The Great War Medical Tour
Sample Itinerary with a medical focus
Two day itinerary: The below sample itinerary for a two day trip to the battlefields of the Great War is possible from 57 EUR per person onwards (based on 50 paying participants, including all meals, museum entries and overnight stay except the first lunch and transport costs). This suggested itinerary focusses on the medical evacuation and treatment. Some extra info on the subject can be found here. We have initially not included the costs for a guided tour but we do recommend you are joined by someone (teacher or guide) with proper knowledge of the subject. This tour is recommended for groups who are +15. Itineraries can be custom made and tailored to your background, local and age group. Please get in touch for more information. We are happy to tailor and even book your trip, no extra costs or commission. In purple, we have outlined some alternatives (not included in the costs).
Day 1 - Arrival in the local area around noon using own transport - Visit the In Flanders Fields Museum, the gateway to the Ypres Salient in the Ypres Cloth Hall. The museum has a strong focus on medical aid and personel. o Enjoy your own picknick in the cafeteria of the Museum (buy one drink, not incl.) o OPTIONAL: Workshop with the museum team: The Great War. o Visit to the museum using worksheets.
- Option 1: Medical Evacuation with guide o The In Flanders Fields Museum provides a medical evacuation tour with one of their educational offices. This tour takes you round several cemeteries like Larch Wood and Divisional Cemetery but also includes the crater landscape of Hill 60 and the medical visitor centre of Lijssenthoek. This option costs 90 EUR extra.
- Option 2: Medical Evacuation, self-guided tour o A self-guided tour following the evacuation chain of a wounded soldier from the front line all the way to the hospital. On the way, you will pass several cemeteries and buildings linked to hospitals.
Simon Louagie, PR & Education Manager Nieuwkerkestraat 9a, BE – 8957 Mesen tel. +32 (0)57 22 60 40 [email protected] www.peacevillage.be
Sites to be included are: . La belle Alliance Cemetery (a regimental aid post near the front line, see also the nearby remembrance trees) . Essex Farm Cemetery & Advanced Dressing Station (the concrete shelters from 1917 were used for storage and shelter by the medical staff and patients. This site is also linked to the Canadian Poet Lt. Col. John McCrae). Alternatively, you can visit Duhallow Cemetery nearby. . White Mill & Hop Store in Vlamertinge with Hope Store Cemetery. These sites were used as main dressing stations.
o ALTERNATIVE: Guided Tour: please get in touch with us if you’d like us to recommend a guide to join you on this trip. Personal stories make the sites and history come alive much more. We try to match the right guide with the right group.
- Check-in & warm meal at the Peace Village
- Evening activity at the Peace Village o Chocolate Experience: interactive workshop; o March of the Phoenix: interactive remembrance walk in Messines; o Robin’s Song: musical storytelling on the war with some local & current stories.
Day 2 - Breakfast at the Peace Village Hostel.
- Self-guided tour of Live At & Behind the Lines with stops at : (contact us for a guide)
o Entry Point East & walking the frontline: The In Flanders Fields Museum has opened up three entry points to allow visitors to experience the landscape. After watching the 15-minute introductory movie at the visitor centre, you can walk over the former battlefield (marked by the remembrance trees) to the cater landscape of Bellewaerde Ridge which has changed little in a century. At the Liverpool Scottish Memorial Stone, you can tell the story of Noel Chavasse, the regimental doctor, who crawled through no-man’s land to collect the wounded. A special walking app has been developed.
o Optional: Hooge Crater Museum: this family run museum offers a more traditional visit with some historic displays and an impressive film. It’s an ideal place for your group to have a rest and look at some of
Simon Louagie, PR & Education Manager Nieuwkerkestraat 9a, BE – 8957 Mesen tel. +32 (0)57 22 60 40 [email protected] www.peacevillage.be
the equipment used during the war. This site also has facilities and you can order a (warm) drink in the bar. o Brandhoek New Military Cemetery: we pick up our medical evacuation story again and look at the Casualty Clearing Stations. You can also visit the grave of Noel Chavasse, MC, VC & Bar, the highest decorated doctor of the Great War who died trying to save the lives of his men.
o Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery: the second largest Commonwealth Cemetery in the world. On the cemetery lie the bodies of the casualties who did not survive their treatment (only 3%!) at the one of the four casualty clearing stations. For every day in the year, there is a grave to be linked to the date. In recent years, a new visitor centre on medical aid was added along with facilities and parking.
o Talbot House in Poperinge: this Every Man’s Club catered both for soldiers and officers during the war. The unique atmosphere still lives on in the old Concert Hall where groups get an idea of the entertainment from back then. In the old canteen you can still play the 1915 piano or relax in the green garden. Upstairs in the old Chapel, you are reminded how big a part religion played in the life of these men but also that every visit to this chapel, could be their last one. Talbot House also has a lot of medical stories to tell. In the old hope store, an exhibition on Life Behind the Lines is in residence. Medical aid of course plays a big part in here as well.
o Lunch: the group are welcome to have their packed lunches at Talbot House with a complementary cup of tea.
o Condemned cells Poperinge: several soldiers spend their final night here in these cells before being executed by their own colleagues the following morning. A very moving site behind the Poperinge town hall. The story of mental illnesses such as shell shock can be highlighted here.
o End of the tour by 3 pm, add another itinerary or return home Simon Louagie, PR & Education Manager Nieuwkerkestraat 9a, BE – 8957 Mesen tel. +32 (0)57 22 60 40 [email protected] www.peacevillage.be