Battlefield Tours
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1 Battlefield Cover.qxp_Layout 1 19/01/2018 09:10 Page 1 Step on to a Leger holiday and step off into... Battwilth e Spefciailiset Balttdlefie ldT Guidoes urs 201 8/2019 Featuring European Wars: Low Deposit Waterloo to WW2 15 Brand new from £50 Worldwide Conflicts: tours for 2018 see inside for details American Civil War, see inside for details Boer War & Vietnam www.legerbattlefields.co.uk 2 & 6 Intro & Contents.qxp_Layout 1 19/01/2018 13:42 Page 1 E M O C L E Welcome W Welcome to our 2018/19 collection of battlefield tours. As we move into the final year of the centenary of the end of WW1 our head guide Paul Reed has created a selection of special anniversary event tours plus new tours covering some of the major final campaign battles. We also have an expanded collection of WW2 tours some of which cover historical events around the end of the war and the aftermath of the Cold War. Further afield we are pleased to introduce a brand new Vietnam tour covering the harrowing events of that long campaign. Ian Henry, Chief Executive, Leger Holidays Inspirational journeys of Remembrance and Discovery Visiting battlefields from the two World Wars remains a fascinating, rewarding and moving experience. A century after WW1 and some 75 years since WW2, the debt we owe to those generations remains strong and the legacy of Remembrance they have left us prompts many who travel on our Battlefield Tours to ask more: who is the solider in that faded photo at home? What was that name on the local war memorial? What did grandad do, and how did his war fit into the bigger picture? Villy La Ferté 1940 These are just the sort of questions Passchendaele is a good example myself and my team of dedicated of this: think of this battle and one Specialist Battlefield Guides (see imagines a lunar landscape of page 6) get asked on a typical water-filled shell holes on a rain Leger Battlefield Tour. We are there soaked landscape. to help you decipher all the military Battlefield Tours teach us that the jargon and understand a past that experience of war like this was touched us all – so that we, too, about ordinary people in can continue with the legacy and extraordinary circumstances: that ensure the sacrifice and service are these men and women who served never forgotten. saw the best and worst of life as 2018 marks another special period carnage raged around them, and it of anniversaries for the First World was an experience that changed War, as it will be the centenary of them forever. the end of the war. These were On Battlefield Tours we discover some of the biggest, bloodiest that freedom is never free and the battles of the war and many have huge cemeteries bring that home in become not only household names, a way that is only possible on such but come to symbolise the war a tour. Since our first Battlefield itself in some ways. The Battle of Auschwitz-Birkenau 2 Call or visit www.legerbattlefields.co.uk for full details 2 & 6 Intro & Contents.qxp_Layout 1 19/01/2018 13:42 Page 2 S T N E T N O C Contents World War 1 – 1914-18 see pages ......................7 to 24 World War 2 – 1939-45 see pages ....................25 to 47 Other Campaigns ........48 to 53 Anniversary Tours NEW Somme to the Armistice 2018 ............................11 Armistice Day in Flanders ..........12 Armistice on the Somme ............12 Armistice in Mons ......................13 NEW Kaiser’s Battle – Operation Paul Reed Michael ........................................14 NEW Centenary of ANZAC Head Battlefield Guide at Villers-Bretonneux ..................15 I have had a life-long interest in military NEW Somme Advance to history, my father being a WW2 veteran Victory Centenary Tour ..............16 and both my grandfathers serving in NEW Dambusters 75th WW1. I read history at University and went Anniversary Tour ........................25 on to do a Masters. I began working as a Battlefield Guide in 1987 and joined Leger New for 2018/2019 for their first ever battlefield tour in April NEW First & Last Shots ..............13 1997. When not working for Leger, I work as a Military Historian in television; NEW Itinerary for 2018 in the past few years I have worked on numerous documentaries for Walking the Somme ....................21 BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 relating to WW1 and WW2 including NEW Western Front Dig WW2 with Dan Snow and Heroes of the Somme . End to End ....................................22 Main de Massiges Trenches, Champagne NEW Following General Patton: Battlefield Tours in 1997 – some 20 years ago Luxembourg ................................33 – we have established an unrivalled NEW Downfall in Berlin reputation for expert and by