Three Armies on the Somme - Holts Battlefield Tours

Three Armies on the Somme

June 28 - 1 July 2008
Although every year commemoration of the First World War Battle of the Somme is focussed on the First of July, the 1916 Battle lasted for over four months and the Somme region was the scene of major operations for four years. This 'three armies and four years on the somme' tour will range over the battlefields of the Somme in time and space before we attend the Somme commemorative ceremony on the final morning. This battlefield tour will also study the French and German Armies' experience of war on the Somme as well as that of the British and Dominion Armies. Michael Orr is the historian on this tour. Throughout this WW1 Somme tour we will visit the sites of small unit actions which have often been ignored in the standard accounts of the Battle of the Somme, but which bring home the horrors and achievements of the Great War on the Somme. Even experienced visitors to the Somme should find new scenes and new insights to explore.

Itinerary
Day 1	(Saturday): Depart Victoria Coach Station, London 0845. Dover-Calais Ferry. Visit the site near Moislains of one of the first battles on the Somme, between French & German troops in August 1914. Check in to our hotel for dinner and overnight (3 nights).
Day 2	In the bend of the Somme. The French Army defending in 1914 and attacking in July 1916. The British defence of the Somme crossings in March 1918. The capture of Peronne & Mount St. Quentin in September 1918. Lunch break in Peronne. Problems of alliance warfare; the Franco-British offensives in the Combles area, 1916.
Day 3	Northern Battles: between Gommecourt and Serre we will study a succession of costly attacks by French, British and German armies, from 1914 to 1918. Ernst Junger wrote of the fighting around Rossignol Wood in his book 'Copse 125' and we will also visit the site of his "last storm" near Bapaume. Group lunch, Auchonvillers. In the afternoon we will visit Thiepval Wood to see the 1916 trenches of the Ulster Division which have recently been excavated by battlefield archaeologists. We will also study the battles of the Dominion forces between Pozieres and Guedecourt during the 1916 Battle.
Day 4	We will attend the Somme commemoration ceremony at Thiepval. Lunch in Arras. Calais-Dover ferry. Arrive Dover approx 1800 and London 2030.