Our Recent Tours RIFLEMAN TOURS NEWSLETTER. Summer 2013

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1 RIFLEMAN TOURS NEWSLETTER Our Recent Tours Summer finally arrived with beautiful sunshine and a lengthy heat wave to boot. We had a number of tours running consecutively over June and July and the weather was extremely kind to us other than a brief blip during our June Somme and Ypres tour. Our first tour in June was a five day private tour for Robin and Sally Bailey. We toured the Western Front paying particular interest to Ypres, the Somme, Vimy Ridge and finishing the tour at Cambrai which was especially significant to Robin. His Grandfather had served in the Howe battalion of the 63 rd Naval Division and had been taken prisoner at Flesquieres, Cambrai during the German spring offensive. The final part of this tour included a night s stay at Cambrai and a visit to the Flesquieres Salient. It now sits in a barn at Flesquieres and we were delighted to visit this impressive piece of military history before departing for Calais and our trip home. Within days we were back on the road with a small group heading to Normandy and a tour of the D-Day beaches. This group consisted six gentlemen of whom four had been on tour with us before. George Lowe and Aidie Bond were on our very first Rifleman tour back in 2010 and it was great to have them along again. We visited the five landing beaches and the American and British drop airborne drop zones. No trip to Normandy would be complete without a visit to Pegasus Bridge and Sainte-Mère-Église. We stayed at our usual hotel, the Kyriad in Caen, where Briac the manager and his staff took excellent care of us. Summer 2013 Above: the Easy Boys Company Above: the Baileys and Tony of Rifleman Tours with the Deborah tank Below: the front of the tank We stayed at the Hotel Beatus whose owner Philippe Gorczynski, as well as being an inn keeper, is a military historian who specialises in the Cambrai area. He is also the man who discovered the D51 (Deborah Tank). This relic of the Battle of Cambrai was rolled into a pit and buried after being incapacitated in the battle. Philippe traced the area where the tank was buried and in 1998 excavated it. The group got on so well together they formed their own company Easy Boys Company and are planning a tour together next year of the Western Front. Left: Bernie laying a wreath at Bayeux Cemetery on behalf of the group Below: George on the landing craft used in the film Saving Private Ryan

2 Page 2 Our recent tours continued One of the Normandy group Andrew Howard is a very keen photographer and having toured the Somme and Ypres with Rifleman Tours in 2012 has published a book of his photographs from the tour. This can be purchased via the internet by following this link b/ ypres-the-somme Every year in June we carry out a tour of the Somme and Ypres Salient and among the guests this year were a number who had personal visits to make. Nigel and Shirley Downes were placing personal tributes at the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme and Duhallows Military Cemetery in Ypres. Shirley placing a wreath at Duhallows Cemetery (left) and Thiepval Memorial Also with us was Alan Manze. Alan s uncle was Rifleman Joseph Manze who was killed in 1917 on the Somme. Had he survived, Joseph would have been one of the heirs to the Manze Pie and Mash shop empire. This will not mean much too many of you but if you live in London I m sure you will be well aware of the shops that span the capital. In early July we put together and guided a tour for the 16 th Signal Regiment. There were 40 members and for four days we toured the Somme and Ypres Salient. Upon their arrival they took part in the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate forming a guard of honour for the participants who laid their wreaths at the end of the poignant ceremony. Each section studied different battle sites of the Somme and Ypres Salient and at the end of the day a discussion group chatted about the events that took place. At Tyne Cot two of the regiment traced relatives who were buried in the cemetery. One of them was a Brigadier General who had only arrived in Belgium five days prior to his death leading his brigade. It was an honour to guide this group of fine young men and women and I was delighted to receive the message below when we returned home. On behalf of 16th Signal Regiment and 230 (Malaya) Signal Squadron I would like to thank Tony for his excellent tour of Ypres Salient and of The Somme. From the very first piece of communication to the final farewell in Ypres, Tony's service was first class. As for the tour, Tony put together a highly polished and professional bespoke package for 40 members of my team, and continued to dazzle them all with the romance of his stories and the passion that he harnesses for military history. Thank you Tony and best wishes for the future. Above: the group from the June Somme and Ypres Tour Below: Alan Manze and Tony from Rifleman Tours taking part in the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate Above: Alan at his Uncle s grave Left: the 16th Signal Regiment taking part in the Last Post Ceremony

