Band of Brother's tours

Kathy, I've also been researching WW-II tours in Holland (especially "Market Garden") but most that I've found so far are very expensive and more suitable for groups of four or more. As I'll be travelling solo, those won't fit for me. I've just about resigned myself to renting a car and visiting the sites on my own, as that appears to be the most realistic and cost effective option. I'll be anxious to see what kind of replies you get!

Can I interest you in World War I? Loads of places to get to easily for WWI....

Nigel, I'll probably have a look at WW-I sites at some point in the future, especially as one of my Grandfathers served in France at that time. However there are several WW-II sites that I'd really like to see, so I'm going to focus on those for the next few trips. I haven't been to Duxford or Bletchley Park yet, so trying to fit those in if possible. My tentative travel plans for 2011 may include a tour of Ypres or one of those areas, so I may also get a chance to visit a WW-I site on the next trip. Of course, Vimy is a sacred place for most Canadians so I hope to get there at some point, and also Dieppe. Too many places to see and not enough time or money to visit them all! Thanks for the tip! Cheers!

.....as we ring in 2011, it is only 3 years away from the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War/WWI. I hope it will perk up interest from the public in that war and the huge losses suffered on both sides. I find WWI sites particularly sad. The men and women who fought have been lost from the collective western memory. There are some lessons still to be learned from WWI.

Yes, I truly believe that we would not have had the awfulness of WWII if WWI had been settled better. WWII in Europe was really WWI part II.

There's at least some monuments around Arnhem, but from what I saw (briefly), there didn't appear to be much battle field preservation... which probably wouldn't even be possible, because it was an urban battle. There was at one time a tour of the Battle of the Scheldt out of Antwerp, but I'm not sure it it's still run. There's a British company that offers a multi-day tour of the Ardennes, but I don't know too much about it. The battlefields of Ypres and Mons from WWI are better preserved than their WWII counterparts in Belgium. There's at least one tour you can take out of Brugge to Ypres. For a great museum with half of its large collection devoted to the world wars, check out the Royal Museum of Military History in Brussels. And don't forget the grand daddy of them all, Waterloo.

Seeing some WWI sites can help put those of WWII in perspective. Several of the major battlefields of WWII in northern France and Belgium are fairly close to those of WWI. It would be easy, for instance to visit Ypres or Verdun enroute to Bastogne.

Henri Mignon, a child during the Battle of the Bulge, gives WWII tours in the Bastogne area. We had booked him for a tour this past September, but he got sick so we never got to meet him. He is highly recommended, and based on e-mails and phone coversations, he seems like a very nice guy. He has a web site just google his name. We ended up touring the Bulge area on our own. Our favorite thing was seeing the Easy company fox holes overlooking Foy near Bastogne. There is a very good Bulge museum in Bastogne and a fantastic one in Diekirch, Luxembourg, about 40 minutes from Bastogne. The area is very scenic with lots of attractive little towns and castles, and the driving is easy.

There are many monuments in The Netherlands but not many battle fields that were preserved for the reason Tom mentioned. Still there are some interesting places to visit. The Airborne Museum Hartenstein in Oosterbeek just out of Arnhem is interesting. Informative film on Market Garden and plenty of displays in the building. If you go on down south of Arnhem to Best there is another museum called the Wings of Liberation Museum. It is in a remote place and having a car would help to visit here. I did visit with public transportation so it is possible if you have no car. There is one room where you watch a presentation of Operation Market Garden while sitting in old airliner seats. A number of other displays and weapons from WWII. This site could be visited in 2-3 hours. Just a little walk up the road is a monument to PFC Joe Mann of the 101st who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously. He was killed when he threw himself on a grenade to save his buddies. This after he had been wounded 4 times during the battle. There were other sites that I wanted to see especially in the areas where the 101st fought but ran out of time.

Thanks for the information on Mons; the war cemeteries and the battlefield site there are of particular interest to me. Yes, I most certainly agree with the description of the Waterloo battlefield site. That is definitely one place where you need a car to get around that battlefield to see the numerous monuments, museums, and the specific sites, which will takes up a whole day of one's attention to the battlefield's particulars.

Thank you for all the good information. I'm developing an plan that includes driving through the Ardenne Forest, stopping in Bastogne and visiting several cemeteries. I may not get to as many battlefields and museums that I would like. So I will stop and pay my respect to the soldies who are buried in Meuse-Argonne, Verdun, Lorraine and Ardennes American Cemetery. Again, thank you.

Another American cemetery that may interest you is the one in Luxembourg at Hamm just outside of Luxembourg City. General George S. Patton's Third Army HQ's was located in the city of Luxembourg and he is buried at this cemetery. It looks like it may fit into your route without going out of your way too much if you haven't been cemeteried out by then. I like to visit as many as I can to pay my respects and it is interesting to note the ages, ranks and home towns.