Spirit Of History - 5 Day Study Tour                                                               Main Website

The Battlefields of the Verdun and Argonne Area : France.

  The Agony of the 'Mincing Machine'

Verdun goes down in History as one of the most horrendous battlefields of the First World War. The losses were phenomenal, with over 750,000 casualties, of which 305,000 were killed on both side. After the war, the whole area was designated a red zone, which effectively meant that it was too polluted to use in the near future. Thus, it was left or planted with trees and the destroyed villages in the zone were never rebuilt. So even today, the scars of battle are still all too evident. Saving Verdun became a national obsession and the soldiers were sacrificed to this aim. The supply route came to be known as the Sacred Way, reflecting this quasi-religious feeling. Dante’s Inferno was seen as tame in comparison, indeed the soldiers named Verdun ‘The Inferno’, as well as other terrible epithets, such as Hell, The Mill and the Mincing Machine. Meanwhile the whole of France was encouraged to see Verdun symbolically as the beating heart of La Patrie and the slogan used by Joan of Arc, “Courage! On les aura” became a rallying cry.

• Why did the Germans put such a huge effort into attacking Verdun?
• Why did the French do likewise in defending it?
• What were the consequences of the bitter fighting for the war in general, in the short and the long term?

The Final Reckoning?

Meanwhile, not far away, another battlefield, as dreadful in its intensity, but without the national obsession, was the Meuse Argonne Offensive, one of the final battles of the war. The American ‘Doughboys’, under General Pershing, sustained grim losses here, in September 1918, as finally, with hugely increased numbers on the allied side, a million American soldiers had arrived, the war became one of movement. Along with the French and some British, the Germans were unable to hold the line. Official statistics declare
that the US First Army took 122,063 casualties, of which 26,277 were killed. German figures were similar.

• Why did the Americans sustain such heavy losses in a relatively short time?
• How far was the outcome of this battle a key offensive in ending the war overall?
• How important was American involvement in ending the First World War?


Come and find out the answers to these and other related questions, before you go the areas where these great events, many of them now forgotten, took place, where the impact of the fighting is still very much in evidence. Pay homage to the men who had to fight and died in these battles.

This Tour consists of:

1 1/2 days study in England: 1 night at a 3-4* hotel with pool and spa near Maidstone.

3 days guided visits to key sites in the Verdun and Argonne Area. 2 nights at a 2 or 3* Hotel in Verdun.

Saturday/Monday

• 9 – 10 am Arrive at hotel. (Friday/Sunday night’s accommodation can be arranged at an extra cost of £50 per head.)

• 10am start. Icebreaker activities. These are important as we want the group to get to know each other and interact before starting the course itself. Introduction to the study module.

• 12:30 Lunch.

• 1:30 Study activities. All course materials included.

• 3:30 Tea – Coffee Break. (Bedroom allocations, where required).

• 4:00 Study activities.

• 6:00 Free time. You can use the pool and/or spa facilities

• 7:00 Dinner

• 8:30 Fun study activities to reinforce earlier learning.

• 10:00pm Finish
   

Sunday/Tuesday

• 8.00 Breakfast

• 9:30 Study morning begins

• 10:45 Tea-Coffee Break

• 11:00 Study activities.

• 12:00 Lunch

• 1:00 Depart Hotel by coach for tunnel crossing to France.

• 2:00 Crossing

• 3:30 (local time). Coach to Reims, with comfort stops.

• 7:30 Arrive at hotel in Reims.

• 8:00 Walk to the Cathedral. Free time. Dinner at a restaurant of your choice in the town centre.
   

Monday/Wednesday

• 8.00 Breakfast

• 9: 00 Coach to Fort de la Pompelle, one of the forts encircling Reims during the War. It was in the front line throughout and saw bitter fighting. The Germans captured it at the start of the war, but it was won back in September 1914. Visit the National Museum there.

• 10:30 Coach to Verdun

• 12:30. Arrive in Verdun. Free time to wander around the town and get a Snack Lunch.

• 1:30 Meet at the Victory monument. This is a small museum in the town centre.

• 2:00 Coach to Fort Vaux. This is one of the many forts that were built to defend France from the Germans after the 1870, Franco-Prussian War. Visit cemeteries in the area.

