Day 0 - Travel Day to Paris, France

Guests fly independently to Paris, Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG)

 

Day 1 - Paris, France

INNside is our host hotel near Charles de Gaule airport, Paris.  Registration is from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM in the lobby, followed by a Welcome Dinner at 7:00 PM.

 

Innside by Melia

Charles de Gaulle Airport

9 rue du Voyageur Roissy Pôle Ouest 95700

Roissy en France

 

Day 2 - Chateau-Thierry France - WWI First Battle of the Marne, Quentin Roosevelt

After our breakfast talk on the origins of WWI, we visit The American Monument at Chateau-Thierry, the largest in France, dedicated to the Americans who served in the Aisne-Marne region during the war.  In the afternoon, we visit Chamery where a fountain is dedicated Quentin Roosevelt, a member of the 95th Aero Squadron and son of Teddy Roosevelt.  He was shot down here in 1915.  The crash site is a short walk from the fountain.

Expect some walking over uneven ground

 

Day 3 - Chateau-Thierry, France - WWI U.S. Marine Corps at Belleau Wood

This morning we visit Aisne Marne American Cemetery which is located at the base of the hill where the Battle of Belleau Wood was fought in 1918.  For the U.S. Marine Corps, Belleau Wood, Iwo Jima, Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sanh, and Fallujah are considered hallowed ground. It was here that the U.S. Marine Corps first earned the name “Teufel Hunden” or Devil Dogs.  This private tour will take us to the famous wheat fields where the Marines charged on June 6.  We will then visit the Bulldog Fountain where U.S. Marines come drink the water and connect with this honored place.

 

Expect some walking over uneven ground

 

Day 4 - Amiens, France - WWI The Somme, Manfred von Richthofen

We leave for Amiens, where the Royal Flying Corps  landed for the first time in August 1914.  Our first visit is to Beaumont-Hammel, location of the start of the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916.  This site is a tribute to the Newfoundland regiment who suffered 80% casualties on that day.  We will take a short walk through both Canadian and German trenches and see areas still closed today due to unexploded ordnance.  Then we travel down the road a bit to Ulster Tower and Thiepval Wood where the trenches have been restored to their WWI condition.  

 

The Somme contained many Allied and German aerodromes including Cappy, where Manfred von Richthofen took off from on his last mission.  We’ll learn about the fall of a number of German aces including Voss, Molders and Richthofen.  We also visit the site where the Red Baron crashed after being shot down just a few miles away in Vaux-sur-Somme on April 21, 1918.

 

Expect some walking over uneven ground

 

Day 5 - Ypres, Belgium - WWI Vimy ridge, Battle of Arras

We depart for Ypres after first viewing the former site of Vert Galand, one of the largest and most famous British aerodromes in WWI.  We then visit the Canadian National Memorial at Vimi Ridge, a preserved battlefield park dedicated to the memory of the Canadian Expeditionary Force that fought there during the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Battle of Arras.  We’ll explore some of tunnels dug by hand to protect the troops from withering artillery and machine gun fire.

 

In the afternoon, you are free to explore the town of Ypres, Belgium that was nearly destroyed during the war.  Explore the old Cloth Hall (now a WWI museum), Belgian chocolate shops, sidewalk cafés and first-rate restaurants.  At night, we walk over to the Menin gate to view the Last Post ceremony to honor the fallen who defended the town during WWI.  This ceremony has been repeated nightly since the end of the war.

 

Expect low ceilings in the tunnels and a .5 mile walk to the monument and back

 

Day 6 - Ypres, Belgium - WWI Flanders Fields, Passchendaele, Hill 60

We start the day at Essex Farm, where Major John McCrae, wrote the famous poem In Flanders Fields.  We then visit Langemark Cemetery, a German cemetery markedly different from allied cemeteries.  In June, 1940 after the Battle of France, Hitler visited Ypres and Langemark to pay homage to the fallen German soldiers of WWI.

 

From there, we visit the Passchendaele Museum 1917, one of the best of its kind in Europe.  We end the day at Hill 60 just south of the town of Zillebeke where Australian mine workers dug tunnels under the hill and detonated tons of high explosive, killing over 10,000 German soldiers.

 

Expect many stops today, a moderate amount of walking on and off the bus in the museum, trenches.

 

Day 7 - Folkstone, England - WWII Dunkirk, Chain Home Radar

After breakfast, we learn about the rescue at Dunkirk where thousands of vessels crossed the channel from England to rescue 330,000 French, Belgian and British Troops from annihilation by the German Wehrmacht in May-June1940 (Operation Dynamo). 