3 Page Tours still available to book Mons and Ypres 4-day Tour, Friday 25 - Monday 28 October 398 per person* When the First World War broke out in August 1914 the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) sailed for Europe and gathered its forces at the town of Maubeuge south of Mons. It was 80,000 strong and consisted of two corps and one cavalry division. It was a small army when compared with the German and French. However, it had one advantage; it was an army of professional soldiers. On the morning of the 23 rd August elements of the German First Army collided with the BEF s II Corps on the canal in front of Mons. It was here that the British army would fight its first battle of the war. This action cost the British and they eventually had to withdraw. But, the expert British rifle fire took its toll on the German columns extracting a loss of over 5,000 men. At Mons we will see where the first shots and last shots of the war were fired. We will also visit the canal where Dease and Godley held off the advancing German army with their Vickers machine gun, an act that won them both the Victoria Cross. We shall also visit St Symphorien Cemetery and pay our respects to the first and last soldiers killed in this terrible conflict. At Ypres visit the many cemeteries and memorials in the Salient from Tyne Cot, the largest British War Cemetery in the world with 11,908 graves, to Vancouver Corner (scene of the first gas attack) and the magnificent Brooding Soldier Memorial. The Ypres sector saw fighting every year of the war which included three major battles (First, Second & Third Ypres). Known as Wipers to the British troops, Ypres was more or less destroyed during the four years of war. The Cloth Hall ruins stood as a defiant iconic landmark to the passing troops on their way to the front. Based in the beautiful town of Ypres, just minutes from the Grote Markt and a short stroll from the Menin Gate. Armistice 4-day Tour, Sunday 10 - Wednesday 13 November 425 per person* Be part of the Armistice Day Ceremonies on the 11 th November. There is a special commemoration held at the Menin Gate which is relayed to the main square via video link. Join in the Poppy Parade from the main square and attend the Great War Remembered concert at Saint Martin s Cathedral. We complete this day of remembrance by attending the special Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate at 8.00 pm in the evening. On day three we will conduct a Behind the Lines tour visiting the many Battlefields and memorials of the Ypres Salient starting with Tyne Cot Cemetery, Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery as well as Essex Farm where John McCrae wrote 'In Flanders Fields'. We also spend time in Popperinghe visiting Talbot House and the Death Cells where many met an unjust end. Tour price includes VIP tickets to the Great War Remembered Concert, entrance to Talbot House and lunch on the tour day. All our tours include tour day lunches, executive coach/minibus travel (complimentary drinks and light snacks served on board), museum entrance fees and the services of a top class guide and tour manager. * price quoted is based on two people sharing; single supplement available on request.

4 Page 4 Reburial of South African Soldiers at Tyne Cot Three unknown South African soldiers, who died while fighting on the Western Front in 1917, were re-interred during a ceremony at Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium on 9 July The ceremony was open to the public. The service was organised by the South African Embassy, located in Brussels, and the South African Force. The remains of the three soldiers were found near a brick factory in Zonnebek e at the end of Indications are that these soldiers were never formally buried, but that their graves were covered during battle by mortar/artillery fire. Based on objects recovered, including unit insignia, as well as the location of the find, the remains were accepted as that of three unknown South African Soldiers that formed part of the 4 th Regiment South African Infantry. Five headstones in Fromelles rededicated The newly identified soldiers, Private William Barber, Private Thomas William Francis, Private William O'Donnell, Private Thomas Henry Bills and Private John Gordon McKenzie, were among 250 Australian and British First World War soldiers who were recovered from a mass burial site at Pheasant Wood in France. The soldiers were recovered by a joint Australian Army and UK Ministry of Defence project team in 2009, before being reburied in the newly constructed Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery in (pictured below) The Commonwealth War Graves Commission erected new headstones with the identified soldiers' details, ahead of a dedication ceremony wh ich took place during the annual commemoration of the Battle of Fromelles on 19 July The identification of the five soldiers was confirmed by the joint Australian Army and UK Ministry of Defence project team. The Battle of Fromelles was the first major engagement fought by the Australian Imperial Force in France. The 5 th Australian Division suffered more than 5500 casualties (killed and wounded) in twenty four hours. The British 61 st (South Midland) Division reported over 1,500 killed, wounded and missing. No tactical advantages resulted from the action.

5 Page 5 Churchill exhibition at Bletchley Park to be scrapped The chief executive of a museum dedicated to the Second World War code-breakers has sparked anger after announcing plans to remove Winston Churchill memorabilia. Iain Standen said having a collection about the wartime prime minister was 'not synonymous' with Bletchley Park, and likened it to having 'Charles and Diana mugs in someone's house'. The trustees plan to take down the collection of pictures, posters, books, pamphlets and busts because they are not seen as relevant. Churchill once described the code-breakers who cracked the German's Enigma code as 'the geese that laid the golden eggs - but never cackled.' The Churchill exhibition will be replaced with stories of the people who worked at the intelligence-gathering station near Milton Keynes during the war. Mr Standen said the Churchill Collection was not museum-standard but just 'one man's obsession'. It is feared other displays such as the Pigeons At War exhibition could also be scrapped following a 7.5million restoration of the site. The code-breakers wrote to Churchill in 1941 pleading for more resources. The prime minister ordered immediate action to make sure they had everything needed to carry out their vital work. But Mr Standen said: 'Bletchley Park is moving into a very exciting period in its development as we begin to undertake a partly publicly funded major restoration project which will start the process of turning the Park into a national, and in time we hope world class, heritage attraction. Part of this process involves working towards achieving national museum accreditation and as such we no longer have the space or are in the position to play host to a number of privately owned collections which are not focused on the World War Two Code-breaking story. 'As a result we have reviewed the terms on which a number of such collections occupy space in the Park and have recently written to all outlining the specific conditions pertinent to each. 'Winston Churchill s unerring support for Bletchley Park and the value of signals intelligence during World War Two, were clearly vital to the success of the operation. 'However, an individual s collection of Churchill memorabilia does not tell this story. 'In short this is an interesting and exciting time for the Bletchley Park Trust, but with such developments as we are currently undergoing, there will inevitably be change. 'This may not please everyone, but the Bletchley Park Trustees are clear that what we are doing at the moment is necessary and important for the long-term future of the Park.' During the war Bletchley Park housed the government's secret Code and Cypher School, which obtained signals intelligence by breaking high-level encrypted enemy communications. It was also home to the Colossus machine, the first programmable electronic computer. The Colossus and the Turing Bombe Machine, an electromechanical device designed by English mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing, were used to break codes created by the German Enigma encryption and decryption machine, which is also on display at Bletchley Park. The importance of the code-breaking operations at Bletchley Park cannot be underestimated. They produced vital intelligence that played a huge part in swinging the war in the Allies favour. By 1944 British and American commanders knew the location of 58 out of 60 German divisions across the Western Front. In addition, a great deal of information was decrypted about General Erwin Rommel s Nazi forces in North Africa. The German commander enjoyed a great deal of success against the British but with the help of intelligence from the codebreakers General Bernard Montgomery's British forces were able to drive him back in Above: Winston Churchill Far left: Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire Below: Wrens working on the Enigma codebreaking operation in Bletchley Park