Air ............................................39 enthusiastic guides. Our aim is to ‘bring history alive’: for NEW The Rise of Evil: our team, guiding is not just Munich, Nuremberg a job, but a passion. & The Eagle’s Nest by Air ..........41 Paul Reed, Head Battlefield Guide. NEW Anzio, Monte Cassino & San Pietro: Italian Campaign By Air ..........................45 With a choice of over 50 fully escorted tours exploring WW1, NEW Behind The Iron Curtain: WW2, and other historic battles, Spies and Espionage in step on to a Leger Battlefield Tour, the Cold War ................................47 and step off into the footsteps of NEW Itinerary for 2018 heroes. At War with Wellington – The Peninsular War ....................49 NEW Vietnam War ......................51 Troops in Mons Call or visit www.legerbattlefields.co.uk for full details 3 2 & 6 Intro & Contents.qxp_Layout 1 19/01/2018 13:43 Page 3 E M O C L E Welcome to our new 2018/2019 Battlefield Tours Brochure W World War 1 to start with if you are wanting to following the story of General WW2 armour, we have a broad We are now entering the final understand more about WW1. George S. Patton: one of the range of tours to interest the year of the WW1 Centenary and For 2018 we also have new walks most iconic commanders of the WW2 enthusiast and those will be focussing on the on the Somme; an excellent way conflict. We continue to visit all wanting to learn more. to see the ground. Looking ahead the key WW2 battlefields in importance of 1918, from the Remembering the to 2019, we will be introducing Europe, from D-Day to Germany, Kaiser’s Battle to the final Holocaust Advance to Victory, as well as new tours to cover the legacy and beyond, with new air tours to commemorative events for the and aftermath of WW1, as Munich and the Eagle’s Nest, We must never forget the centenary of the Armistice. We Remembrance must not stop Downfall in Berlin and also Anzio Holocaust and that dark chapter also bring back our popular with the end of the centenary. and Monte Cassino. Whether you of WW2 history. Understand it enjoy seeing WW2 more on our longer tour travelling Western Front End to End tour, World War 2 where we travel all 450 miles of megastructures or bunkers, want across Holocaust sites in Europe frontline, and our ever-popular All For 2018 we have several new to follow the Rise and Fall of or join our popular 5-day fly tour Quiet on the Western Front tour WW2 tours, including one looking Nazi Germany, to Poland, where you can visit remains the best battlefield tour at the war in Luxembourg and or look at tank warfare and see Auschwitz and Kraków. LDEOPOW SIT SECURE The Somme Battlefields YOUR PLACE Low deposits Educational FROM JUST 3 For as little as £50 you can secure your next tour! When you book by 16th Battlefield Tours February 2018, you’ll only pay £50 per In 2015 Holts Tours became part of the Leger family. With almost 40 person to reserve your place on your years’ experience in operating Battlefield and History tours and more chosen coach tour* – see panel below. than 25 years in running School Travel, Holts Tours prides itself in Call or visit our website for full details. being the specialist in educational travel and the leading history and £ battlefield tours company. Working with Holts Tours, we pupils, parents and school. Some De50posits All deposits are per person Low Deposit* Full offer educational school visits, schools like to combine an art or trips and tours for school student cultural trip with leisure time, Coach Holidays up to 11 Days £50 £100 groups, in Europe, around the UK while on history and battlefield Coach Holidays of 12 Days and Over £50 £200 and overseas. Our range of trips tours, some schools prefer to covers art, culture, geography, visit a specific grave or war Air Holidays (Europe) - £150 science and language tours as cemetery and lay a wreath. Let us Air Holidays (Worldwide) - £300-500 † well as battlefields and history. know your requirements and we can build them into the itinerary. Eurostar £50 £100 All school tours can be tailor- made to suit the needs of your *Low Deposit applies to all 2018/19 departures booked by the 16th February 2018. In the event of your cancellation, the difference between the low deposit and the full deposit To find out more about our applicable to your tour will be payable – please see our Booking Conditions. †See tour pages for details. Educational Battlefields Tours, visit www.holts.co.uk or call Tracey on 01306 873 571. 4 Call or visit www.legerbattlefields.co.uk for full details 2 & 6 Intro & Contents.qxp_Layout 1 19/01/2018 13:43 Page 4 E M O C L Travel in comfort and luxury E W Other Periods Executive With an unrivalled team of Executive – a modern and comfortable way to travel.