Mark Banning Battlefield Tours
Touring the Western Front is an immensely personal exercise but inevitably there are places which have become almost essential for visitors to see and understand.

However, it’s always good to be prepared to visit some of the less well-documented and explored locations, and I can help provide you with bespoke itineraries if you are wishing to follow a particular unit or individual.

Depending on your own interest, the following battlefield locations within each of the highlighted areas could be incorporated. Don’t forget that even for a first time visitor it can be more rewarding to have a more in depth look at a certain region or series of actions rather than trying to cover over four years of activity in a few days.

Many regular battlefield visitors will still find new places to visit and areas to study even after years of visiting the Western Front. Tours can be conducted in a manner suitable to you, but all battlefield visitors gain much more if they are able to get out and stretch their legs – walking at least some parts of the battlefields allows you to see things in the way the soldiers would have done.

Depending on your available time, combinations of locations can be put together to suit your own specific interest.

Although I am happy to work with you and travel in your car or coach, please bear in mind that I am not a Tour Operating Company. I can advise on accommodation and travel plans if required, and for larger groups, up to 16, I work closely with Backroads Touring Company, a long established London based tour operator.

I have a PCV license, enabling me to drive a 16 seater minicoach.

There is no hard or fast rule as to what to see, but for most English speaking people, the following areas will be of interest:

 

Ypres Salient

Known as Wipers to the soldiers that fought here from between October 1914 and October 1918
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French Flanders and Loos

An area of great significance to the British and Australians that saw bitter fighting throughout the First World War
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Vimy Ridge and Arras

The scene of initial success and then bloody stalemate in spring 1917, the Arras battlefields are often overlooked in favour of the Somme or Ypres, but they provide some stunning visual treats
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The Somme

Quite simply it is impossible to cover everything that occurred in this region in just a day
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Cambrai

The Cambrai battlefields are probably most famous for the first massed use of tanks in 1917
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Mark Banning Profile