6 Page 6 Canadian soldiers embraced the supernatural, uncanny and ghostly on the front lines, historian says One of Canada s top military historians has published the first serious study of the First World War s eeriest phenomena: frontline soldiers accounts of ghosts and other supernatural experiences amid the bloody battles of Europe almost a century ago. Author Tim Cook, the Canadian War Museum s leading expert on the conflict, has unearthed a host of poignant stories involving bizarre apparitions, life-saving premonitions and other unexplained happenings that shed fresh light on the unending mental and physical strain of fighting on the edge of No Man s Land. Writing in the Journal of Military History, the field s most prestigious scholarly publication, Cook describes how the knife-edge existence of Canada s troops in battles such as Passchendaele and Vimy Ridge led some men to believe they d seen dead comrades resurrected and wandering the scarred landscapes of the Western Front. In other cases, soldiers claimed to have seen angels hovering over battlefields or felt an otherworldly presence that somehow silenced enemy guns to allow escapes from vulnerable positions. As a threshold borderland, the Western Front was a place for such spectral thinking and haunting, where the strange was made ordinary, where the safe was infused with danger, where death was natural and life fleeting, writes Cook. The unnatural, supernatural, uncanny and ghostly offered succour to some soldiers, who embraced these grave beliefs to make sense of their war experience. Cook vividly describes how the living and the dead were gruesomely mingled in the muddy trenches of wartime France and Belgium, where fighting men became martyred corpses in the blink of an eye and the unrelenting carnage encouraged a heightened awareness of the thin line between life and afterlife - or, at times, a perceptual blurring of the line. Grimy, exhausted soldiers, covered in mud, or asleep on a fire step could easily be mistaken for the dead, Cook observes. It was not lost on the soldiers that they seemed to be digging extended graves - the trenches - to protect themselves from deathdealing artillery shells. And, in sick irony, the artillery bombardments often buried the living and disgorged the dead. One well-known story from the war is highlighted in Cook s study: Cpl Will Bird s moving description of the night his brother s ghost saved him from certain death. Bird, who had a postwar career as a journalist and published his war memoirs under the title Ghosts Have Warm Hands, had written about a night after the 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge when he was suddenly stirred from deep slumber under a tarp he d been sharing with two fellow soldiers near the front line. Before dawn, warm hands shook him, Cook recounts. Wiping away sleep, he looked with amazement at his brother Steve, who had been reported missing in action in Steve led him through some ruins, when he suddenly rounded a corner and disappeared. Cpl Bird, settled for sleep in the new location, dismissed his brother s ghostly appearance as a hallucination. But in the morning, he was stunned to learn that the two other soldiers under the tarp had suffered a direct hit from a high explosive shell and were dismembered beyond all recognition. Another Canadian soldier wrote to his mother that, One night while carrying bombs, I had occasion to take cover when about twenty yards off I saw you looking towards me as plain as life. Dumbstruck, he crawled nearly to the place where your vision appeared as a German shell slammed into the place he had just left behind. Had it not been for you, I certainly would have been reported missing, the soldier wrote. You ll turn up again, won t you, mother, next time a shell is coming? Cook said his research has always focused on how these young men coped and endured at the front. Embracing magical or mystical explanations for what happened during the war was a common response for some soldiers who lived in a space of destruction and death. As I read the memoirs, letters, and diaries of soldiers I kept encountering the uncanny, the supernatural, and even the spectral. Above: two Canadian soldiers examining a skull Below: Will Bird s war memoirs Above left: Canadian National Vimy Memorial Below: Canadian soldiers

