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From Waterloo to Loos: 21st - 25th September 2015

‘Hard frost and ground as hard as bricks. Dykes frozen over. At daybreak a few Germans put

their heads up and shouted ‘Merry Xmas’. Our men, after yesterday, were not feeling that

way, and shot at them. They at once replied and a sniping match went on all day.’

Capt Ralph Cavendish - 2 Battalion Grenadier Guards

Rue des Cailloux, Festubert

~

Grenadier Guards history was forged in Belgium and Northern France, the ‘Cockpit of Europe’

where the British Army fought under Marlborough and Wellington and also in both World

Wars. 200 Years and 100 years ago respectively Grenadier history was forged on the battlefields

of Quatre Bras, Waterloo, Neuve Chapelle, Festubert, and Loos. This tour visits these

battlefields and takes in the Grenadier combats at Landrecies, the ‘Retreat from Mons’ and other

locations where Guardsmen saw action. On the last day of the tour we visit Agincourt, scene of

Henry V’s victory against all odds and the barn at Esquelbecq, scene of the 1940 massacre by

Hitler’s Leibstandarte SS that took place before Dunkirk.

Day 1: Monday 21st September – Wellington Barracks to Quatre Bras

0800 Hrs. We start where they started from in 1914. Our coach departs Wellington Barracks for Dover

via Maidstone and a DFDS Ferry crossing to Dunkirk with an early lunch opportunity on board ship.

Arrive Quatre Bras: Field Presentation

- The Waterloo Campaign of 1815. Arguably the most important crossroads in

Napoleonic history and the focal point of

the only battle that ‘Nosey’ fought where

he did not choose the ground.

The Quatre Bras Memorial

Battle of Quatre Bras - Those three vital hours, the squealing pig, the lane

and where Guardsmen entered the fray. Decision making and were where

Wellington and ‘G’ Troop earn their keep.

DeLancey’s Deposition - We drive the battlefield ring and discover

Wellington’s predicament, his action and his umbrella embarrassment.

Genappe - The street action deluge by which time the Guards were nearly

home n’dry.

Arrive Waterloo Hotel & Dinner

Day 2: Tuesday 22nd September – Waterloo Guards

Wellington’s Crossroads: The French main attack, rough sharpened sabres and the Essex boys back

to back. It has been said that 10,000 deserted Wellington on the day. Did that include 100 men of 95th

and if so why?

The New Memorial: We visit this state of the Art

underground museum which literally we are told

will bring the battlefield to life in 4g.

The Panorama: The largest mural in Europe. It

depicts the almost surreal but courageous series of

French cavalry charges against the Allied squares

of infantry resisting them.

The Lion Mound: ‘Looking down on

Guardsman’s ground’. A climb to a platform 45

metres above the field of conflict. We view the

battlefield and learn the battle history. A

memorable experience.

The New Memorial

Mercer’s Ridge: Where Guard’s history was made,

where ‘G’ Troop faced Ney's gallant cavalry charges

and the final attack of the Imperial Guard crumbled

from fire discipline of 2 Guard’s battalions under

Maitland. Historic and emotional for a Grenadier to

stand here and hear the tale. We will stand in the very

place on Mercer’s Ridge where Guardsmen in 4 deep

line sent Napoleon’s Imperial Guard into retreat for the

first time in their history.

Hougoumont Farm and Chapel Restoration:

‘The Guards’ Battle within the Battle’ and where

the light companies under Lord Saltoun occupied

the Great Orchard. We will see the completed

renovation work and the new memorial to the

British Soldier which will be unveiled in June at

the 200th Anniversary.

Hougoumont Farm under renovation 2014

A pictorial presentation about the SAS and ‘Johnny Cooper’… One of

“The Originals” The exploits of the Special Air Service Regiment in

World War II are legendary and full of intrigue and fame. Eighteen-year-

old Guardsman Johnny Cooper volunteered for David Stirling’s SAS in

1941 and became one of “The Originals". Johnny took part in various

raids in North Africa; collaborated with the Maquis in France and helped

liberate Belsen with its horrific secret behind the wire. After a brief

interlude he returned to work alongside his old comrades in Malaya to lead

anti-guerrilla jungle operations. Johnny’s further combat experiences on

the Jebel Ahkdar in the Oman, in Africa and in the ‘secret war’ in the

Yemen make up a fascinating career.

