2014 Battlefields Tour Have you ever thought of visiting the Gallipoli and Western Front battlefields to walk in the footsteps of your forbears and other places where tens of thousands of Australian Diggers fought and died in The First World War? If you answered ‘yes’ then you have the opportunity to join with other like-minded people, many of whom are descendants and family members of World War One Diggers on a 14-days tour departing Sydney in April 2014 for an emotional, enlightening and educational tour of a lifetime. Kerry Phillips Great Events Newcastle has invited the highly regarded head historian of Hunter Valley Military History, David Dial OAM to host this fantastic pilgrimage to the First World War battlefields of the Gallipoli Peninsula and The Western Front in the lead up to the Centenary of Anzac and the First World War of 1914-1918. The tour’s itinerary includes two days touring Gallipoli battlefields and cemeteries and five days on the Western Front in northern France and Belgian Flanders where many Hunter Valley men fought and died alongside men from the 30th, 33rd, 34th, 35th and 36th Infantry Battalions. On the Gallipoli peninsula we’ll be walking over the battlefields where mainly Hunter Valley men fought in the trenches at Shrapnel Valley, Lone Pine, Johnston’s Jolly, Courtney’s and Steele’s Post, Quinn’s Post, Baby 700, The Nek and Walker’s Ridge. Lieutenant-Colonel Leslie Morshead of the 33rd Infantry Battalion was at Gallipoli with the 2nd Infantry Battalion. Extracts from some of the Diggers’ letters and diaries will be read at each place visited to give an insight of what these men experienced almost one hundred years ago. We won’t be able to visit every cemetery but we will be visiting the 4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery, 7th Field Ambulance Cemetery, Baby 700 Cemetery, Beach Cemetery, Lone Pine Cemetery and memorial, Quinn’s Post Cemetery, Shell Green Cemetery, Shrapnel Valley Cemetery and Walkers Ridge Cemetery. Flying out of Turkey we fly to Paris where we travel to Ypres in Belgium to commence our tour of the Western Front battlefields. Our first visit will be the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate Memorial held each night at 8.00 pm. The Menin Gate Memorial to the missing contains the names of more than 54,000 officers and men of the Commonwealth who died in Belgium and whose graves are not known. Over three hundred Hunter Valley men are listed on the memorial’s walls. On the Belgian Flanders leg of the trip we’ll be touring the battlefields where Hunter Valley men fought at Passchendaele, Zonnebeke, Polygon Wood, Hill 60, Messines and Ploegsteert. Again, as at Gallipoli, we won’t be able to visit every cemetery but we will be visiting Tyne Cot Cemetery (where Captain Clarence Jeffries VC of the 34th Infantry Battalion is buried), Railway Dugouts Burial Ground at Zillebeke, Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery at Poeperinge, Nine Elms British Cemetery, Strand Military Cemetery at Ploegsteert and the German Cemetery at Langemarck. Crossing the border into northern France we’ll be touring the battlefields of Fromelles, Bullecourt, Bapaume, Mouquet Farm, Pozieres, Albert, Sailly-le-Sec, Le Hamel, Villers-Bretonneux, Amiens, Mont St Quentin and Peronne. The cemeteries and memorials we’ll be visiting include Bonjean Military Cemetery at Armentières; the Australian Memorial Park, VC Corner Australian Cemetery and the new Pheasant Wood Cemetery at Fromelles; the Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge; the Slouch Hat memorial and the Australian Memorial Park at Bullecourt and the Warlencourt British Cemetery at Bapaume; the Villers-Bretonneux Australian National Memorial and military cemetery; Adelaide Cemetery, Heath Cemetery at Harbonnières; The Beacon Cemetery in Sailly Laurette; the Australian 3rd Division Memorial in Sailly-le-Sec, Bray Military Cemetery in Bray sur Somme; Abbeville Communal Cemetery; the 1st Division Memorial, the Windmill Memorial and the Tank Memorial at Pozieres; Pozieres British Cemetery; Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension; Hem Farm Military Cemetery and the 2nd Division Memorial at Mont St Quentin. One of the highlights of the trip will be attending the 2014 Anzac Day Dawn Service at Villers-Bretonneux. This special battlefield pilgrimage is believed to be the first tour with a specific Hunter Valley focus ever put together and should prove to be an emotional and enlightening tour for the participants who will retrace the footsteps of the Anzacs and the Diggers. To register your expression of interest and for further information contact Kerry Phillips Great Events at 144 Hannell Street, Wickham. Telephone 02 4940 2266 or visit their website at greatevents.au Hope you can join us as together we walk in the footsteps of the Diggers!
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 06:03:11 +0000
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