7 Page 7 Beckham called up for duty: Government to ask star to lead 1914 Christmas truce memorial match David Beckham could captain his country one more time against Germany to commemorate the centenary of the 1914 Christmas Day truce. The retired footballer is to be approached by the Government to mark the day British and Germans troops laid down their weapons and played football on No Man's Land. The Government wants Beckham, who acted as an ambassador for the 2012 Olympics and 2018 World Cup bids, to lead a team of British players and serving soldiers in a football match against the Germans on Boxing Day The game would be shown live on television as a way to capture the interest of the public in the centenary of the start of the First World War. Sir Bobby Charlton and Franz Beckenbauer, who faced each other in the 1966 World Cup Final, may also be among the football legends invited to join the event, according to The Sunday Times A Dept of Culture spokesman told the newspaper: 'The unofficial Christmas truce on the Western Front in 1914 was a poignant moment during the Great War. We are keen to see it marked in some way as part of the centenary project and staging a football match feels like the right way to do it.' The Christmas Day truce saw more than 100,000 British and German soldiers lower their guns and leave the trenches in the mud of No Man's Land. In some areas, soldiers on both sides merely held their fire throughout the day. But elsewhere, troops climbed out of their trenches and exchanging gifts and handshakes and playing football. The match finished 3-2 to the Germans, according to the diaries of Kurt Zehmisch, a soldier in the 134 th Saxons. More practically, soldiers used the time to reclaim their dead from no man's land and bury them behind the lines. In the evening, soldiers of both sides sang carols and fighting only resumed when fresh battalions were moved into the line. Members of the panel include authors Sebastian Faulks, author of Birdsong, and Pat Barker, who wrote the Regeneration Trilogy. Their First World War novels have become a staple of school teaching on the books and poetry inspired by the war. There will be six state occasions, school trips to battlefields and exhibitions backed by historians and the Government, which has set aside 50million for the commemorations. A number of debates about the reasons why the war started are also planned. Almost a million British soldiers and civilians lost their lives in the four-year conflict. Don Mullan, of the 1914 Christmas Truce Project, is on a 1.25million fundraising mission to build a pitch and small stadium at Messines for the centenary game. After the event, children from all over the world would be invited to play there to strengthen international ties and understanding. Footballs have previously been placed at the site next to the wooden cross that commemorates the truce. (see photo right) Defence Minister Andrew Murrison said in February that a football match was 'a nobrainer in terms of an event that is going to reach part of the community that perhaps might not get terribly entrenched into this'. Speaking to The Guardian, Dr Murrison said: 'It had no real relevance to the outcome of the war but at that deeply, intensely, personal level, it is something that people really do latch on to. Above: Xmas Day truce of 1914 showing German and British soldiers socialising Left: impromptu battlefield matches recreated in this picture at Dale Barracks between German soldiers and the Royal Welsh Fusiliers Below: German and British troops swapped gifts and sang carols together

8 Page 8 Medal given to homing pigeon who was first to deliver news of successful landings sold at auction A lost bravery medal awarded to a homing pigeon that was the first to bring news of the D-Day landings back to Britain has been discovered after 69 years. The Dickin Medal - the animal version of the Victoria Cross - was won by a bird called the Duke of Normandy that was dropped behind enemy lines with Allied paratroopers hours before the invasion. The men were to capture bridges at the eastern end of the Normandy bridgehead and head towards the beaches to link up with the main invasion force. Cooped up in a small cage, the grand cock breed was released by a paratrooper at 6am on June 6, 1944, with a message attached to it relating to the success of the drop. As was normal with World War Two carrier pigeons, The Duke flew back to its owner s loft who then contacted the War Office. In spite of strong winds and being shot at by German riflemen, the bird arrived in one piece 26 hours later, bringing vital news of the momentous operation. The Duke was one of 32 pigeons to be awarded the Dickin Medal for their heroics in the war. It was thought his gong had been lost over the course of time but it turned up in a box of old badges bought by a collector 25 years ago. Even then, the unnamed owner had no idea what it was until several Dickin Medals were featured on an episode of the BBC s Antiques Roadshow last month. He dug it out and has made it available for sale at auction, with a pre-sale estimate of 10,000. It actually sold for 8,000. Steven Bosley, of Bosley s auctioneers of Marlow, Bucks, said: As radio silence was of utmost importance during the paratrooper part of D-Day, the role of racing pigeons became crucial. Many of them were kept in small cages and were dropped with the Allied paratroopers of the 21 st Army Group but The Duke was the first to arrive back with news. Once the paratroopers could ascertain the success of the operation, they released at 6am with a message. In spite of bombs and bullets, northerthly gales in the Channel and heavy rain, he returned to his loft in 26 hours, 50 minutes. The information he brought back was crucial to the War Office in London. During World War Two, the Allied Pigeon Service was set up and involved over 200,000 birds being given to the armed services. Those that flew over Nazi-occupied Europe were part of the Special Pigeon Service. In 1943 Maria Dickin, founder of the People s Dispensary of Sick Animals (PDSA) set up the Dickin Medal to honour the bravery of animals in the war. The citation for The Duke s states: For being the first bird to arrive with a message from paratroopers of the 21 st Army Group behind enemy lines on D-Day. Mr Bosley said: A private individual from Kidderminster bought the medal by chance 25 years ago when he bought a box full of military badges. He didn t know anything about it until he saw one featured on TV recently. Dickin Medals awarded to pigeons are rare because there are only so many of them so they do command good prices. The Royal Pigeon Racing Association owns five of these medals. Stewart Wardrope, general manager of the association, said: The Germans had special teams called Hawk units based along the coast which were snipers and their job was to try and shoot England-bound pigeons out of the sky. All the pigeons were interested in was getting home but they regularly had to fly through shot and fire to do that. Above: The Dickin Medal was won by a bird called the Duke of Normandy that was dropped behind enemy lines with Allied paratroopers hours before the invasion Above: the Dickin Medal Left and below: the D-Day landings