 

We cross the English channel from Calais and briefly visit St. Margaret’s/Swingate in Dover, the site of an airfield where the Royal Air Corp departed for France (Amiens) in 1914.  We will also view one of the last remaining radio masts from the Chain Home Radar system that helped the RAF detect incoming Luftwaffe aircraft during the Battle of Britain.  This evening we'll dine at the famous Jack Daw Inn, featured in the 1969 film, The Battle of Britain.

Expect to carry luggage on and off Ferry as we change to a different motor coach in England.

 

Day 8 - Folkstone, England - WWII Operation Dynamo, Battle of Britain

Today we visit a small private Battle of Britain museum at former RAF Hawkinge which contains a Junkers 52, Heinkel III, Messerschmitt BF 109, Boulton Paul Defiant, and 1:1 scale models of a Supermarine Spitfire and a Hawker Hurricane.  From here we move to the Battle of Britain Memorial, built on the white cliffs of Dover, overlooking the English Channel.  On a clear day, you can see across the channel to Pas-de-Calais, home of Adolf Galland’s Jagdgeschwader 26 during the Battle of Britain.  In the afternoon, we will tour Dover Castle built in 1066. Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay directed Operation Dynamo from a network of tunnels beneath the castle.

 

Expect approx .75 mile walk through Dover Castle

 

Day 9 - Hillingdon, England - WWII Biggin Hill/Spitfire Factory, Bentley Priory

Today we visit Biggin Hill, arguably one of the most important airfields during the Battle of Britain for the defense of London.  As part of 11 Group under the Keith Park, many famous RAF fighter pilots flew from here including Douglas Bader, Robert Stanford Tuck, “Sailor” Malan, Al Deere and Jonnie Johnson.  We will take a private tour of the “Spitfire Factory” at the Heritage Hanger which is the largest Spitfire restoration facility in the world.  Spitfire and P-51 flights are available for extra cost.

 

In the afternoon, we visit Bentley Priory, headquarters of fighter command and Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding.

 

Expect some walking

 

Day 10 - Bury St, Edmonds, England - WWII Battle of Britain Bunker, Old Warden

This morning we visit Uxbridge, better known as the Battle of Britain bunker.  Discretely located 70 feet below the ground in an unassuming neighborhood, Uxbridge was the ground zero for control of Kieth Park’s 11 group in the summer of 1940 during the Battle of Britain.  Winston Churchill visited Uxbridge during the heat of battle on August 15, 1940.  This is a must see site for Battle of Britain fans.

 

On our way to bomber country, we stop at Old Warden and view the Shuttleworth Collection, one of the greatest collections of flying WWI aircraft in the world.  The grass field has the ambiance of an old WWI aerodrome.  If time and weather permit, you may want to catch a ride on Tiger Moth (extra cost).

 

Expect to walk down 77 steps to the bunker.  There is no elevator.  .5 mile walk around Old Warden

 

Day 11 - Bury St. Edmonds, England WWII RAF Duxford

First stop today is the Cambridge American Cemetery where many airmen who gave the last full measure are buried.  We'll then spend the full afternoon at the Imperial War Museum and Duxford.  This base was feature prominently in the movie The Battle of Britain and contains many historic aircraft, including an entire wing dedicated to the United States Air Force.  This is not to be missed.

 

Expect significant walking, approx. 2.5 miles to see the entire base.  There are many places to stop and rest.  This day is at your own pace

​

Day 12 - Bury St, Edmonds, England - WWII The mighty 8th Air Force, RAF Thorpe Abbotts (100th, 95th and 91st bomb groups)

 

Today we discuss the 8th Air Force and visit the USAAF airbases that rose from the farm fields of southeastern England.  We visit  RAF Horham, (47 BG, 95 BG 323 BG), Rougham (322 BG, 94 BG), and Thorpe Abbotts (100 BG).  The Bloody Hundredth was feature prominently in Donald Miller’s Masters of the Air.  In the event that one of the bases is closed, we’ll visit RAF Parham (Framlingham)

 

Expect some walking

 

Day 13 - London England - WWII Churchill’s war room, RAF Club

We leave East Anglia for London and tour Churchill’s war rooms where you will get an intimate tour of subterranean offices where the Prime Minister directed his country to victory in WWII.  Churchill’s War Rooms were feature prominently in the movie The Darkest Hour.  In the evening, we will dine at the RAF Club in Piccadilly.  This is the perfect location to wrap up our tour among one-of-a-kind paintings of RAF history and heroes, crystal chandeliers and fine food and drink.  And it’s a time to say goodbye to our newest life-long friends.

​

Expect some walking in the war rooms.

​

Day 14 - London England - Depart for home from London Heathrow (LHR)

​

(Itinerary subject to change based on unforeseen local closures or events)