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RetiredGreyFox

RetiredGreyFox

RetiredGreyFox

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Joined
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That's a tough one, they are all very significant.

If they had a trip visiting Sicily, I'd do that one because my taid (grandfather) is buried at Catania war cemetery. Having said that, I probably wouldn't because I'd be a blubbering mess the whole trip.
 
Yadda said:
That's a tough one, they are all very significant.

If they had a trip visiting Sicily, I'd do that one because my taid (grandfather) is buried at Catania war cemetery. Having said that, I probably wouldn't because I'd be a blubbering mess the whole trip.
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I had quite a few moments with tears.
 
I reached the Jersey one and didn't even scroll down further than that. I love Jersey and would very happily do that tour.

/edit - I've now looked further and the U-Boat one would come a very close second because I've probably been to all the locations described in the GJ tour.
 
I would go to the one's with a family connection, but like Yadda says I would be an absolute mess.

My Grandad was involved in the D-Day Landings, The Battle of Arnhem, Crossing of the Rhine and The Liberation of Bergen-Belsen. Signed up at 16 and was 17 when he stormed Gold beach on 6th June 1944.

And they say kids grow up too fast nowadays.
 
I enjoy solo travel too much to usually appreciate guided tours, but something that combines specialist knowledge like these would be of interest. My thoughts would be:

Stalingrad: eastern front less well known, relatively speaking, than the western. The sights around Volgograd would be interesting to take in, as Stalingrad is such an iconic aspect of WW2; along with some of the lesser-known locales in the tour. Biased here as I am a Russophile, but Moscow and the Kremlin are always worthy of a visit.

Peenemunde: similar to above, it offers a deep look at one of the less well-known facets of WW2, yet the development and usage of the V1 and V2s are such an iconic part of wartime Britain and the impact they had on the home front. I'd find Prora interesting; I read a book recently based around the key sights of Nazi Germany, which also discussed the attitudes to repurposing Nazi sites. A proportion of the Prora complex has been given over to private enterprise I believe, and I'd be curious to see the juxtaposition of that and how it has (been allowed to) develop.

The U-Boat tour would be pretty cool too.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I had quite a few moments with tears.
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I bet. I don't think anyone with an ounce of humanity in their heart could visit those places and not get something in their eye.

Passchendaele would be too much for me too I think. My Great grandfather fought there with the Royal Welsh (and survived), as did the Welsh poet Hedd Wyn, although he wasn't so fortunate.

Here's one of his war poems, with English subtitles, entitled "War". Warning: there aren't many laughs in it.

 
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Flaevius said:
I enjoy solo travel too much to usually appreciate guided tours, but something that combines specialist knowledge like these would be of interest. My thoughts would be:

Stalingrad: eastern front less well known, relatively speaking, than the western. The sights around Volgograd would be interesting to take in, as Stalingrad is such an iconic aspect of WW2; along with some of the lesser-known locales in the tour. Biased here as I am a Russophile, but Moscow and the Kremlin are always worthy of a visit.

Peenemunde: similar to above, it offers a deep look at one of the less well-known facets of WW2, yet the development and usage of the V1 and V2s are such an iconic part of wartime Britain and the impact they had on the home front. I'd find Prora interesting; I read a book recently based around the key sights of Nazi Germany, which also discussed the attitudes to repurposing Nazi sites. A proportion of the Prora complex has been given over to private enterprise I believe, and I'd be curious to see the juxtaposition of that and how it has (been allowed to) develop.

The U-Boat tour would be pretty cool too.
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Problem with a Stalingrad guided tour is I reckon it would be extremely missguided instead. You'd probably be better reading a few impartial factual books for places to go and going on your own anyway.
 
These tours look very interesting, never knew they existed. Definitely booking one for my wife and I.

Fun fact: during my apprenticeship in Holland, one of the jobs we did was converting some u boat pens in Ijmuiden to a supermarket warehouse. At the back of one of the pens was a huge blast hole from where it was hit by a bomb. Instead of repairing it, it was turned in to a fire escape. Very interesting to see.

Happy birthday @SexyGreyFox :)
 
rebel rebel said:
I would go to the one's with a family connection, but like Yadda says I would be an absolute mess.

My Grandad was involved in the D-Day Landings, The Battle of Arnhem, Crossing of the Rhine and The Liberation of Bergen-Belsen. Signed up at 16 and was 17 when he stormed Gold beach on 6th June 1944.

And they say kids grow up too fast nowadays.
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I had a great uncle called Jack Baskeyfield who got a VC at Arnhem
 
Yadda said:
Have you been? If not, is it somewhere you'd like to visit?

I've just been reading about your great uncle. A memorial tree has been planted in his honour at Oosterbeek.
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No way.

I had another coincidence on the tour last week.
I was discussing stuff with a young man from Nottingham and mentioned I had a great uncle who was a VC from Stoke and he immediately said "Jack Baskeyfield?".
Of course I needed to know how he came out with it and he said his mate who he knows through the military and Fire Service, who is more my age, actually posed for the statue at Festival Park!
He told me his name so I went onto Facebook and he was already a friend but I have lots of friends because of a music site I run.
I went on his profile and a brilliant young guitarist friend of mine was the first picture that came up and it turns out it is his son - small world.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
No way.