9 Page 9 Solved: Mystery of missing WW1 German submarines uncovered after explorers find remains A vast ocean graveyard of British and German vessels sunk during the First World War has been discovered by a team of explorers. A total of 41 German U-boats, as well as three English submarines, have been unearthed at depths of up to 50 feet close to England s southern and eastern coasts by a team led by underwater archaeologist Mark Dunkley. The find is expected to clear up a number of mysteries about the fates of ships that sank fighting in the conflict. Mr Dunkley, who is employed by English Heritage, said: 'We owe it to these people to tell their story. We divers only approach the boats with great caution. Venturing inside would definitely be extremely dangerous.' He says his team will now to use robots to cut through the hull to find the mysteries that lie within. 'Perhaps we'll find a cup or a sign with a name on it,' Dunkley told reports German news magazine Der Spiegel. Several U-boats with the German Imperial Navy are still officially considered missing to this day. Lists provide details on which of the U-boats the German naval forces had lost by the time the war ended in November 1918, but the fate of many is still shrouded in mystery. One such mysterious vessel is UB 17, which vanished with its crew of 21 men. Another is the UC 21, commanded by naval Lieutenant Werner von Zerboni di Sposetti, a minelayer that disappeared with all 27 hands. Dunkley believes he has found both. He now hopes to find memorabilia that will give a clue to the identity of those who died in what w e r e u n d o u b t e d l y horrendous and terrifying circumstances. The Germans used the submarines to inflict heavy losses on merchant shipping in the Great War. They only had 28 of the relatively new U-boats at the beginning of the war, but as the technology proved its effectiveness production was ramped up significantly. 'Many have forgotten how successful the German U-boat fleet was for a time,' added Dunkley. However, the risks to the crew were enormous. Torpedoes often misfired, killing crew, and aiming them was a difficult and uncertain process. If they missed, the slowmoving vessels were easy prey for warships, which would ram them or use depth charges. Nearly half of the 380 U-boats used by the German navy in World War I were lost. Above right: German U-Boat U-118 attracts the attention of locals after washing up on the beach at Hastings, The ships were labeled 'baby killers' by British propagandists Right: the underwater archaeologists Above: a U-boat stranded on the south coast of England in 1917 Left: two German submarines, the U35 and U42 surface off the Mediterranean coast

10 Page 10 Your Country Needs You - the myth about the First World War poster that never existed The picture is credited with encouraging millions of men to sign up to fight in the trenches, many of them never to return reports The Telegraph. But new research has found that no such poster was actually produced during the war and that the image was never used for official recruitment purposes. In fact, it only became popular and widely-used after the conflict ended. James Taylor, who has researched the history of recruitment posters, said the popular understanding of the design and the impact it had was almost entirely mistaken. It s widely believed to have been the most popular design of First World War, instrumental in recruiting millions of men. But the truth is that simply wasn t the case. It s an urban myth, he added. As part of his research, he studied the official records of the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, the body responsible for recruitment posters, in the National Archives at Kew. These documents provided details of the production of almost 200 official recruitment posters produced during the war and indicated which ones were deemed popular. The so-called Your Country Needs You poster is absent. He also analysed thousands of photographs of street scenes and recruitment offices from the period in search of the image, again, without finding it. In his new book, Your Country Needs You, Mr Taylor traced the picture back to its origins, on 5 th September 1914, barely a month after the start of the war. Paving stones to honour WWI heroes Victoria Cross recipients will be at the heart of plans to mark the centenary of the First World War, it has been announced. Special commemorative paving stones will be laid in the home towns of all those in the United Kingdom awarded the Victoria Cross for valour "in the face of the enemy" during the conflict as part of efforts to mark the centenary of the Great War next year. As part of centenary events, new measures to restore war memorials across the country have also been announced. Other plans include a programme of cultural events, candlelit vigils and a service of commemoration attended by Commonwealth leaders. The centenary of Britain's entry into the war will be marked on August 4 next year with a service of commemoration at Glasgow Cathedral for Commonwealth leaders on the day after the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. On the same day, a ceremony will be held at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons, Belgium, where men believed to be the first and last Commonwealth casualties of the war are buried. A candlelit vigil will be held at Westminster Abbey at the end of the day with the last candle extinguished at 11pm - the moment war was declared. Other events include a programme allowing two pupils and one teacher from every statefunded secondary school in England to visit the battlefields of the Western Front. One year from the start of the four-year centenary programme, new measures announced include help to restore war memorials up and down the country, as well as Victoria Cross recipients being honoured. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has announced a national competition to design specially-commissioned paving stones which will be presented to councils in the areas where VC recipients of the First World War were born. There will be 28 stones unveiled next year to commemorate medals awarded in 1914 and other stones will be unveiled each year up until Each stone will also have a QR reader, which people can scan using a smartphone to reveal details about the recipient. Mr Pickles said: "It is our duty to remember the British and Commonwealth troops who lost their lives fighting in the Great War and we are determined to make sure their bravery for King and Country is not forgotten."

