of personal stories. Later we go to St. George’s Memorial Church.

• DAY 2 - YPRES SALIENT
  We visit the battlefields of the Ypres Salient. Visits to Essex Farm Cemetery, Langemarck, the Commonwealth graves, Tyne Cot Cemetery and the Messines Ridge are all included. This evening we will attend the ceremony of The Last Post, played each night at the Menin Gate Memorial.

• DAY 3 - WELLINGTON QUARRIES
  We leave Ypres and visit the Wellington Quarries Museum before continuing to Arras for an independent lunch. Afterwards, we go to Vimy Ridge and the Vimy Memorial to the Canadian dead, and Notre Dame de Lorette with its graves of more than 40,000 fallen French troops. The day ends at the German war cemetery where the dead from the Battles of Artois and Arras are buried. We then move on to Lille where we stay for one night at the centrally located Hotel Carlton.

• DAY 4 - SOMME
  The day is spent in the Somme with visits to the Thiepval British Memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, as well as Beaumont Hamel, and the Lochnagar Crater of La Boiselle. The final two nights of the tour are spent in Amiens at the Hotel Mercure Amiens Cathedrale.

• DAY 5 - CAMBRAI
  More discoveries of the Somme this morning are followed by a visit to Cambrai, where massed tank formations were used for the first time and where the British suffered 57,000 casualties in a single, terrible day. There will be time to visit Amiens Cathedral during our stay here.

• DAY 6 - DEPARTURE
  We learn more about the Battles of Amiens and of Moreuil Wood where one of the last cavalry charges took place, before returning to Lille to board the Eurostar back to London.