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Armed Forces Tours
Experiencing the past
Since 2000 the number of serving Service men and women travelling with Poppy Travel has risen significantly with over 9000 per year travelling with us in 2008.
Poppy Travel has been chosen to lead ‘Realities of War’ tours to the battlefields of World War One and Two, to help relate the lessons of the past to the challenges of the present for new Army recruits in 2009. This means we are now the largest Battlefield Tour operator in the United Kingdom.
Our Services
Realities of War Tours
Over the last six years we have worked with the ETS staff at AFC Harrogate to develop a tour programme that supports the educational syllabus for junior soldier training. In 2009 we have started taking ITCC Infantry recruits on a new “Certificate in Service Values and Ethics” Level 1 Qualification” developed by Poppy Travel and Darlington College.
In 2008 we took over 7,000 soldiers in training to the battlefields of the World Wars. We provide an operational insight through the eyes of the Service men and women of the past. We focus on the individual solders’ experience, geared to the learning styles, military knowledge and intellect of young people. We can draw on the experience of serving officers and NCOs to compare the past with current operational practice. From April 2009 Poppy Travel will be providing Realities of War tours for all Army recruits.
Military Battlefield Tours
These are guided tours for units seeking to explore military history in worldwide locations. Our customers are from a wide range of cap badges and we offer destinations from France to the Far East. These include the following:
- 243 Field Hosp RAMC(V) Ypres and the Somme
- 7th Battalion The Rifles - (Ypres and Calais)
- Kings Royal Hussars - (Normandy)
- FANY - (Normandy)
- Land Warfare Centre BG LAD REME – Normandy
- Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Association – Gallipoli
- RMCS - France/Belgium
- MOD Defence Intelligence Training – Gallipoli
- Queens Lancashire Association - (Gallipoli)
- MOD DEC - Normandy/ and St Nazaire
- 216 Sig Sqn; MOD DEC – Brittany
- Queen's Assoc – Operation Market Garden
- MOD DEC – Arnhem and Nijmegen
- Wales UOTC - Normandy
- QARANC Association – Turkey
- Yeomanry Association - South Africa
Battlefield Studies and Staff Rides
Poppy Travel provides guides who work with military staff to design and lead Staff Rides and Battlefield Studies, identifying the ground and historical examples to support the strategic, operational and tactical topics under study. Our recent customers and destinations include the following:
- One star HQ Staff Ride based on the Ardennes, with unit analysis of relevant lessons learned from British and US operations in 1944-5.
- TA Brigade Specialist training Team Battlefield Study of the Battle of Monte Cassino. Similar battlefield studies, geared at unit level were conducted for two TA infantry units.
- A specialist Battlefield Study for a TA Field Hospital, to examine the moral component of fighting power, based on examples from The Great War.
- A Battlefield Study for a regular infantry battalion to examine the ground aspects of ‘Operation Market Garden’ prior to an Afghanistan deployment.
- A Training Regiment Battlefield Study of battle in Belgium and France supporting subunit stands on the Battles of Waterloo, Mons, Le Cateau, Cambrai and the Battle of the Bulge in 1944
Download a copy of our Armed Forces Tours information leaflet.
For more information or to make a booking, call Poppy Travel on 01622 716 729 or email info@poppytravel.org.uk