11 Page 11 Lethal relics from WW1 are still emerging Nearly 100 years have passed since the end of the First World War, but its legacy lingers. In the former battlefields of the Western Front farmers are still at risk from millions of unexploded munitions that remain buried within the soil. It is 9am, and the sun has yet to burn the mist off the rich flat farmland of western Flanders when Dirk Vanparys and two other Belgian soldiers leave their base for their daily tour of the old Western Front. They drive in a white van down straight lanes flanked by vast open fields of wheat and potatoes broken only by the occasional copse or line of poplars. There is no hint of the horrors that engulfed this tranquil landscape nearly a century ago; nothing to remind the casual visitor of the ghastly war of attrition fought in the nearby trenches of Passchendaele and the Ypres Salient. Nothing, that is, until Vanparys stops where a dirt track joins the road beside a brick farmhouse. There, piled on the grass, are 12ft-long shells encrusted with mud and rust two more than the farmer had told them of in a telephone call the previous day. Vanparys, 47, appraises them with the expert eye of one who has spent two decades dealing with these lethal relics of the First World War. From their shape, length, calibre and fuses he quickly determines that eight of the shells are British and four German. This is real British steel, he says admiringly as he holds up one and explains that the British Army used higher quality steel that is less susceptible to corrosion. He suspects that three of the shells contain mustard gas or other chemical agents, but sees no sign of leakage. From marks on the casings he concludes that some were fired but failed to explode, while others were never even fired. Vanparys and his team put on gloves, open the back of the van, and gently place these reminders of that long-ago conflict sideways in a large tray of sand so that the detonators in their noses would not hit something hard and explode if the vehicle were involved in a head-on collision. Vanparys tells me that a particularly muddy shell once slipped from his hands and landed on his foot but failed to detonate. A little later the van stops beside a ditch, next to which stands a concrete electricity pylon riven with holes. In three of those holes a farmer has left, as promised, two British artillery shells and a bottle-shaped 3in Stokes mortar. Next, from the back of a cobbled farmyard, the team collects no fewer than 37 shells of various makes and sizes, some containing gas, and about 50 grenades turned ochre by their long entombment in the earth. Vanparys s team goes about its work calmly and methodically, but carries protective suits and gas masks in the van just in case. I know what I m doing, and the more you do it the easier it is, Vanparys, who has also served as a munitions disposal expert in Afghanistan and the Balkans, says. At the next scheduled stop the team finds nothing. A farmer had called to say he had left a shell on the roadside but it is not there. It seems that someone has taken it for a souvenir. It happens, he says. People take these things away without knowing what they are. The explosive danger is little, but the toxic danger is great. His colleague Geert Denolf adds that unscrupulous locals sometimes take shells from the roadside, clean them up and sell them to unsuspecting tourists in the markets of Ypres. It will be a booming business during the centenary years, he predicts. Booming in more senses than one, perhaps. By the time the team completes the last of its 13 stops it has collected 73 shells and 57 assorted grenades and fuses. Most had been found by farmers in their fields, a handful by construction or utility workers digging holes, a couple by people working in their gardens. It s a fairly typical day, he says as his team returns to its base with its haul. Nearly 100 years on the Belgian and French authorities are still clearing up the debris of the Great War. In fact their so-called Iron Harvests are bigger now than they were several decades ago, largely because the farmers have heavier and more sophisticated tractors that plough much deeper, and because more construction work is taking place in the towns and villages along the old Western Front. Above: Fields surround Passchendaele New British cemetery Below: Dirk Vanparys of the Belgian army ordnance disposal company collects First World

12 Page 12 Lethal relics from WW1 are still emerging continued Last year alone the Belgian military collected 105 tons of munitions, many containing toxic chemicals, and the French police, who run a similar collection service out of a base near Arras, 80 tons. The year before the combined total was 274 tons. Sometimes, when a longlost arms cache or depot is discovered, the total is higher still. In 2004, for example, 3,000 German artillery shells were found at a single site in Dadizele, east of Ypres. Such large volumes are not quite as surprising as they sound. Between 1914 and 1918 the opposing armies fired an estimated 1.45 billion shells at each other, of which about 66 million contained mustard gas or other toxic chemicals such as phosgene or white phosphorus. As Vanparys says, The three richest countries in the world at that time [Britain, Germany and France] went bankrupt in four years through producing so much war material. A century on the casualty figures also continue to rise. Every year or two a farmer detonates a shell while ploughing his fields and destroys if not himself, then at least his tractor. More would be killed or wounded were it not for the fact that they almost always plough in the same direction, giving the buried shells glancing blows that gradually nudge them into line so their noses are less likely to be hit. The Belgian government has paid out nearly 140,000 in compensation over the past three years for damage caused to tractors, ploughs and combine harvesters by WWI munitions. In the Ypres area 358 people have been killed and 535 injured by First World War munitions since the guns finally fell silent in 1918, and the victims are certainly not all farmers. In March this year seven labourers, policemen and firemen were taken to hospital when a German gas shell exploded during cable-laying work in Warneton, south of Ypres. In October 2007 Jozef Verdru, 58, from Loker, was killed when a shell exploded while he was having a bonfire in his garden. Luc Ervinck, 40, a collector of militaria, was blown up in 2000 when a shell he was examining in his garden shed in Essen exploded, detonating several others in his collection. Vanparys and his team recount numerous stories of close shaves in recent years: of five gas workers who ended up in hospital after striking a shell while laying a pipe; of a shell that was brought into a food factory in a load of turnips and which then exploded inside a processing machine; of a farmer they found choking on phosgene gas after cracking open a shell while laying irrigation pipes near Ploegsteert; I saved his life, Vanparys says. On another occasion, in the town of Zonnebeke, he found a utility worker staring in horror at the great yellow blisters erupting on his hand and arm after he had picked up a shell with a black liquid seeping out of it. The worker had not realised that mustard gas was liquid. Vanparys is part of the Belgian army s 63- strong Dienst voor Opruiming en Vernietiging van Ontploffings-tuigen (DOVO), or Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, which is responsible for the collection and destruction of the munitions since the Belgian practice of dumping them at sea was banned in the 1980s for environmental reasons. Its fencedin base near the town of Poelkapelle covers 280 hectares of former battlefield that are heavily wooded now, but remain riddled with old German bunkers and the clearly visible indentations of craters. Above: Farmers have become accustomed to uncovering unexploded shells as they plough their fields Left: Nuclear, biological and chemical suits are worn when handling suspected poison gas shells. Below: Gino Lambrecht, another member of the disposal squad, surveys crates of shells stored before their destruction

