battlefield tours

[Mabs]

not sure if anyone has done any trips to the WW1 battlefields ,but thought id ask anyway

few of us contemplating a trip in next 18 months or so and got a few queries ;

pre-sorted or just get a hotel and do it yourself ?
any good companies ? or bad ones for all inclusive ?
any times of year or places particularly ?
any other thoughts ?

 

[taB]

I don't know any specifics but for me going when the poppys are out would be a priority.

For myself I'd organise it within my own group. Keeping one's own timing on these things is important. Being able to contemplate something that to others might not be so important is a good thing.

I was in Normandy in July and visited one of the graveyards off the beaten track. Spent hours there, was really something amazing. More so as it had combatants from both sides buried there.

 

[throdgrain]

A friend of mine did a tour of WW1 battlefields etc recently, but he planned it all himself so not a lot of help Im afraid.

Me Im more interested in WW2. If that's your thing, just get in the car and drive to Normandy, theres lots to see, the people are very friendly and you do get a feeling if the history of the place.

This doesnt look like much, but it's Omaha beach, at dawn. It's a privilage to walk on such places.

 

[00dave]

I've been to Nijmegen, Arnhem and Dachau, brilliant experience. Hard not to shed a tear when you see a grave marked 'a soldier of the war 1939 - 1945'.

 

[sayward]

I've been to a few, just stayed in Normandy and explored. Went to a German cemetery , the name escapes me , but it was very weird compared to the others. All short dark crosses, no flowers and no visitors. Sad. Often drve past the WW1 battlefields the names conjure up so much sorrow.

 

[DaGaffer]

This is the battlefield tour I want to do:

Diving in the Coral Sea. If I'm not one of the ranks of the 3 billion unemployed by next year then I might give it a go Xmas 09.

As for European battle sites, I've done the Normandy sites and I've visited Monte Cassino because my Granddad got blown up there (lived but was passing shrapnel until the day he died 30 years later); there are a few tours you can do which give you a view on different stages of the battle and who was fighting where (easily the most "multinational" battle of the War).

 

[mycenae]

Never done a battlefield tour but have been to Auschwitz in Krakow, Poland. thats well worth it. Terrifying, harrowing and will definitly make you melancholy, if not cry - but I sincerely believe its something everyone should see. When you walk into an old gas chamber and you see fingernail marks on the walls with bits of fingernail still in and another room hold nothing but childrens shoes, stacked up 6ft high....its not something you forget.

 

[SilverHood]

I did the Belgian battlefields with my school back when I was 14, very touching experience. The highlight was porbably the Canadian memorial, which has some well preserved trenches and a really nice museum.

Ypres was the town we stayed in I think.

 

[Turamber]

Battlefield tours; tour the battlefields and war graves of ww1 and ww2

Went with them on a trip to Holland to visit the battle sites of Operation Marketgarden (A Bridge Too Far & all that). Extremely well organised, interesting and well informed ex-military guides and a number of ex-service men involved in organising and running the trips.

They will also organise trips to war graves, including some off the beaten path, as part of your tour experience.

A very moving and deeply humbling experience.

 

[Marc]

I have done 2, but both WW2. I did normandy with a mate, by ourselves. I also had the pleasure of going on the full band of brothers tour, run by Stephen Ambrose, which started in Atlanta and ended in munich. Dick Winters and Bill Guarnere were with us on the trip. What an experience it was.