I had another coincidence on the tour last week.
I was discussing stuff with a young man from Nottingham and mentioned I had a great uncle who was a VC from Stoke and he immediately said "Jack Baskeyfield?".
Of course I needed to know how he came out with it and he said his mate who he knows through the military and Fire Service, who is more my age, actually posed for the statue at Festival Park!
He told me his name so I went onto Facebook and he was already a friend but I have lots of friends because of a music site I run.
I went on his profile and a brilliant young guitarist friend of mine was the first picture that came up and it turns out it is his son - small world.
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I don't blame you. I think the only way I could visit any of the places I have a family connection with is on my own. I plan to visit Catania one day. My parents went when I was very young but I didn't go with them. I remember it tore my mother to pieces though, she was only 3 when her father was killed and it was the first time she'd visited his grave.

That's a great story about the chance encounter you had on your trip. A very small world indeed! Great statue that, too.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I had a great uncle called Jack Baskeyfield who got a VC at Arnhem
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I just read his Wikipedia page, what a guy! The statue and portrait are both great. And it's a nice touch that his VC is displayed in a museum. My grandad passed away last year so I don't get my weekly fix of wartime stories anymore. And I've found that hearing or reading anything about the war now makes me quite emotional.
 
I'll show you another coincidence that looks too good to be accidental and has now got the Tour Guide and several geeks looking into it.
We were in Loos at the famous Killing Fields of Loos where Rudyard Kipling's son Jack may still be in a field or he could be in a grave that I saw (the jury are out).
The Germans were killing so many soldiers that they all decided to stop because it was sickening them and told the Brits to collect their dead & wounded and they'd got 4 hours before they started slaughtering again :(
Anyway, we're coming from North to South while I've got my Google Maps on and the building on the right crops up (it is a prison).
Some may get it and others won't but it got a few experts on the coach excited.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...af13e8163e490!8m2!3d50.45791!4d2.792788?hl=en
 
For me, the 75th anniversary D-Day tour.

I was over in Normandy for the 65th and it was incredible. On June 5th we did the Pegasus Bridge museum, and there was a load of the veterans there, and a group of about 30 kids, sitting in front of one of them absolutely silent as he talked to them about what happened. Lovely guys too.

Then we went to the Bayeux War Museum, another great one. Also visited the Bayeux War Cemetery.

June 6th. Did a couple of the beaches themselves. Gold and Omaha. Gold first as Omaha was very busy as there was a VIP event going on. Did the cliff top cemetery after the VIP's had gone and it was opened up to plebs like me. Shockingly huge. Met a London copper in full uniform who told us about the veterans parade that evening in Arromanches. Was total comedy trying to get the Veterans to get to the parade. Ended up being more like a bar crawl for them. But with the sun setting and the remains of the Mulberry Harbour there as well, it was memorable.

Did a few others things as well, but yeah, well worth going at that point.
 
I've been to the Somme for the past 2 years, staying on the edges and covering a lot of ground. This year I did a tour run by the chap who ran our B&B and although expensive was very thorough. I saw a few groups being led by people reading from cards and book giving little emotion or confidence in what they were saying. Our fellow clear lived and breathed it. One of the most profound moments was walking down Sunken Lane having watched the footage of the massive mine exploding under the German stronghold. Prior to the attack a long line of allied soldiers are sat along the lane waiting to go. Sitting in the same spot, looking out at their target at the same time in the morning as them was quite moving.

Sunken lane by Luke V, on Flickr
 
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My wife’s grandfather was an MC and bar with the London Regiment in WW1. He won the last one at Travercy Keep before being taken prisoner. A weird thing happened a few years back when I was looking through his old papers from then, he was writing reports on his men and in particular I was taken by his account of the death of his sergeant shot by a sniper.
I then googled her grandfathers name for the umpteenth time and went straight to a WW1 forum and was logged in as I was a member. The post I was directed to was made a few days earlier and it was by an old chap in Cambridge asking if it was possible to find details of his uncle, a sergeant killed at Travercy. I was able to contact him via the forum and sent him a copy of the report of his uncles death in battle.
A short while later we visited Travercy and the battle lines were still visible in the fields. We also visited the memorial where the sergeants name was engraved on the archway.

I’m a bit of a D-day fanatic and I’ve driven my poor wife crazy dragging her through Normandy lanes with a sheaf of maps in my hand.
 
In the 1990's my late wife and i moved in with her parents to look after them both. He was 105 at the time and she was 104. Although i had known them both for years and knew that he fought in WW1, he had never talked about it, not even to his wife.
One night just me and him were sat having a drink and chat talking about cabinet making (he was an antiques restorer before retiring). He suddenly change the subject to when he was at Verdun. I was more than amazed because i had asked him before about his WW1 experiences and got no where.
He was a Driver during WW1, that is he used to drive a team of horses pulling big guns up to and away from the gun battery's. The drivers had spent 2 days on the move to Verdun when they pulled up for the night along a road that had canvas stretched the length of the German side so as they couldn't see the movement of guns. They fed the horses, put the horses gas masks on them and then tried to settle down for night themselves. It was well below freezing, they had no tents, only a trench they had dug for themselves. About 2 in the morning the Germans started shelling them and a shell exploded just behind the next gun to his blowing the gun, driver and horses to pieces. He was covered in all sorts of horse and human remains....................................the first thing that came to his mind though was to put his hands out and get warmed up from the exploding shell. He always wondered why it was his friends and not him that got hit and that's why he had never talked about anything from WW1.
He died about a year latter and my wife and i visited Verdun the year after that. Even though her father had survived WW1, it was a very moving and yes tearful visit for both us. I for one will never forget our chats after the first time he started talking about it, a big big eye opener for me and just makes you think about what all out war really means.
 
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