13 Page 13 Lethal relics from WW1 are still emerging continued The base also houses for identification purposes an extraordinary reference library of munitions containing hundreds of different shells, mortars, howitzers and grenades including British Flying Pigs (a mortar bomb) and the first primitive bombs dropped from airplanes. These purveyors of death and destruction come in every shape and size snub-nosed and pointed, finned and smooth, German, British, French, Polish, Russian and Italian all testimony to the grizzly ingenuity of man. The biggest are British 15in and German 38cm shells, each the size of a very large milk churn, and Vanparys has found several of those in the fields over the years. The base is always on standby, sending out one or more collection teams every day, and responding to about 2,000 calls a year. The munitions the teams bring back are taken first to the Abfikzone, an open-sided shed surrounded by high earthen berms in case any explode. There each is given a bar code so they may be tracked. Then, rather alarmingly, men with hammers chip away the dirt and rust so the shells can be identified more easily and will eventually detonate better. Those that contain high explosives only are taken to a storage shed whose concrete floor is covered by about 70 wooden crates. Each crate holds shells containing up to 50kg of explosives, and each morning six crates are taken to a nearby clearing in the woods. An M6 anti-tank mine and a lump of TNT are put in each of them. They are lowered in to freshly dug pits four metres deep, and a bulldozer covers them in mounds of earth. At 11.30am daily a siren sounds to alert anyone living nearby, and then the crates are detonated one by one. It is an impressive sight. The explosions shake the concrete viewing bunker 200 metres away. A second later the earth erupts in flames, and a great cloud of black smoke billows skywards. For a moment you sense the terror that the soldiers of the Great War must have felt as they cowered in their trenches. After the sixth blast a second siren sounds the all-clear and a team member measures the air for traces of arsenic. The process is repeated at 4pm each day, a rate that just about allows the base to keep up with the incoming flow of munitions; the crates cannot contain more than 50kg of explosives because the ground shocks would destabilise the homes of people living nearby. The base stops the detonations in winter because the shock waves are amplified in wet ground. Shells suspected of containing toxic chemicals are harder to deal with. They are taken to another building where they are X- rayed. Those found to contain solid chemicals such as white phosphorus are blown up in a contained detonation chamber made of reinforced steel elsewhere on the base. Those containing liquid chemicals are analysed by a device called a neutron-induced gamma ray spectrometer to determine whether they hold mustard gas, phosgene or something else. They are then drained phosgene at freezing temperatures into blue plastic barrels containing neutralising agents, and driven to Antwerp for destruction. It is hazardous work, and becoming steadily more so as the shell casings corrode with time. The DOVO s insignia depicts a falling shell, and its motto is Pericula non timeo ( I do not fear dangers ). A memorial on the base lists the names of 23 members of DOVO Company killed since 1944, including those of four men who died when shells stockpiled on the base exploded in But Vanparys finds it satisfying and fulfilling. We are an army company working for civilians. We are taking the danger out of civil society and we are doing it well, he says. At first his work frightened his wife, Anja, but now she s used to it and knows I m very careful, he adds. It is also a job with no end in sight. A century on, hundreds of millions of shells are still buried in the rich earth of Flanders and northern France. The job will not be finished when I retire, Vanparys says. Maybe in another 50 years it will be. Above and right: Photographs taken on our own tours of shells of The Iron Harvest Above: Old munitions are detonated twice daily

