WWI¶
Posts tagged with WWI.
Posts¶
Retrospective of 100 posts. Post Date 2026-08-18
Post Date 2025-10-08
Clan Sullivan: Carol, Pat, Terry, Michael and Brian....
Post Date 2025-10-01
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: Michae...
Post Date 2025-09-20
This fall we are going on a Caribou Trail tour to visit all of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Memorials in France and Belgium with my good Newfoundland buddy Terry ...
Post Date 2025-05-20
Once we decided to visit Slovenia this Easter, it was mandatory that I look into the battlefield situation. I knew Slovenia was part of Austria-Hungar...
Post Date 2024-09-04
A question about this map from a post about the Canadians at Second Ypres led to the fascinating story of two grandfathers in the Great War. Steve McKenna contacted me and mentioned his brother-in-law Andrew Leach had spied the village of Wieltje on the map and wanted to chat.
Post Date 2024-06-14
On our last day of touring, we worked our way back south of Arras before heading back home to Maastricht....
Post Date 2024-06-06
After a good day on the Somme, we headed up to Arras for Part Deux of the Rachel Battlefield Tour. Rob Wolsey, a Canadian Battlefield Guide who works ...
Post Date 2024-05-30
After listening to my war stories and some dedicated blog reading, Rachel decided it was time to see what all the fuss was about, so on the long weeke...
Post Date 2024-05-27
This tour is taken is following Norm Christie’s excellent series for King and Empire....
Post Date 2024-05-23
The next stop on my tour of Ypres was the Battle of Mont Sorrel, 2-13 Jun 1916. As with other tours, this adventure is following Norm Christie’s For K...
Post Date 2024-05-21
I recently spent a week in Ypres, following the Canadian action in the area. The tour was based on the excellent book series, For King and Empire, by ...
Post Date 2024-05-15
During my recent trip to Arras, I became interested in the mining operations in the war. The Battle of Messines is the apex of the mining effort and a...
Post Date 2024-05-02
Less than 4 weeks after the success in the Battle of Arras, the Canadian Corps was again up to strength, and ready to take Cambrai, the last important...
Post Date 2024-04-29
Two weeks after completing the Battle of Amiens, the Canadian Corps received 12,000 replacement troops, moved back to the Arras sector and prepared to...
Post Date 2024-04-25
I recently visited Arras with the intention of tracing the three main battles of the Canadian’s Last 100 days of the War in 1918. For this tour, I am ...
Post Date 2024-04-23
Caves were dug out under the Place des Heroes Square from the nineth century onwards, to extract chalk or limestone material for the construction of t...
Post Date 2024-03-17
In January 2024, my war story buddy Wine Bob Drummond and I visited several WWI battlefields. This is his story of the Drummond family’s experience ar...
Post Date 2024-02-21
One of the things I have enjoyed most about documenting the Battlefield Touring is the Collateral Knowledge that you uncover when you are looking at s...
Post Date 2024-02-03
1:100 Scale model of the Vimy Memorial....
Post Date 2024-01-30
During our tour of Ypres, we visited Langemark German Cemetery just north of Ypres, one of the 4 German War Cemeteries in Belgium which contains the r...
Post Date 2024-01-28
Goodfellow Brothers – Missing in Action...
Post Date 2024-01-27
Vimy Ridge and the Canadian Memorials...
Post Date 2024-01-26
Our next stop on the tour was the area around Lens, which included Vimy Ridge, Hill 70 and a number of family battle sites....
Post Date 2024-01-25
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 worth revisi...
Post Date 2024-01-23
Recently I did a tour of the First World War Battlefields with my good buddy and fellow war story fan (Wine) Bob Drummond. We did a pilgrimage for sev...
Post Date 2024-01-08
Robert George Connelly was born on the 24th of July 1884, in Bryson Quebec, son of Robert Connelly and Margaret McTiernan, one of 12 Children....
Post Date 2024-01-08
The Sancourt British Cemetery is located Northeast of the village of Sancourt, about 1 km down a single lane track amongst the fields....
Post Date 2023-11-05
During Rachel’s fall break, we did a tour of Vienna, Bratislava and Prague. The tour was meant to be a break from war stories, but we did manage to sn...
Post Date 2023-10-16
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 no small par...
Post Date 2023-10-14
Ernest Robert Goodfellow was born 05 Jun 1889 at 10 Old Barracks, Cemetery Road, Bury St Edmonds. His father was Henry Goodfellow, and his Mother Mari...
Post Date 2023-10-14
Walter James Goodfellow was born on 13 Oct 1891 at 36 Cemetery Road, Bury St Edmunds, third son of Henry Goodfellow and Maria Reynolds....
Post Date 2023-10-13
On our recent Somme Tour, we traveled from Fromelles to Vimy, and passed near by the Dud Corner Cemetery and Loos Memorial. We stopped in to pay respe...
Post Date 2023-10-12
The Battle of Formelles was fought by the British 61st Division and the 5th Australian Division on 19 and 20 Jul 1916. The Australians had fought at G...
Post Date 2023-10-11
I had the opportunity to return to the Somme this week with 3 British fellows, and tour around several key battle sites. The guy who organized it like...
Post Date 2023-10-04
Lance Sgt Henry Goodfellow of the 2nd Battalion Suffolk Regiment was the oldest of 4 brothers who served in the war. Henry, Ernest, and Walter were ki...
Post Date 2023-10-03
The Canadians were not involved in the disastrous first day of the Somme Battle, 01 Jul 1916, they were in the Ypres Salient, recovering from their he...
Post Date 2023-09-17
During our trip, we have been able to hit 4 of the 5 Newfoundland Memorials in France and Belgium that honour Newfoundland’s sacrifice in the First Wo...
Post Date 2023-09-17
The first stop of the day was at the Canadian Memorial at Sanctuary Woods....
Post Date 2023-09-16
By 1918, the Canadians were known as the Allied Shock troops, so an elaborate deception took place to make the Germans think the Canadians were still ...
Post Date 2023-09-16
Robert George Connelly was born 24 July 1884, in Bryson Quebec, son of Robert Connelly and Margaret McTiernan, one of 12 Children. Robert Sr’s father,...
Post Date 2023-09-15
On a glorious morning, we visited the Vimy Memorial atop Hill 145 (145 m above sea level), the highest point on Vimy Ridge. The ridge is 85 m above th...
Post Date 2023-09-14
I was able to visit Bob Drummond’s uncle Percy Fowler at the Theipval Memorial, and asked Bob to write his story....
Post Date 2023-09-14
Today’s tour switches to the first world war. We started out at the Lochnagar Crater, one of 19 mine craters blown at 0728 on 1 Jul 1916, the first da...
Post Date 2023-09-09
Henry Goodfellow Sr and Maria Reynolds married on 29 August 1880 and had 8 children. Maria was 23 when they married and Henry Sr was 39, marrying afte...
Post Date 2023-09-09
Pre-Season Tour La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial to the Missing. Commemoration of Henry Goodfellow 2nd Suffolks...
Post Date 2023-09-04
My sister Dale and I visited the homestead in Balsam Creek (outside North Bay, Ont) this weekend, and stopped to pay respects to our Maternal Grandfather William Johnston ...
Post Date 2023-09-04
William Johnston...
Post Date 2023-07-23
Almost time to embark on the North West Europe Canadian Battlefield Tour presented by Liberation Tours, kicking off on 09 Sep 2023. Key Canadian Battl...