The Western Front stretched all the way from the North Sea coast of Belgium to the Swiss border, covering over 400 miles. During our tour we can help you explore many of the key issues that affected those serving there as well as the key battles which took place along this front line. We can focus on any of the four major battles, which were fought in Flanders Fields, where more than 250,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers gave their lives and/or The Battle of the Somme, which started on the 1st July 1916 and by the end of the day, the British had suffered over 60,000 casualties.
For four long years Flanders Fields was the scene which epitomised the horrors of the Great War and at the heart of the Salient lies Ypres, where each evening the ‘Last Post’, the traditional final salute to the Fallen, is still played in honour of the British Empire soldiers who lost their lives.
The Battle of the Somme saw one of the largest battles of the Great War, it was not the decisive breakthrough it was intended to be and for many this is the battlefield that epitomizes the horrors of war, symbolising the futility of trench warfare.
Key Subject Knowledge
- Medicine and medical evacuation
- Women and the First World War
- Diversity and the range of troops that served and where they came from
- Technology and how it changed over the war
- The Pals Battalions
- Daily life in the trenches
- The relationship between the Home Front and the Western Front
- Propaganda and communication
- Commemoration and legacy
Also available supporting elements of wider Humanities (geography, English, social sciences and citizenship)
- The battlefield and the physical landscape
- War poetry and war artists
- Decision making in the British Armed Forces and the relationship between politicians and Generals
- The different faiths that were in the British Forces
