NEW About the tour: Battles on the Hindenburg Line

Day 1

Local departure by coach, then to our hotel at Albert in northern France for a four-night stay.

Day 2 - Withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line – Bourlon Wood

This morning, we start on the northern area of the Somme battlefields near Gommecourt, looking at how the Germans began their withdrawal from these battlefields in February to March 1917, and at the ground near Rossignol Wood or Copse 125 as the Germans called it.

We then follow the German withdrawal via Bapaume to the area around Lagnicourt where the battles in the Advance to the Hindenburg Line took place in March 1917. We examine the Australian attacks here and the action involving Captain Percy Cherry, which resulted in the award of a Victoria Cross, also seeing his grave at Quéant Road Cemetery.

We then look at the real story behind the film ‘1917’ which covered the early battles on the Hindenburg Line in 1917 around Ecoust and Croisilles, seeing the battlefields there. After our lunch period in central Arras, we visit the battlefield at Bullecourt. Looking at the Australian and British actions here in April to May 1917, we have an included visit to the Bullecourt Museum, as well as the Digger Memorial.

We continue to the Vis-en-Artois Memorial, which commemorates many of those who fell in the battles for the Hindenburg Line and have no known grave. See the site of the Drocourt-Quéant Switch Line positions taken by Canadian troops in September 1918, and then look at the crossing of the Canal du Nord and the Canadian attack on Bourlon Wood, seeing the Canadian Memorial.

Included meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Gommecourt Battlefield (6)

Day 3 - Battles on the Hindenburg Line – Cambrai 1917

Today we examine the British advance at Cambrai in November 1917, when hundreds of tanks helped break the Hindenburg Line defences. We start at Rocquigny-Equancourt Road Cemetery, the site of an important Casualty Clearing Station in 1917, and then visit key sites across the Cambrai battlefield at Gouzeaucourt, Trescault and the Flesquières Ridge, seeing the tank memorial.

After our lunch period in central Cambrai, we see the Cambrai Memorial to the Missing, and later have an included visit to the Tank Museum at Flesquières, where the recovered wreck of a MkIV Tank ‘Deborah’, recovered in 1998, is now on display. We then examine the fighting around Masnières, seeing the Newfoundland Memorial, and the crossing of the St. Quentin canal at Marcoing.

After our return this evening, we visit the nearby Le Tommy Café, a WW1-themed establishment with its own private museum and trench system, where we have an included dinner in the café.

Included meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Flesquières Tank Museum (5)

Day 4 - Breaking the Hindenburg Line – 1918

We begin at the Somme American Cemetery, looking at the fighting here in September 1918 when Australian and American soldiers fought side by side breaking the German defences. We visit the American Memorial at Bellicourt, look at the Ricqueval area and the St. Quentin Canal Tunnel entrance, and, at Ricqueval Bridge, see the amazing exploits of British troops who captured it intact.

After lunchtime in central St. Quentin, we look at the final battles on the Hindenburg Line in October 1918 in the battlefields around Beaurevoir and Joncourt, seeing where the war poet Wilfred Owen was awarded a Military Cross for his bravery.

We then follow the route of the British advance to the Sambre Canal, seeing the Lock House No 1 where two Victoria Crosses were awarded for bravery in November 1918. And, at Ors, we see where British soldiers crossed the canal and visit the grave of Wilfred Owen, buried alongside others who fell in the final great British battle on the Western Front.

Included meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Lock House No 1 (5)

Day 5

Return home.

Included meals: Breakfast