Salamanca and Corunna battlefield tours

No doubt keenness to avoid the Olympics has been a reason why our Salamanca Anniversary and Retreat to Corunna battlefield tours have proved so popular. Or it could be that the inimitable Major Gordon Corrigan is our expert?

The Keep Military Museum, Dorchester

I took some holiday last week and found myself in Dorchester where I spent an enjoyable couple of hours in the Keep Military Museum.  Whilst the museum has been partly seduced by the modern methods of presentation, it is pleasing to see that traditional presentation has not been abandoned either.  Some of the exhibits which took my attention were a 25 pdr, a map plotting all the bombs, by device, dropped in Dorset during WW2, and a magnificent diorama of the battle of Plassey.  And do you know where the last British mounted charge took place?  Well if you have been on our War in the Desert tour to Egypt, the chances are that you drove right past the site en-route to Sidi Barrani.  On 26 February 1916, three squadrons of the Dorset Yeomanry and one of the Bucks Yeomanry charged a Turkish rearguard (armed with Maxim machine guns).  At a cost of only 32 killed and 26 wounded, they inflicted nearly a thousand casualties and captured the enemy general. Find out more about the battle of Agagia at http://www.keepmilitarymuseum.org/middleeast/outline.php? . Better still, why not visit this superb museum. I think that future tours to Egypt might incorporate an additional stop, once we have figured out exactly where the battle took place.

War and Peace

Just finished Dominic Leiven's superb 'Russia vs Napoleon'. It is a truly seminal work with much original research. And concurently I watched the 20 episodes of BBC's 1972 adaption of Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' with Anthony Hopkins. Its very dated and probably percevied as 'slow' by today's standards, but the Austerlitz, Borodino and Retreat episodes are particularly worthwhile - real snow and frozen breath - no Snowworks in those days.
Its all good prep for The Cultural Experience's bicentenneray battlefield tour to Russia in September 2012 - see http://www.theculturalexperience.com/battlefield_tours/napoleon_1812.php and www.theculturalexperience.com

Been busily preparing a speech on consumer financial protection in the travel industry to give at the International Guild of Battlefield Guides AGM(yawn - I hear you!). But I spent most of the latter part of 2011 writing a dissertation of the matter and I wanted to pass on the fruits of my labours before they left my brain forever. Actually there are alot of 'battlefield tours' companies out there that don't offer the financial protection that the EU package directive and the UK package travel regulations require of them - naughty, naughty. And in the light of the recent Thomas Cook scare there is every reason to be careful when you buy travel services at the moment. Anyhow I won't bore you any further - you can read the content of a recent speech on consumer financial protection  that I gave last week on the website of The Cultural Experience (they offer high quality battlefield tours, don't you know!)

Setting up the 2012 battlefield tour programme

After what seems to have been months of hard work; historical research, creating itineraries, checking practicalities and availability, liaising with guides and tour managers, writing the copy, sourcing suitable images and helping with the overall design – I am pleased to announce that  I signed off the final proofs for the 2012 tour brochure. And I can tell you that my shoulders feel considerably lighter.

We have got plenty of new tours to whet your appetite as well as many familiar ones. And some new guides too. We have Mick Holtby taking us on a battlefield tour to India in search of Wellington but also to Plassey and Kohima. Gordon Corrigan will be traipsing over the battlefield of Salamanca on its 200th anniversary and following Sir John Moore to Corunna. I’ve got a couple of new Napoleonic trips lined up: the 1809 battles around Vienna and Napoleon’s 1812 campaign from Smolensk to Moscow. Fred Hawthorne will be leading a new Western Theater American Civil War battlefield tour and John Drewienkiewicz will be taking us around the 1866 Austro-Prussian Warbattlefields. Gary Sheffield has a new General Haig tour on the Western Front and I am pleased that Robert Kershaw has agreed to lend his expertise to our Great Patriotic War and Berlinb attlefield tours. Patrick Mercer has devised a really in-depth battlefield tour around Monte Cassino, whilst we welcome Chris Pugsley who has created his own Operation Mercury battlefield tourto Crete. And a final mention to Tony Smith who will be guiding our Falkland Islands battlefield tour.