Uncover warfare through the ages with Mike Peters

Itinerary

1. Day

   1

   Agincourt 1415

   Ieper, Belgium

   Make your way to the meeting point and board the ferry from Dover. The tour begins in northern France with an English expeditionary force marching along the banks of the River Somme. Almost from the day of battle, Henry V's bloody and unlikely victory on the muddy, blood-soaked fields of Agincourt the battle has been immortalised in song, poetry and film. But how much of this is history; and how much is folklore? Thankfully, the campaign is well-documented, we will cut through the long-established myths and examine the battle from the soldier's perspective.

   We will spend an afternoon walking the battlefield, exploring the historical narrative and comparing it with realities of medieval warfare. Just how did Henry's disease ridden, numerically inferior army defeat the much larger and well-equipped French army that opposed them? Was the English longbow the battle winner that Shakespeare and cinema would have us believe?

   Transfer to the hotel in Ypres for your three-night stay. This evening, enjoy a group welcome dinner at the hotel.

2. Day

   2

   Waterloo 1815

   Waterloo, Belgium

   After breakfast this morning, the tour travels 400 years in time to Waterloo in Belgium - the Napoleonic era and the age of powder and musket. The Duke of Wellington's hard-fought victory at Waterloo came at a great cost, the surviving soldiers on both sides spoke of the grim carnage of the battle. Warfare had changed significantly: the advent of the smoothbore musket, muzzle loading artillery, and the early rifle made the Napoleonic battlefield a very different place to Agincourt in its scale and complexity. One of the many things that we will consider at Waterloo will be the effect of gunpowder on tactics and the corresponding increase in the importance of terrain in defence.

   Our itinerary for the day will examine the tactics used by both Wellington and Napoleon and the individual actions of soldiers and commanders that changed the course of the one-day battle that shaped the course of global history for the century that followed.

3. Day

   3

   Ypres 1914-15

   Ieper, Belgium

   After breakfast this morning, move into the 20th Century and the fields of Flanders. The day will be spent exploring the immortal salient around Ypres. The Great War accelerated the industrialisation of warfare, bringing the concept of total war, the idea of entire nations committed to the destruction of others.

   As we explore Ypres, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a standing Army, the concept of militias, and the morals of national conscription. The first and second battles of Ypres tested the value of newly introduced camouflage uniforms, smokeless ammunition, and questioned many of the lingering military legacies of the previous century. The huge effect of barbed wire, the Machine Gun, and quick-firing breech loading artillery led to the stalemate of trench warfare. This static deadlock acted as the catalyst for the introduction of chemical warfare, flamethrowers and the return of the hand grenade. We will also discuss the renaissance of the medieval technique of undermining.

4. Day

   4

   Somme 1916-18

   Amiens, France

   After breakfast this morning, the day begins in the Department of the Somme following in the footsteps of Britain's citizen volunteers, the men that filled the ranks of Kitchener's Armies for Field Marshal Haig's Somme offensive on 1st July 1916. The catastrophic losses of that fateful day ensure that the first day of the Somme is still considered the blackest day in the history of the British Army. Our discussion this morning will ask, how could an offensive that was so heavily resourced and seemingly so well prepared, go so terribly wrong?

   Transfer to the hotel in Amiens for your two-night stay.

5. Day

   5

   Somme 1918

   Amiens, France

   After breakfast this morning, we'll be visiting some of the Somme's 1918 battlefields to compare the hard learned lessons of 1916 with the advent of modern all-arms tactics, the effective use of aircraft, use of tanks, the massive role of artillery, and the importance of communications.

   This evening, enjoy a group farewell dinner at the hotel.

6. Day

   6

   Dunkirk 1940

   Dunkirk, France

   After breakfast this morning, head for the channel ports, following in the tracks of the retreating British Expeditionary Force as it withdraws to Dunkirk and evacuation. The success of the German blitzkrieg is very much founded on innovation and radical tactics - or was it? The BEF was at the time the only true mechanized army in the world, yet it was soundly beaten by the advancing Germans. Today we ask why. Just how good were the Germans, what was the secret of their success? Was the combination of Stuka and Panzer invincible, or was there much more to it?

   As the tour comes to an end, catch the return ferry to Dover.