Battlefield Travel - Exklusive militär-historische Reisen

The original catastrophe of the 20th century

The Great War was supposed to be the end of all wars. So an overwhelmingly large majority thought at least on the two sides of the fronts. But what remained was the memory of a senseless slaughtering, of devastated landscapes and lost years, the original catastrophe of the 20th century.

Still today, 88 years after the armistice, towns like Ypers, Vimy, Albert or Verdun are places which one meets with respect and memory, too. And even after 88 years the battlefield has hardly changed, nature still has not forgiven the rape of the artillery and the mine war.

The five-day journey to the foci of the war 1914 -1918 rolls up the West Front chronologically and geographically from the north to the south. From the mud- and blood-soaked battlefields of Flanders, to the Vimy Ridge, the place of birth of a whole nation, to the Somme and in the end to Verdun, the symbol of the German post-war trauma.

Historical background of the trip

When after years of mutual imperialistic politics characterized by rivalry, alliances, armament and crises, it required only a spark to blow up the powder-barrel. The spark was the murder of the Austrian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a Serbian assassin on June 28, 1914. The first troop transports of all war participating nations rolled to the fronts already on August 1.

After the Germans had begun their retreat at the Marne, a "race to the sea" developed itself to secure the important channel ports. On the one hand to save the reinforcements on the Allied side on the other hand for the capture of important ports for the German navy, particularly its submarines.

From this race resulted the first two Battles of Flanders around Ypers in October and November which refused the Germans the breakthrough to the French Channel ports. The trench warfare which should cost millions of soldiers life, started.
In 1916 the Chief of the General Staff von Falkenhayn decided on "Operation Judgement" which should "bleed the French armies white". But nothing should come of it. Already after few weeks it was clear that the losses of the French were in now way inferior to the Germans.

On July 1, 1916, the offensive of the British started at the Somme which should tire the German army and lead to a breakthrough after a similar pattern as in the case of Verdun. But again, nothing came of it since the British suffered enormous losses and did not manage to break successfully through the German trench system.

1917 started with the offensive near Arras which assigned a front sector of its own to the Canadians at Vimy. For the first time the Ypres and Somme experienced Canadian units should fight as one under their own command and conquer the Vimy Ridge that was considered as an impregnable position. Thanks to excellent training and a surprising variety of technological and tactical innovations they succeeded in this masterpiece after only few days.