| Dates | Tour (Click on links for more details) | No. of Days | Price* |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 15th - 17th 2022 | Ypres Battlefield Tour - 3 Days | 3 | £399 per person* |
Ypres Battlefield Tour - DAY 1
on the Eurostar to Lille, France. Next on your Ypres tour, we travel from Lille your chauffeur guide will collect you and drive you to Ypres and the surrounding areas.
Additionally, alternative group travel arrangements can be made from London, either coach or V Class Mercedes. Next, we travel through the channel ports of Dover and Folkstone, crossing to Calais – France. Shortly after, the Ypres battlefield tour & Salient experience commences at the Cloth Hall in Ypres.
Sanctuary Wood Museum
After, at this museum you will see preserved trenches and tunnels systems in the Sanctuary Wood.
Furthermore this was named by the British during the first battle of Ypres in 1914, this wood is where men separated from their regiments and gathered to be reunited with their units.
Hill 62
Our next stop is a visit to nearby Hill 62, visiting the Canadian memorial. The Canadian forces faced a major attack here in June 1916. As a result, the Germans attacked hill 62 using gas, flamethrowers and mines. Consequently, this attack was by far the fiercest the Canadian army had faced, here you can see the tree stumps left by the intense shelling from the Germans.
Hooge crater and museum
Next on your Ypres Battlefield Tour is Hooge crater. Markedly, in the summer of 1915, the British positions around Hooge had become precarious. As a result, the Germans held the high ground having the advantage of a panoramic view over the British frontline. Then on 19 July 1915, the British Royal Engineers tunneled to the German lines. Forthwith they detonated 1700 kilograms of high explosives, resulting in a huge crater. Consequently they thought that the explosion would damage the German positions, immediately after the explosion the allies rushed to the crater in order to consolidate their advance. However, unfortunately the Germans took shelter from the explosion and machine gunned the advancing British troops. Thereupon it was later referred to as ‘the Hooge Crater. In either case, the museum and cemetery are well preserved and well worth visiting.
Next we travel the short distance to the Lijssenthoek Visitor centre and Military Cemetery. Significantly, it was the biggest evacuation centre on the Salient in WW1. Later, we also visit the Whispering Walls which tells the story and history on Lijssenthoek.
Poperinge
Next we visit the local restaurants at Poperinge that assisted the soldiers greatly during the WWI. Notably the town became popular as a place of rest for soldiers who were given two or three days leave at Poperinge. This, however, harboured another side to warfare and town hall in the Grote Market contains the courtyard where soldiers condemned to death were shot by firing squad.
The ‘Shot At Dawn’ memorial is next to the execution post, notably seventy executions took place within the grounds of the Stadhuis, this action caused the death of 50 British and 20 French soldiers. Next a short distance from the memorial are the two cells where the condemned were held.
Lunch
Brandhoak Military cemetery
Noel Godfrey Chavasse, VC & Bar, MC was one of the most highly decorated British soldiers of the Great War. Notably the only man to be awarded the Victoria Cross and Bar. In fact there are only two other people who have ever been awarded 2 VC’s. He was wounded in action at the 3rd battle of Ypres. On the 4th August 1917 aged 32 years Chavasse died of wounds that he sustained at the 32nd Casualty Clearing Station at Brandhoek. He is buried in the cemetery at Brandhoak.
Yorkshire trench
The Yorkshire trench is one of the best preserved trench systems in the Salient.
Langemark German Military Cemetery
Langemark is about four miles North East of Ypres. Two significant Great War sites near the village are the Brooding Soldier and the German War Cemetery. At the German Cemetery 44000 German soldiers are buried some of which are in mass graves. The Brooding Solider Monument is the location of the first gas attack by the German army against Canadian Forces. The Brooding Soldier memorial at Saint-Julien commemorates the 2000 Canadian First Division, who were killed by the German gas attack of 22 April 1915.
Tyne Cot British Military cemetery
The cemetery at Tyne Cot is on a ridge that was captured by the British in October 1917. Several German blockhouses were used as medical dressing stations. There were also a number of small farm buildings which were captured by the Northumberland Fusiliers. It is said, that the assorted buildings and captured German bunkers gave the Northumberland Fusiliers a reminder of the Tyneside cottages. Tyne Cot Cemetery is the world’s biggest Commonwealth Military Cemetery holding over 11500 graves along with the names of 34,991 soldiers, who were killed but their bodies were never found.
End of day 1 free night in Ypres.
Menin Gate: The Last Post is played at 20.00hrs.
Ypres Battlefield Tour - DAY 2
Ypres Battlefield Tour - Flanders Fields Museum
Here on the second day of your Ypres battlefield tour, the museum outlines the story of the First World War, in the West Flanders front region.
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It is located in the rebuilt Cloth Hall of Ypres, an important symbol of wartime hardship and later recovery. It was destroyed during the war but later rebuilt.
After our visit to the museum we walk a short distance to Saint-Martin’s Cathedral. The Cathedral was totally destroyed in WWI. It was rebuilt and restored after the war.
A short walk leads us to St George’s Church, the church was built as a memorial to British and Commonwealth troops who lost their lives in the Great War. It is a “living” church and serves the needs of a local congregation and many thousands of pilgrims who have been visiting the battlefields of Flanders since war ended in 1918. We then walk the ramparts of the Menin gate to Lille gate where we have lunch.
The afternoon takes us to the area of Hill 60
Next on your Ypres Battlefield Tour is Hill 60 which was a low rise south-east of Ypres. It had excellent views over both Ypres and Zillibeke and was captured by the Germans during the first Battle of Ypres in November 1914.
During April 1915, Hill 60 became the site of the first tunnelling operations by the British Army, six mines were exploded under Hill 60, it was quickly captured with minimal casualties. In early May, with the use of gas the Germans recaptured the hill.
Island of Ireland
Mesen is a small town with a special place in the history of the Irish people. It is here that soldiers from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, including Protestants and Catholics who fought side by side during the Battle of the Mines. It is here that a Peace Park was created by young people from both sides of the border. The Peace Tower is monument, it honours the fallen from the whole of Ireland and transcends religious and political differences.
Messine Ridge
The battle of Messine Ridge is noted for the use of mines by the British. They tunnelled under the German positions and exploded nearly 1 million pounds of explosives, causing a huge explosion. In France the shockwave was mistaken for an earthquake. The roar of the detonation was reportedly so tremendous that it was even heard by the British Prime Minister in London 120 miles away.
As many as 17000 British and 25000 German soldiers were killed in the explosions and battle for the Messine Ridge.
Plugstreet (Ploegsteert) Museum
On the final leg of your Ypres Battlefield tour, we travel to the village of Plugstreet to visit the British Memorial the site of the Christmas truce. It is here we see the area where the famous game of football was played on Christmas day 1914, between the British and German front line troops.
The tour is now complete.
Additionally, if you would like to find out more information about Ypres and the battles that took place there you can read more here at Wikipedia.
