ANZAC 25 April 12
ANZAC 2012
3 day Somme & Flanders
Price per person (based on twin share) $999
23 April 2012
Arrive at Longueau train station in the afternoon to be collected by your battlefield guide. You will then be transferred to the B&B.
24 April 2012
Head off after breakfast to Bullecourt which formed part of the Hindenburg line to visit the area where two major attacks took place in April and May 1917.
Our first stop will be to a private museum in Bullecourt created and maintained by Monsieur Jean Le Tighe who was the Mayor of Bullecourt for many years and who holds the Order of Australia. His collection is quite remarkable which he has developed over many years.
We will then visit the wonderful ‘slouch hat’ Memorial, the impressive Digger Memorial and the Memorial to the Missing from the battles around Bullecourt.
Head into Arras for lunch. After lunch we will have a look at the remarkable tunnels which were discovered just recently and which lie underneath Arras. These were extended by the Allied forces during the Great War. These particular excavations were created by the New Zealand Division and are known as the Wellington Quarries.
Next we will head north to visit the Canadian National Vimy Memorial dedicated to the memory of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. War-time tunnels and trenches still honey-comb this 250 acre battlefield site.
Our final visit will be to the Fromelles battlefield. We will visit the first new Commonwealth war graves cemetery created since the Second World War since the recent discovery of a mass grave with over 250 Australian and British soldiers.
We will then head down the Aubers Ridge to the Fromelles battlefield to visit the impressive ‘Cobber memorial’ and nearby cemetery at VC corner with the walls to the missing from this battle. Here the newly arrived 5th Australian Division suffered 5533 casualties in just 27 hours of incessant fighting.
Close by is the outstandingly beautiful military cemetery, Le Trou Post which was near where Brigadier-General ‘Pompey’ Elliott had his HQ.
25 April 2012
Head off to Villers Bretonneux at around 4:10 for the Dawn Service.
Visit the impressive National Australian Memorial dedicated to the 11,000 missing in France at Villers Bretonneux. From there, you will be able to imagine how close the Germans came to taking Amiens in the spring of 1918 before being stopped by the Australians. We will then travel to the school and museum in Villers Bretonneux and see the famous playground sign 'Never forget Australia'. In the area, we will also visit Adelaide Cemetery, from where the unknown Australian Warrior was taken in 1993 and now rests in Canberra. Then to the village of Le Hamel, where there is the Australian Corps Memorial Park with its original trenches.
On the way to the 1916 battlefields we will briefly stop at the Red Baron crash site and also the 3rd Australian Divisional Memorial which overlooks the battlefield where they served.
The next visit will to the gigantic Lochnagar mine crater at La Boisselle which was blown on July 1st 1916. Close by is the Australian 1st Division Memorial at Pozieres and the site of the Gibraltar pillbox fortification. Then we will pay our respects to the many Australian soldiers who are buried in Pozieres military cemetery from the fight for Pozieres, their first major engagement in France. Just on the east of Pozieres is the Windmill site, the highest part of the Somme battlefield, where a memorial stands honouring the 23,000 fallen Australians.
Lunch (this may be taken before due to the early start)
Next we will head up to the impressive Thiepval Memorial to the Missing which commemorates over 73,000 British soldiers (and 800 South African) who have no known grave and also the excellent Somme Interpretative Centre.
Our final visit will be to some original preserved trenches and Memorial of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who were massacred in just half an hour at Beaumont Hamel.
26 April 2012
Depart for Belgium after breakfast. Visit the Messines Ridge where the Australians were involved in the successful capture in June 1917.
As part of the Messines Ridge attack we will also visit the site of Hill 60 of which a film has recently been made called ‘Beneath Hill 60’.
We will travel onto and discover the city of Ypres or ‘Wipers’, the defence of which cost the lives of 250,000 men of the British Empire between 1914-1918.
Lunch in Ypres
Next we will visit the Fifth Australian Division Memorial in Buttes cemetery which is located looking down on 564 graves of Australian men who fought around Polygon Wood during the Battle of Passchendaele.
Close by is the Zonnebeke museum on the Passchendaele Ridge with its impressive underground reconstruction of the tunnelling activity around the Ypres Salient.
We will head up the Passchendaele Ridge to visit the largest Commonwealth Military Cemetery in the world, Tyne Cot, with over 12,000 graves and 35,000 names of the Missing around the Ypres Salient.
We will then continue onto Langemarck to visit the vast German cemetery, returning to Ypres around 18:30 for tea.
At 20:00 we will witness the very moving Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate where over 54,000 of the Missing are recorded including over 5,000 Australians.
End of tour in Ypres or Lille or extra night available at the B&B.
Above rates include transportation by air-conditioned minibus, full access to all sites, entrances to the museum(s) and Official English speaking guide and 3 nights in local bed & breakfast
Not included: Lunches & dinners, personal expenses and train tickets
23 SEP 11
To Book or Enquire
Please call us now on +61 (0)2 9247 4233 or 04 1491 4746
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_128935476240697.jpg "Simserhof fortifications in Siersthal (Moselle)")
