6-Day Trip "English Military Heritage Tour"
Every year the "War and Peace Festival" in the south of England attracts more than 5.000 vehicles on display and more than 100.000 visitors over the weekend. It is by far the world´s most exciting event for military displays.| Day 1 |
Flight Cologne – London. We then drive to Wareham, Dorset. And check into the Springfield Country Hotel & Leisure Club. We continue to the Keep Military Museum in Dorchester, headquarters of famous regiments such as The Devonshire Regiment, The Dorset Regiment, The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, The Dorset Yeomanry, The Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry, The Dorset Militia, The Royal Devon Yeomanry and 94 Field Regiment Royal Artillery. After the visit we head for Weymouth. Portland Harbour and Weymouth were once the home port of the Royal Navy for her Atlantic and Channel Fleet and has been facing an ever changing naval history even before the two world wars. Portland Harbour was also an important embarkation port for Operation Overlord, the invasion of France in 1944. The port got a strong reputation because of its torpedo research and development centre. We then visit Fort Nothe and its unique Victorian guns. |
| Day 2 |
This morning we set off for Yeovilton, home of Naval Aviation and the Fleet Air Museum, calling in on the famous Bovington Tank School and its driver training area on the way. If conditions permit we will observe the 60 ton Challenger 2 tank driver training over the dreaded “knife edge” and through deep water. The Royal Corps of Signals Museum is located in Blandford Camp in the beautiful Dorset countryside and only a stone's throw from the scenic and interesting Georgian Town of Blandford Forum. It is the national museum of Army communications and the exhibits and displays show the part that communications have played in the many wars and campaigns of the last 150 years. The Museum collection is regarded as being of National importance and the excellent Archives are recognised by the Public Record Office We then call in on the former airfield of RAF Tarrant Rushton, from which the serried ranks of Halifax tugs and Hamilcar gliders started to move off down the runway carrying elements of the 6th Airborne Division to Normandy on 6 June, 1944 and Operation Market Garden at Arnhem on 17 September 1944. After the war a fleet of massive Vickers Valiant and Victor V-bombers - predecessor of the Victor and the Vulcan - carried nuclear warheads against the Soviet threat during the height of the Cold War. We pay our respects a the memorial on the airfield before returning to Lulworth via the Royal Armoured Corps Gunnery Ranges, where we visit the ghost village of Tynham and discover why it was hurriedly abandoned Christmas Day, 1943, yet has a perfectly preserved church. |
| Day 3 |
Today we will spend all the at the Bovington Tank Museum, alongsdie the Kubinka Tank Museum in Moscow the largest facility of its kind in the world. Here you will find all kind of tracked vehicles from the very first, the Hornsby Tractor, to the latest vesrion of a Leopard II. Not to mention the world´s one and only drivabele Tiger tank. We will later return to Wareham for Dinner. |
| Day 4 |
We bid farewell to this delightfully pretty part of England and head east along the coast to Portsmouth, home of the Royal Navy for centuries. Here we visit the historic dockyard and go on board Admiral Nelson’s Flagship at the battle of Trafalgar, HMS Victory, still a commissioned Royal Navy warship. We also visit the Royal Navy Museum, HMS Warrior, the Mary Rose and take a boat across the harbour to visit the Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport. Check-in at the Hilton Portsmouth. |
| Day 5 |
Today we travel to the next highlight, the War & Peace Festival in Paddock Wood, Kent. Befor we get there we will check into the Ramada JarvisHotel in Maidstone. The festival at the Hop Farm is the largest of its kind in the world, featuring more than 3.500 military vehicles, from tanks to wreckers, from a Bedford 3-ton truck to a German Kettenkrad. The best re-enacting groups from all over the world present famous battles from World War II. We guarantee you that you have never seen such an event in your life before. The War & Peace festival like the Tankfest is a MUST for the military history enthusiast. |
| Day 6 |
Drive to London and fly back to Germany |