Organise Your Own Battlefield Tour

We have all seen the organised battlefield tours advertised in the travel agents and specialist tour operators and if you are reading this you are obviously one of the many thousands of people with an interest in the World Wars.

You may have read the harrowing accounts of death and slaughter in some "foreign field that is forever England" and perhaps wondered where it all happened but never quite decided how to visit.

The enthusiast, historian, relative or inquisitive may wish to see a monument, a grave, or a battlefield. Today this couldn't be easier.

Reputable companies will, for a modest sum, pick you up from the airport. Whisk you to a hotel. A guide and expert will talk to you and a group of fellow pilgrims highlighting the "tourist" sites. Breakfast, lunch and dinner all included.

Home to battlefields and back in four days.

The common phrase is... "Well I always wanted to see the battlefields..... I'm pleased I went but once was enough. I think I saw it all".

Oh how, different it could have been.

We all love convenience. It's the way the world is these days.

Package me up; tell me where I am going. What I am going to do. And to be honest a 3 to 4 day battlefield trip for £400 isn't bad. Good value no doubt.

Why not try a different approach to the battlefield trip and you won't be able to wait until the next one.

This approach will take a little research and corresponding time. But the rewards, both financial and personal will far out weigh any inconvenience.

The Somme has become my addiction and has now spread to the whole Western Front. I can now feel a yearning for Gallipoli, Italy and Russia and I know it is only a matter of time for my cravings to drive me further afield.

I will let you see the rules I follow and found invaluable for my visits.

Go in the spring or autumn. Many things are absent at this time of year. Crowds being one of them. Sitting quietly in a battlefield cemetery with only the sound of the wind and birds is priceless.

Crops, long grass, and nettles are also less evident. The fields surrounding the small cemeteries are where the battles occurred. Fields will be ploughed and the remenats of the fighting make their yearly appearance before they sink again to reappear the following year like the crops.

Farmers are more forgiving of the battlefield visitor on their land if their valuable crops are not yet planted.

Forests are easier to walk through. Walking alone or with a fellow traveller through the forest undergrowth following the remants of those front line or support trenches spotting battlefield debris and visualising the horror and noise of that place 90 years ago makes the hair stand on your arm.

Take your own transport or rent a vehicle and stop where you want. Stay longer when the place captures you, and it will.

Monuments and those private memorials missed by those "tourist" buses often lie up small tracks and small roads.

Rent a gite. They are surprisingly affordable if you do your homework. £200 a week is a fair price for a smaller type self catering property. The French tourist board has a list of such properties lying in the heart of Flanders. Select carefully and you will find yourself yards from the front line.

While the mass market trips rest in their town centre hotel, imagine the tranquillity of opening the rear door of your own gite, and walk in the evening dusk or morning mist along the front lines. Wild deer will surprise you as you walk through the area at this time of day.

The front lines of the western front like most run down a relatively narrow swath of land. So unless you do a little bit of research those memorable sites could easily be missed. Book shops and the internet means that this should not happen. Maps and guides are readily available to everyone.

Regarding the western front a few books spring readily to mind that the private visitor should find invaluable.

Major and Mrs Holts have a series of books and maps highlighting all must see sights.

The Battleground Europe series of books also ensures you are kept on track.

With these two publishing masterpieces a full and rewarding week will be easily filled, visiting the famous and less famous locations. Take pleasure from the fact that you are visiting exactly what you want to see and also visiting areas that many miss.

The sceptic often says. "Surely there is nothing left to see, endless cemeteries and empty fields do not make much of a trip"

Thankfully the answer to this is a definite no.

The Somme is but 20 miles in length. An area with a history of sadness, heartache and incomprehensible death.

I have visited this area for 6 years and still have much to see and learn. A personally researched battlefield trip ensures I visit exactly what I want to see.

Visiting the large concentration cemeteries of Serre where bodes were retrieved from various smaller cemeteries that dotted the region during the war and located in one spot shockingly show the cost of war. After a while your mind cannot comprehend the slaughter. Or visit the smaller battlefield cemeteries that were never moved after the wars end but stayed where they began. These battlefield cemeteries often in chorological order showing the cost of daily life in the trenches, from individual dated gravestones perhaps showing a soldiers death by sniper fire lying next to a line of headstones, all the same date showing a catastrophic event such as a shelling or trench raid.

Visit the cemeteries where the usual white sandstone was replaced with the unusual red coarsehill stone such as in Marinsart where a line of red headstones in plot 1 show the death of 14 men of the 13th Royal Irish Rifles, killed by a single shell as they marched to the front line in June 1916.

From Gommecourt in the north to Maricourt in the south monuments, cemeteries, trenches dot this 20 mile stretch.

Newfoundland memorial park, a preserved battlefield covering 80 acres shows where the Newfoundland regiment was annihilated on 1^st July 1916. Shell holes, trenches, cemeteries and museum show the sacrifice of this regiment. The Newfoundland Regiment suffered death totals of over 500 out of 801 men, with just 68 surviving unscathed.

The massive craters of Lochnager and Hawthorn ridge show the effect of mining in the area.

Deville wood and the South African museum show the contribution of this nation in the war. This wood, a preserved battlefield site is filled with shell holes, trenches and countless lost bodies never removed after the war. Normally units were considered to be incapable of combat if their casualty levels had reached 30% and they were withdrawn once this level had been attained. The South African Brigade suffered losses of 80% in Deville wood but still managed to hold on.

The Theipval memorial displays name on name of missing men with no grave. 73,000 on endless panels.

Thiepval wood recently purchased by the Somme association in Northern Ireland is being excavated and now displays recreated trenches that the Ulster Division used for its initially successful attack on the 1^st July 1916. They advanced past the Ulster Tower in no mans land taking the infamous schwaben redoubt before being forced to retire as regiments were annihilated either side of their advance and all guns became trained on this "successful" division, which then had to withdraw.

Visit the preserved copses of Serre where the pal divisions were devastated. A year to make a division of trained men and seconds to destroy. Over 7,100 men lie together in one of these cemeteries alone.

Mametz wood, Trones wood, High wood the Butte de Warlencourt. Names that soldiers feared and dreaded abound everywhere.

The Somme a place of pilgrimage in itself lies within easy reach of many more battlefield sites.

Vimy ridge is less than two hours drive away where the mine riven battlefield and warren of underground tunnels are a fascinating memorial to the Canadians. Canadian students guide the visitors around the area culminating in a visit to the vast memorial dominating the ridge.

Ypres lies under 3 hours from the Somme. No trip would be complete without witnessing the 8pm sounding of the last post under the haunting Menin gate.

Don't get me wrong, the bus tours are designed to give a fabulous overview of the battlefields. But if you would like something a little different without the time restraints of a tour operator with a schedule to keep then try something different.

Spend a few evenings reading the guide books. Look into your family's history a little. Everyone has a relation that served in the war. Why not book that gite and take a friend to split the cost and organise a personal battlefield trip.

The phrase you will use after this experience will be quite different to the one at the start it will be... "Well I always wanted to see the battlefields, I'm pleased I went. Now I can't wait to get back".

Suggested reading for the Somme

Paul Reid. Battleground Europe. "Walking the Somme"

Major and Mrs Holt, Battlefield guide to the Somme

Rose Coombs. Before Endeavours Fade