Introduction Amazingly, this the 100th Blog post I have written and I would like to thank everyone who has come along on my journey and will use this milestone to reflect on the stories. This post highlights some of the family stories and other tour milestones. The map shows many of the post locations, the red markers are family stories and the blue markers are battlefield sites. Click on the interactive map to get an overview of the story and links to any posts you may have

Introduction During my previous trips to Normandy, I had visited all of the D-Day beaches except Sword Beach, and I wanted to correct that oversight. Sword is the easternmost beach and probably the least explored. The US beaches of Omaha and Utah have plenty of visitors because of the US Marketing Machine, Gold Beach has the Mulberry Harbour and Juno Beach is the Canadian Landing zone. A ferry from the UK lands at Ouistreham, but most British Visitors usually head straight pa

Introduction I had visited Normandy several times, so this time, I concentrated on major German Defensive installations along the Normandy coast that I had not previously seen. I also threw in the British Normandy memorial. They have a seasonal display called Standing with Giants and this was my first chance to visit while the display was present. British Normandy Memorial The Memorial Surprisingly, until recently there was no British Memorial in Normandy. On the 75th Anniver

An interactive map of the Hussars’ journey is available here. Introduction After a grand trip to the tiny country of San Marino, my daughter Rachel and I were back on the trail of Uncle Norm Kightley of the 8th Hussars in the River Battles that raged from mid September 1944 until the Canadians were recalled to Europe in February 1945. After fighting their way through the mountains for the entire Italian Campaign, once Rimini was taken it was supposed to be great tank country

Introduction This Easter, Rachel and I visited Italy, spending the week in the beach town of Rimini. Throughout our travels we have reached an exchange rate of competing interests, this trip we negotiated two days of battlefield touring in exchange for one tiny country. Rachel is on a quest to visit all the tiny countries of Europe, so most of our tours involve at least one tiny country. This trip included a visit to San Marino, a teeny mountain top town that is completely em

Liberation March The Canadian Liberation March from Hoofdplaat to Knokke-Heist commemorates the 1944 liberation of Belgium and parts of the Netherlands by Canadian forces during World War II. It retraces the 33-kilometer route taken by the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade during Operation Switchback. The First Canadian Army played a pivotal role in liberating the Belgian coastal town of Knokke-Heist. Their advance began in Hoofdplaat, Netherlands, and pushed through villages lik

Clan Sullivan: Carol, Pat, Terry, Michael and Brian. Introduction We recently conducted a WWI Tour with my good buddy Terry Sullivan and his wife Sandy Cyr. We were joined by four of eight of Terry’s siblings: Michael, Brian, Carol and Pat along with Carol’s Husband Rod. We focused on the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and as part of the Caribou monument visit, we visited the significant locations for the Sullivan grandfather Corporal William Sullivan and Private Wallace Pike, g

Introduction We recently conducted a WWI Tour with my good buddy Terry Sullivan and his wife Sandy Cyr. We were joined by four of eight...

Introduction This fall we are going on a Caribou Trail tour to visit all of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Memorials in France and...

8th Hussars and the Argylls Rachel’s buddies Janaya and Beth were visiting for the weekend, so I took the opportunity to follow my Uncle...

As part of the deal that has allowed me to explore the battlefields from Rachel’s base in Maastricht, Netherlands while she teaches at the NATO school, we have gone somewhere a bit warmer and much sunnier for Christmas. Last year we had an excellent tour of Croatia and this year we toured Malta and Sicily. Malta was my idea mostly because of its importance in WW2, and Rachel tacked on Sicily as her 2024 New Year’s Resolution was to NOT be in the Netherlands at New Year’s. Th

This year was the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Belgium and the Netherlands and the 50th Anniversary of the Canadian Liberation March. The Canadian Liberation March commemorates the liberation of the Belgian town Knokke-Heist by Canadian forces in November 1944, part of the larger Battle of the Scheldt. Each year, participants follow a 33-kilometer route from Hoofdplaat, Netherlands, to Knokke-Heist in Belgium. This journey traces the steps of the First Canadian Army,

My next stop on the D-Day tour was Gold Beach, the British Beach in the centre of the D-Day landings. Gold Beach had 4 sectors, but due...

Vimy Ridge and the Canadian Memorials I was originally going to call this Refocused on Lens to cover the locations I had previously...

I had posted about these locations during previous visit, but they are all iconic locations that tell the story of the Somme, so are well...

Every year, in order to honour the Liberation of Belgium and the Netherlands, the Canadian Liberation March from Hoofdplaat, Netherlands...

During my recent tour of the Somme, it became evident that the catastrophic losses on the first day of the Battle of the Somme was due in...

The Battle of Formelles was fought by the British 61st Division and the 5th Australian Division on 19 and 20 Jul 1916. The Australians...

Operation Market Garden was Gen Montgomery's bold plan to take the bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem, by dropping the British 1st Para...

The Canadians were given the task of clearing the Scheldt Estuary, so that the liberated port of Antwerp could be used to supply the...