14 Page 14 The German War Graves Commission Whenever we visit Langemark German Cemetery many of the group ask if there is a German organisation similar to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It is called the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge). It was founded as a private charity on 16 December 1919 as the recognised [German] Commission under the war graves provisions of Article 225 of the Treaty of Versailles. Its main goals as laid out in is statutes are to guard the memory of the victims of war and violence, to work for peace among all nations and to guarantee dignity of men. Today, it looks after about 832 military cemeteries in 45 countries with about 2.5 million dead and its work is carried out by 8,000 honorary and 566 full-time employees. Now that the Cold War is over, the Volksbund has access to Eastern Europe, where the bulk of World War II German casualties occurred. Since 1991, 188 World War I cemeteries and 330 World War II cemeteries in eastern, central and southeastern Europe have been reconstructed or rebuilt and about 759,110 bodies have been buried in new graves. Everyday maintenance of German war cemeteries in France is looked after by the Service d'entretien des Sépultures Militaires Allemandes (the "German Military Burials Maintenance Service") known as S.E.S.M.A. As it is mainly a charity organisation it is not as well funded as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and much of the maintenance is carried out by volunteers who are drawn from cadet forces and school children. Recently some maintenance work fell to the German Army Cadets; three groups of cadets were visiting in succession and each spending two weeks to bring the cemetery up to scratch. As well as basic ground maintenance they also set about refurbishing the headstones that lie flat in the grounds of the cemetery. Each of these German headstones weigh an extraordinary 46 kilos. Yet for decades, this chapter of history was hardly taught at German schools. If a relative could be found at least one of the 46,000 soles here would not be forgotten. Many of German soldiers buried here were young students cut down by British rifle fire during the first battle of Langemark in November 1914 known to us all a 'The Slaughter of the Innocents'. Like many of our own young dead they had all brought into the myth that the war would be over by Christmas and felt the need to be involved and although we still class them as the enemy they, like our own dead, should not be forgotten along with this war that destroyed a generation in many cases for the gain of just a few yards. Probably done out of hatred after Belgium s occupation during the Second World War, there were strict restrictions on German war memorials. Hundreds of German burial sites were left after the conflict but by the 1950 s the Belgium Government ordered all the bodies to be concentrated in no more than four sites, of which Langemark is one. The headstones that have been refurbished by the German cadets were not allowed to stand like the Commonwealth soldiers and crosses were strictly forbidden. During WW2 Adolf Hitler spent two days visiting the Ypres Salient battlefields. His tour included the town of Ypres and Langemark military cemetery where he had a plaque put above the graves. Deutschland muss leben auch wenn wir sterben muessen translated reads Germany must live even if we must die. The plaque remains today. Above: Langemark German Cemetery Below: Statue of the Mourning Soldiers in the cemetery Below: German Army Cadets maintaining the cemetery Whilst carrying out the maintenance the cadets are encouraged to look for relatives. This is good as it is very rare to see a floral tribute placed on any of headstones and a tragedy that hardly anyone comes here. Least of all the Germans themselves, many of whom know very little about what happened. Germany lost nearly two million men in the First World War, the greatest number of casualties suffered by any nation.

15 A small selection of the testimonials from our recent tours I would just like to thank Tony of Rifleman Tours for a great long weekend in Normandy, on a fantastic D- Day tour. Making every port of call interesting and memorable with a vast and superior local and historical knowledge, you surpassed yourself with all the facts and figures, combined with a friendly approach, to prove yet again you are one of the best independent tour operators and guides in the business. Thank you! George Lowe, London This was my first trip with Rifleman Tours, but will definitely not be the last. The whole trip was superbly coordinated by Tony Eden, who really knows his military history, and brings the battlefields to life with his excellent and informed narrative. Superb value for money, if you want the best trips to discover Britain's military history, look no further than Rifleman Tours. Dave Adams, Abingdon, Oxon Summer 2013 Page 15 We selected Rifleman Tours because they were the most efficient in responding to us and creating our own tour. My Grandfather was captured at the Battle of Cambrai in 1918 having signed up the year before at the age of 40! So we wanted to understand the context of the WW1 and find where he had fought and been captured. Tony picked us up from home and spent the week with us driving round the various battlefields and cemeteries in what was an exceptionally interesting and fascinating tour. We ended up at the Flesquieres Salient where he was captured and had the privilege of seeing one of the tanks used in the Battle of Cambrai which a local hotelier had dug up!! Tony was extremely knowledgeable and at every cemetery he was able to choose one or two graves and explain something about that individual. A really great experience and I thoroughly recommend Tony. Dear Tony, I would just like to say how much I enjoyed my second Rifleman's tour, D Day and the Normandy beaches, from the frankly breath taking landing of gliders at Pegasus bridge and the battle of Merville battery,the sunken concrete caissons at Arromanches testament to great engineering and fore thought, the Longues-sur-mer battery complete with 150mm guns, Brecourt Manor an early action for Richard Winters and members of Easy Co st Airborne. The trip was an expertly lead experience of great knowledge with a small group which had marvelous camaraderie, a lovely hotel in Caen which was ideally suited for the beaches. Wreath laying at Bayeux Cemetery and a visit to Dieppe was a nice touch. A special mention must go to our bus driver, well driven that man! Aidie Bond, Surrey Robin and Sally Bailey, Swindon A thoroughly enjoyable trip to the Normandy beaches, battlefields, memorials and cemeteries of WW2. There were six strangers on the trip who very quickly became friends and we have already organised another trip with Rifleman Tours next June to Ypres/Somme. Tony the tour director and guide made us all very welcome and ensured we were well looked after especially with the coffee and onboard snacks. His knowledge of the area and information of the battlefields he provided was excellent. He will be joining us when we go to Ypres/Somme for our reunion. I would highly recommend this trip to people interested in WW2 history. My personal highlight was to be asked to lay a wreath of Poppies at the English Cemetery at Bayeux. Very many thanks Tony and I will see you at the reunion next year. Bernie Collins And finally We hope you enjoyed our rather largenewsletter and if you would like to join us on one of our tours please contact us are filling up. All tours include executive coach/minibus travel, complimentary drinks and snacks served onboard, museum entrance fees, tour day lunches and, on top of all that, the services of a top class guide and tour manager. We take great pride in providing a personal service at an extremely high level on our small group tours. For more testimonials, please see our website. We hope to see you on one of our future tours. Tony and Allison, Rifleman Tours info@riflemantours.co.uk Phone: Website: