Ypres Salient: WWI Battlefields

Sample Itinerary - 4 DAYS TO YPRES & SOMME BATTLEFIELDS BY COACH

• Day 1 — Depart school. Connect with Channel crossing. Visits en route (e.g. In Flanders Field Museum), subject to the location of your school in the UK.
• Day 2 — Full day exploration of Ypres area Battlefield sites.
• Day 3 — Full day exploration of Somme battlefield sites in France.
• Day 4 — Time for morning local visits. Depart in early afternoon to connect with a Channel crossing. Return to school.

Sample Itinerary - DAY TRIP TO YPRES BATTLEFIELDS BY COACH

• Depart school for an early morning crossing to Calais. Arrive mid morning in the Ypres area for a visit to 'In Flanders Fields' museum and the Yorkshire Trench. In the afternoon visit Sanctuary Wood, Hill 60, Passchendaele, Tyne Cot Cemetery and Langemark cemetery before departing for return crossing from Calais. The number of visits is dependent on the location of your school within the UK. The cost of the tour includes a maximum of 18 hours use of the coach.

Meal Arrangements

• Full Board:
  First Meal - Evening meal on Day 1.
  Final Meal - Packed lunch on the Final day.

Battlefield Tour Guides

• A half day or full day guide can be booked at a supplementary charge.

Study Books

• History Battlefields of WWI
  To compliment our touring programme STS has a curriculum based study course book. This project book is aimed for students at KS3 and GCSE level, studying the Great War as a supplementary unit. Copies can be purchased at a supplement of £3.75 each to include P&P. Further information available upon request.

Excursion Selection

History & Landmarks
Ypres - An important mediaeval cloth town, today a focal point for remembering and studying WWI. The town was the site of battles to capture the Salient, held by British troops.
In Flanders Field Museum - Located on the first floor of the reconstructed medieval Cloth Hall. This museum provides an introduction to the events that took place from 1914 to 1918 and allows you to follow the experiences of the people living in Westhoek at the time of WWI. www.inflandersfields.be (pre booking is required).
Menin Gate - This famous British memorial of WW1 bears the names of 54,896 missing soldiers engraved on its walls. the Last Post is sounded here every evening at 8pm.
St George's Memorial Church - This Anglican church designed by the London architect Sir Reginald Blomfield was built in 1928-29. Everything, even furniture, was offered by the commonwealth societies, regiments, families or individuals to commemorate a unit or an individual lost in the 1914-18 conflict.
Yorkshire Trench and Dug Out - During the development of a new industrial site the 'Yorkshire Trench' and many vestiges of the war were discovered including 165 bodies of soldiers. A memorial site has been created with a reconstruction of the 'Yorkshire Trench' including the entrance and exit of a 'deep dug-out' from 1917. The 'In Flanders Field Museum' has an exhibition of objects found in the dug out.
Diksmuide - Trench of Death. A network of Belgian trenches and bunkers. Only 50m from a German bunker, the death trench was under constant siege by German snipers.
Sanctuary Wood - Sanctuary Wood and its museum, at Zillebeke were so called because it was an area that saw little fighting and because troops who took refuge there were allowed to remain to recover. Features include trenches preserved in their original state Hill 60 - Just 60m above sea level this was a crucial strategic vantage point from where the Germans could look down onto Ypres. It was captured and recaptured many times by the opposing sides. there is a small museum containing war relics.
Hooge Crater Museum - In addition to pictures, weapons and equipment, this museum shows reconstructions of war scenes with life-size horses and soldiers in uniforms of the participating nations.
Essex Farm Cemetery - This Cemetery in Boezinge, Lt.Col.J. McCrae wrote his famous poem “In Flanders fields” near this spot.
Tyne Cot Cemetery - This British cemetery is the largest in Belgium with 11,900 graves. The graves are arranged around the tall cross of sacrifice. The semi-circular wall bears the names of 35,000 soldiers lost after 16th August 1917.
Lyssenthoek Cemetery - The largest of a number of hospital cemeteries that emerged next to Casualty Clearing Stations.
Langemark German Cemetery - Behind the monumental sandstone gate are the graves of 44,061 German soldiers, 3,000 were cadets and student volunteers of the 22nd and the 27th Reserve Corps. They fell in October 1914 during vain attempts to come closer to Ypres.
Poperinge - Soldiers were sent here on leave from the Salient. Talbot House was a club house where soldiers could relax away from the horrors of war. The execution pole is where deserters were shot at dawn.
Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917, Zonnebeke - The museum gives an oversight of the five battles of Ypres by means of authentic photographs, historical artefacts and life-like dioramas. Walk through a German trench and descend into a 6 metre deep British dugout with communication and dressing posts, headquarters and accommodation.
WWI Somme Battlefield sites - Full day visit to the Somme Battlefield sites of Northern France is also possible from a base in Belgium.