3-Day American Soldiers Battlefield History Tour in Belgium and France

3 Days Duration

Experiences

About This Tour

Embark on this 3-day tour to visit the sites associated with Americans who served in northern France and Belgium during the First World War. Explore Ieper (Ypre...

Duration: 3 Days · Tour type: Shared · Activity level: Easy · Accommodation: Not included · Transport: Not included · Wheelchair access: Not applicable · Cities: Lille, Arras, Ypres, Vimy Ridge · Languages: English

Know before you go: This is more than a guided tour. It is a personalised visit to the battlefields of the Western Front, with an itinerary tailored to your interests. The guide can adjust the itinerary to include locations and topics specific to you. If you want to visit the grave of a soldier or the places where they served, the guide will do their best to find out the background to what happened and why. The tour covers the main sites of interest to the Australian visitor, but does so as far as possible through the experiences of the people of most interest to the guests.; You are charged for the guide's time. Everything else is charged at cost to keep the cost down for you, the guests.; The guide is happy to adjust this tour around commemorations for Armistice Day.

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What's Included

Europe tour guide services
Research into personal stories. This is what is unique about these tours. A battlefield historian will carry out research to find the locations relevant to individuals of interest to you. For example, the guide will explain what the service record means and cross-reference war diaries and history books to find places where that person's unit served and even where they became a casualty.
Maps and other supporting handout material

Not Included

Accommodation: The guide can recommend hotels and hostels to suit your preferred standards and the itinerary.
Meals: The guide can recommend restaurants to suit your taste and the size of your group. For large groups, menus can be recommended. You can picnic in good weather. Budget around 10-15 Euros for lunch and 25-50 Euros for an evening meal.
Guide accommodation and subsistence: If you want the guide to provide informed company during the evening, book the guide into the same hotel. Otherwise, they will stay in budget accommodation.
Transportation: This will depend on the size of your group. The guide can advise on and book suitable transport, and can drive or share the driving.
Museum entrances

Itinerary

1

Day 01

Lille to Ieper and American Stories in Ypres

Meet your tour guide upon arrival, begin your guided tour, and drive to Ieper (Ypres) in Belgium, where you will orient yourselves with visits to key landmarks and the Flanders Fields Museum. On this day, explore the service of Americans in the Ypres area. Many Americans served as volunteers with the British and Canadian forces. See the battles of 1914 and 1915 through the eyes of Americans such as Frederick Coleman. An American businessman living in London, Coleman answered a call from the Royal Automobile Club for car owners to volunteer in support of the British Expeditionary Force. Notice where Stanley Willis Wood from Kansas City fought. A regular US officer, Wood commanded a company in the Canadian Highlanders. This gallant officer fell at the head of his men at Mount Sorrell, a Canadian battlefield. Tour the place where Canadian doctor John MacCrae wrote the poem "In Flanders Fields," which inspired American poet Moina Michael's response and the origin of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance. Follow the story of Edward Revere Osler, the great-great-grandson of patriot Paul Revere. He served in the Canadian Red Cross and then as an officer in the Royal Field Artillery, where he was killed in the mud of the Passchendaele offensive. See how the medical services worked, hear their stories, and visit the places where they served. Professor Harvey Cushing was already an eminent neurosurgeon at the start of the First World War and an early volunteer to serve with the British and French. Soon after the entry of the US into the war, Cushing deployed with an American medical column that supported the British in Flanders during the horrific Third Battle of Ypres. Visit the Vierstraat Memorial to the AEF 27th and 30th Divisions that captured the area in 1918, and hear the stories of the men for whom this was their introduction to battle. You will also visit some preserved trenches. In the evening, attend the Last Post service, held every day at 8 pm at the Menin Gate. Lay a wreath to commemorate and remember the soldiers who served here. Overnight stay at Ieper.
2

Day 02

Le Hamel, Cantigny, Belloy-en-Santerre and Bony

Pass across the 1916 battlefield. The villages of Serre and Puisieux were close to the fateful front of the 1916 battle, but were liberated by the 80th US Division in 1918. You will also hear the stories of some of the Americans who served here in 1916. Drive to Le Hamel near Amiens and see where American troops helped stop the German 1918 offensive and turn the tide alongside the Australian Corps on July 4th, 1918. South of the Somme lies the village of Cantigny. The 1st US Division took over this sector on April 27th, 1918, becoming the first on an active battlefront to be placed under American command. On May 27th, the 1st Division carried out a model, successful attack supported by French artillery and tanks. Travel back across the 1916 battlefield to visit the village of Belloy-en-Santerre and see the memorial to the American war poet Alan Seeger, who fell here on July 4th, 1916, as a French Foreign Legionnaire during the capture of this village. Move east to see the part that the US IInd Corps played in the British Army's successful attack on the Hindenburg Line in 1918 and in the operations that followed as the Germans retreated. End the day at the Somme American Cemetery at Bony, where 1,844 American soldiers who fell on the Somme battlefields lie, and where 333 missing are commemorated. Overnight stay at Arras.
3

Day 03

Vimy Ridge, Flanders Fields Cemetery and Return to Lille

Depart the hotel and drive to Vimy Ridge, a preserved battlefield and the site of major action by the Canadian Army Corps. Hear the stories of Americans who served in the Canadian Army. There is a Wild West connection here: Lieutenant Tolford Hamilton Murray, who died leading a mounted patrol, is believed to have been a veteran of the 7th US Cavalry. At the same time, Private Joseph Standing Buffalo, grandson of Sitting Bull, is buried a few miles away. Visit the international memorial at Lorette de Notre Dame, which lists 580,000 names of men of all nationalities who died in the Region du Nord. Return to Belgium and see where some 45,000 Americans fought in the Army of the King of the Belgians during their advance across America's own Flanders Fields in October and November 1918. Follow their route from Waregem to Audenaarde, where the American 37th Division seized crossings over the Scheldt and continued the pursuit. Visit the American Flanders Fields Cemetery and return to Lille.