Last Days of WW2

Location: Netherlands

Local departure by coach or Door-to-Door service, then to Holland for a two-night stay.

Location: 's-Hertogenbosch

<p><br/>Our tour begins in the Hertogenbosch area, looking at the battle that took place here in the autumn of 1944, following Operation Market Garden. We follow the story of the 53rd (Welsh) Division troops who captured the town. <br/></p><p><br/>We then discuss the static nature of warfare in the Netherlands in the winter of 1944/45, and move up to the area north of Arnhem where the Canadians fought in 1945. Here, visit Canadian memorials, the Canadian War Cemetery and its visitor centre at Holten, and look at where the Canadian fighting was at its most fierce in April 1945, which led to the liberation of the Netherlands the following month. <br/></p><p><br/>We also take time to visit the Memory Freedom Museum at Nijverdal, established to perpetuate the memory of the Second World War.<br/></p>

Meals: Breakfast

Location: Bremen

<p><br/>We depart the Netherlands and travel into Germany, following the advance of men from the 21st Army Group and the British 30 Corps as they took the war onto German soil. We see the battlefields around the Ems Canal, following the advance of British tanks in 1945 and the fighting at Lingen. <br/></p><p><br/>The day ends at Sage War Cemetery, where some of the earliest British casualties of WW2 lay alongside the dead from the final weeks of the war. <br/></p><p><br/>We then continue to our hotel in Bremen for a two-night stay.<br/></p>

Meals: Breakfast

Location: Becklingen War Cemetery

Today, we look at the end of the war in Germany in April-May 1945, visiting the Retham Battefield and large Becklingen War Cemetery where some of the final casualties of the conflict in the West are buried; among them, Edward Charlton VC of the Irish Guards. He was the last Victoria Cross of the war in Europe. We then visit the German Panzer Museum at Munster, a world-renowned museum with a major collection of tanks and armour from WW1 to modern times. Later, we visit Lüneburg Heath and see where Bernard Montgomery took the surrender of German forces in May 1945, visiting the memorial.

Meals: Breakfast

Location: Hanover

<p><br/>This morning, we visit Bergen-Belsen. A former Prisoner of War Camp, it became a Concentration Camp and work camp, and was the first one reached by British troops in 1945. For many veterans, it was a defining moment of the war where they understood what it was they had been fighting for. <br/></p><p><br/>We see the Visitor’s Centre, walk the site of the camp, and see the memorial to Anne Frank who is one of the most-known victims of the Holocaust, having been the voice for so many who died under Nazi tyranny. <br/></p><p><br/>Later, we visit Celle War Cemetery to see the graves of the men who fell in this area in 1945. Then, at Hannover, we discuss the air war over Germany in 1945, visiting the impressive Hannover War Cemetery where the men of Bomber Command are buried. <br/></p><p><br/>We then continue to our hotel in the Hannover area for an overnight stay.<br/></p>

Meals: Breakfast

Location: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery

We travel across the ground where British forces advanced in 1945 and go through the Rhineland area between Wesel and Xanten, discussing Operations Veritable and Plunder. We have our lunch period in Kleve, and then continue to the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, the largest British and Commonwealth Second World War Cemetery in Europe with over 7,500 graves.Later, we look at the Battle for Arnhem in 1945, seeing the Arnhem War Museum which tells the story of the whole war in the city.We then continue to the Arnhem area for an overnight stay.

Meals: Breakfast

Location: United Kingdom

Return home.

Meals: Breakfast