Marion, thank you for those kind words but also for perfectly summing up what these trips are about. To my knowledge I have no family who fought in either WW1 or WW2 but for me the trips are about learning more about what our servicemen and women experienced and honouring the sacrifices they made for us with a great many paying the ultimate sacrifice. The knowledge that Clive has is breathtaking and what he doesn’t know really isn’t worth knowing. He brings the trips to life with the way he imparts this and makes them both interesting and thoroughly enjoyable. The best part of these trips though is when we visit a site which means something to someone in our party, whether that be a graveyard, a memorial to those fallen or indeed a small patch of land by a crossroads in a small French village where a battle was fought and Clive is able to fill that person in on what happened and what their relative experienced. I remember at the Arras Memorial just this summer when one of our group found the name of their lost relative amongst the thousands of names inscribed on the walls there of the fallen with no known grave and saw what it meant to them and that one moment encompassed exactly why, for me, these trips are so enjoyable and relevant.
i thank everyone who comes on these trips as without you they wouldn’t be possible and I for one am grateful for your support.
This is a trip i've been meaning to take for a few years now having done it quite a while back. I was always staggered by the sheer brutality of it all when visiting Point du Hoc, the craters and smashed concrete. If you have a chance, go.
I’m taking this old girl (my 1940 W.D. Matchless, all original and some of its history says that it was in Normandy in 1944) out to Normandy on DDay 2020 we’ll be there from 4-8 June, otherwise I would have gone on this trip. If any lifers are in two minds to go to Normandy just do it, it’s a real eye opener and humbling experience, have a great trip !
Michael and I are discussing with our wives sommer holiday at the moment and if we are able to join the tour. We are both really interested in this trip.
Comments
i thank everyone who comes on these trips as without you they wouldn’t be possible and I for one am grateful for your support.
I am disappointed as i would like to go but already in France for a wedding that weekend.
thanks B, had seen that and have pm'd Sarge.
**update** - just 12 places remaining
Article by promising young historian about last trip but mentions the next one at the end
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5dc985675ef5e/remembering-those-who-gave-their-life-during-the-first-world-war
If any lifers are in two minds to go to Normandy just do it, it’s a real eye opener and humbling experience, have a great trip !