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From the left: John Mead; Sandy Gray; Les Scull MM; Billy Smith

Everyone remembers D Day and Arnhem – but the battles of the Rhineland have largely been overlooked by popular WW2 culture. These were fierce battles fought across the sodden and often flooded flatlands around the Rhine. Many of the villages in the area had been evacuated by the Germans and turned into reinforced fortresses. The Allied orders were to clear the approaches to the Rhine in preparation for the last great set-piece battle in the NW European theatre – the Rhine Crossings. But it was to be much more than a clearing operation. The war was nearly over; there could be no doubt that the Germans were all but beaten; but they fought on – and fought hard for the fatherland. The price was a high one to pay – some 20,000 casualties for the British 21st Army Group alone.

On this anniversary tour, our Holts travellers, accompanied by Colonel Peter Knox, stood on the banks of the Rhine on 24th March 2010, exactly 65 years since the great river crossing.  We were both fortunate and honoured to have four veterans with us: Sandy Gray, a young tank troop commander in 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards, injured during Operation VERITABLE a month earlier; Sgt Les Scull, of the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards, who was awarded a Military Medal during the same operation and very badly injured in that action; John Mead, a veteran of the Anzio landings, captured by the Germans during the battle that followed – he was now on a forced death march in late February 1945, as the Germans evacuated Prisoners of War from camps in the East ahead of the Red Army advance; and Billy Smith, a young private soldier with the 1st Battalion, Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, who fought through the Reichswald Forest and across the Rhine. They told their stories with great humility, remembering their friends who did not make it home.

Our Veterans with, on the left, Steve Lucius (ex US Army) and on the right, Mike Sudol (ex US Army)

We were also fortunate to have two American travellers with us on this tour, Steve Lucius and Mike Sudol, both US Army Veterans from the 1960s. This gave us the opportunity to commemorate the historic link-up between British and US forces at Geldern on 4th March 1945 when soldiers of the 53rd Welsh Division and 9th US Army shook hands.

We later visited the Reichswald Forest Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Germany – where over 7500 Allied soldiers and airmen are buried. There had been hardly any visitors to the cemetery on that day – 65 years on from those great battles that ended the war in the west – so we felt especially honoured to be there.

We paid are respects as Major Sandy Gray read the oration ‘They shall grow not old as we that our left grow old’ and Sgt Les Scull laid the wreath. ‘We will remember them’.

Holts Tours is offering those who book on the Stalingrad tour, led by Dr Mike Jones, a complimentary copy of his book Stalingrad, How the Red Army Triumphed, recently re-published by Pen & Sword in paperback. Click here to book the tour and receive your free copy of the book.

Click here for details of the book on the Pen & Sword website.

Holts Tours is offering those who book on the War Underground tour, led by Simon Jones, a complimentary copy of his new book recently published by Pen & Sword – Underground Warfare 1914-18. Click here to book the tour and receive your free copy of the book.

Click here for details of the book on the Pen & Sword website.

Click to download the PDF Booking Form

The Korean War was fought 60 years ago, and next year will be the anniversary of the Chinese Winter Offensive of 1951 when three Chinese armies (numbering some 700,000 troops) attacked along the UN line in an attempt to push UN troops southward down the Korean Peninsula. Following the Battles of Imjin River and Kapyong - the UN forces (which included US, British, Canadian, and Australian troops,) stabilised the line along the 38th Parallel - leading to the stalemate that remained until the war ended in 1953. It was a critical moment in the war, following President Truman's removal of General McArthur as the Supreme Commander for insubordination, and the stage in the war when the use of nuclear weapons was seriously considered.

In April 2011 Holts Tours intends to conduct of battlefield tour of these two great battles - and this Special Interest Weekend at Christ Church offers an excellent introduction to the subject of the Korean War. Holts would also be interested to hear from any veterans who have a story to tell.

From the 27th March 2010 through to the 11th April Tenterden Museum in Kent,  will be exhibiting over 200 recently acquired rare Zulu artefacts, many seized from the Zulu king and his chiefs, following his capture by the British in 1879. The exhibition will consist of Zulu  beadwork, ornaments and necklaces, knobkerries, carved sticks, assegais, axes and drug artefacts,  together with numerous British army artefacts recovered following the Zulu War. A number of original oil paintings depicting the Zulu War will also be displayed.
This is the first occasion these artefacts will be shown to the public and this is an opportunity not to be missed. The collection  is sheduled to be taken to America and Canada during  2011 .
 
The entrance fee to this unique exhibition will be a nominal £1. A catalogue detailing the exhibits will be available for £5. All profits from the exhibition will go to the Zulu Village at Rorke's Drift in Zululand sponsored by the Anglo Zulu War Historical Society.
 
Experts in the subject will be in attendance throught the exhibition.
Tenterden Museum is situated in the centre of the pretty market town of Tenterden in Kent on the A28. It has adequate car parking and many excellent restaurants and shops.
(The postcode for car sat nav systems is TN30 6HN)

If you need further information, please  go to www.anglozuluwar.com  or the Tenterden Museum web site can be accessed at www.tenterdenmuseum.co.uk.

Many of you will have seen, on Saturday 30th January, the service held in the new Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery at Fromelles where the first burials of Australian and British soldiers killed at the Battle of Fromelles  19/20th July 1916 are now being buried. The Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery is the first new cemetery built by the Commission for 50 years. The bodies were discovered in 2008, buried by the Germans in a mass grave after the battle. It was the first battle fought by the AIF on the Western Front and the nearby VC Corner cemetery also has many burials from this battle, also and unusually for British cemeteries, buried in a mass grave in this beautiful cemetery.

We will be visiting Fromelles on the first day of our Somme 1916 tour. You will  be accompanied by Dr Graham Dunlop, a military historian who served for 32 years in the Royal Marines. Graham has a great ‘eye’ for the ground and his clear presentations, military experience and ebullient personality add to his deep knowledge of the battles of the period.