• 2:30 Coach to the Ossuary at Douaumont.
  The Ossuary at Douaumont, built between 1922 and 1932, at a cost of 15 million francs, raised by the towns and villages of France. It contains the bones of over 130,000 men and there are 15,000 graves of identified soldiers. The Jewish Memorial also stands in this ground, with the new memorial to the Moroccan troops beside the site.

• 3:00 Short walk to Fort Douaumont. Visit the interior, which is partially open to tourists. You will get a sense of how the soldiers lived and died in this underground stronghold.

• 4:00 Coach to the Bayonet Trenches. This site is known as the possible grave of over 50 or so soldiers who were killed in their trench, with their bayonets fixed. Veterans and historians now believe that this memorial was set up as a sort of pilgrimage site to those who died in the area, rather an authentic historical incident. It certainly, however, has the power to move those who come to bear witness to the horrors that occurred in these hills.

• 4:30 Visit the Museum at Fleury, built on the site of the old railway station of the village of Fleury, one of the nine villages obliterated by the battles, never to be rebuilt. Today, the museum houses artefacts from the war and the history of the battles is fully explained in three languages.

• 6:00 Walk around the former village of Fleury.

• 6:45 Coach back to hotel in Verdun.

• 7:00 Evening free for dinner in Verdun.

• 9:00 Overview of the day- optional- in hotel bar

Verdun Memorial


Ossuary at Douaumont


Fort Douaumont Today


Tranchee des Baionnettes, with its concrete cover, built in 1922


Fleury Museum
 

Tuesday/Thursday

• 8.00 Breakfast
• 9:00 Coach to Le Morthomme and Cote 304. Guided walk between the two memorials. This area was the site from which the French shelled the German positions, thus making their capture a priority for the German Army.
• 11:30 Drive on to the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery to see the largest American Cemetery in Europe. Talk by the Warden.
• 1:30 Snack Lunch en route back to Verdun.
• 2:30 Coach to the Bois de Caures, where Col Driant has a memorial where he fell and one near the road. Walk to the former village of Beaumont, passing Driant’s command bunker. About 2km, downhill!
• 4:00 Coach back to Verdun to visit the Citadel. A massive fortress, with over 4 km of tunnels. There you will be taken on a automatic cart through an variety of galleries. These are animated by audio-visual technology.
• 5.30 Free time to wander around Verdun.
• 7:00 Evening free for dinner in the town centre.
• 9:00 Overview of the day in the hotel bar – optional.
   

Wednesday/Friday

• 8.00 Breakfast
• 9:00 Depart hotel. Coach to Vauquois Hill, near Varennes, on the border between the Verdun and Argonne battlefields. This hill was the heaviest mined location on the Western Front, as well as extensively tunnelled, about 17km of underground shafts and galleries. There are trenches and even today, the line of craters left behind is an awesome sight.
• 11:00 Coach to the American Memorial at Varennes and Cheppy.
• 12:00 Return journey towards Calais.
• 12:30 Lunch at Clermont or other town en route
• 1:30 Depart Argonne area for Calais
• 6:00 Crossing
• 6.30 Back at hotel in Maidstone of railway station for home journeys.
   

Trench at Vauquois

Craters at Vauquois

 

Tours are planned for;

April              28^th 2008    Monday

September     15^th 2008    Monday
 

See Tour Dates page for further information

The cost of the tour is £495.

This includes all meals in England (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and BB in France, guest speaker, all travel in a luxury coach, all museum entrances and all the study activities with specially prepared educational packs designed to go with our itinerary.

The group will be 36 persons or less. There will be two teaching groups, if numbers are over 18. Each class will be small enough for everyone to participate in activities and discussions. We will mix people around, so you meet everyone in the larger group

The price does not include lunches and dinners in France, as you will be free there to choose your own restaurants or cafes.

Our Company Insurance is included. However, you need your own holiday insurance, as well as your EHIC - European Health Insurance Card (formerly E111) in case of personal injury requiring hospital treatment (or adequate insurance cover). See booking terms and conditions.

The tour by itself is also available without the educational package at £375.

Alternately, the study weekend in England can be attended full board, without the foreign travel, at a cost of £160.

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