1917: Battlefield anniversary tours ninety years on

Small group mini-bus specialists, Back-Roads Touring Co. Ltd, has expanded its range of popular one-day Flanders and Somme battlefield tours to include a range of 90th anniversary events throughout 2007, commemorating the battles of Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, Cambrai, and the entry into the Great War of the United States of America.

The tours which depart from London’s Waterloo station, combining train travel on Eurostar with a mini-bus tour from Lille, and run every week from March to November on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, with different itineraries on each day. The tours can be taken as day-trips or combined to make an extended weekend tour.

The main commemorative events will feature the Battle of Vimy Ridge and Arras in April, the Messines Ridge in June, Passchendaele, the first massed tank battle at Cambrai, in August and September. These battles were of particular significance to Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders, in addition to the British, as at each Empire troops were responsible for great, nation-forging victories.

The USA entered the war in 1917 and its army experienced the first heavy fighting on the Marne later in the year. A special five-day commemorative tour is being offered in October 2007.

Tour participants are limited to just twelve persons on each departure and the tours are led by retired Army Officers and qualified academics.

Any one-day tour cost £99 per person. Full details, including day-by-day itineraries, can be found at backroadstouring.co.uk.