Dinner at the Grand Hotel

Johnny Cooper

Day 3: Wednesday 23rd September –‘Fifteen rounds a minute’ - The ‘Reteat from Mons’ August 1914’

Nimy Bridge: The canal bridge where Lt Dease won his VC against the advancing masses of the

German 18th Division.

Nimy Bridge

The 2nd Bn Grenadier Guards

commanded by Lt Col Noel Corry

were in reserve and ordered at 03.30

Hrs to march to Mons. They passed

through Marlborough’s Malplaquet

battlefield where their forebears had

suffered in 1709 in the War of the

Spanish Sucession. Here and

unbeknown why 215 years later

Guardsmen were ordered to fixed

bayonets.

The BEF in Wellington Barracks - off to war

Lt Dease’s headstone

St Symphorien Cemetery

St Symphorien Cemetery: This is one, if not the only one, of the most unusual and lovely

cemeteries. Built on an old slag heap the German graves here have grey granite markers grouped

regimentally. Lt Dease is buried here along with Pte Parr, said to be the first British Soldier killed in

the war. Emotional, fascinating and very memorable.

Lunch

On 23 August Von Kluck’s men were moving fast. At 1030 Hrs the German IX Corps artillery opened up along the canal

prior to their massed infantry attack 30 minutes later. This assault forced a withdrawal back into the town at 1300 Hrs.

Further German assaults across the canal forced the beginning of the ‘Retreat from Mons’.

Landrecies: The relentless German pursuit

south from Mons caused the battalions of the

4th (Guards) Brigade to adopt defensive

positions around Landrecies: 3rd Coldstream

at the northern end of the town, 2nd

Grenadiers on the western side, 2nd

Coldstream on the eastern and southern edges

of the town, and 1st Irish Guards fortifying

the centre. Number 2 Company of 3rd

Coldstream Guards, commanded by Captain

Heywood, was in position at the northern end

of the town, where the road to the North West

forked into two routes, both leading around

the southern end of the Forest of Mormal.

The battalion machine gun section deployed

at the forks, with one gun aimed down each

road.

2nd Grenadiers were posted with Number 2

and 3 Companies, under Major Lord

Bernard Gordon-Lennox, at the railway

level-crossing, deployed to either side of the

road. Number 1 Company, under Major

Hamilton, occupied positions on the left of

these companies. Number 4 Company, under

Captain Colston, held the bridge over the

Sambre River. The battalion was directed to

barricade the main street leading north, which

they did using the battalion’s tool carts,

leaving them immobile and thereby depriving

the battalion of the tools for the rest of the

campaign. Houses along the road were

occupied and put in a state of defence.

We walk the ground

La Cateau Cemetery. The day

after the action at Landrecies the

German IV Corps caught Smith-

Dorrien’s tired II Corps at La

Cateau from where after a

morning’s battle, the retreat

continued. British casualties were

8,000men and 38 guns lost.

German casualties are estimated at

9,000. We visit the CWGC

Cemetery

La Cateau CWGC Cemetery

Arrive Arras Hotel

Dinner

Day 4: Thursday 24th September – Guards in 1915

Neuve Chapelle: The flat battlefield

crisscrossed with ditches. This was the

first British-initiated offensive of the

war and prompted by French doubts

about the British commitment to the

conflict. At 0730 Hrs on 10th March

almost 500 guns opened upon the

German lines over a length of 2 miles.

The village was taken by the Haig’s 1st

Army on the first day but von

Falkenhayn’s rapid deployment of

reserves and a British shortage of

ammunition prevented a breakthrough.

The Portuguese cemetery at Neuve Chapelle

The Indian memorial at Neuve Chapelle

The 1st Bn Grenadier Guards under command of Lt Col

Lawrence Fisher-Rowe was launched into an ill-judged

attack and cost the battalion 341 killed and wounded

including the CO. It was here that the first Grenadier VCs

in the war were won by Nottinghamshire born L/Cpl

Fuller who captured 50 prisoners and Hertfordian Pte

Edward Barber. Both were expert bombers. Following the

battle which ended in stalemate the Indian Division was

eventually sent back to Mesopotamia where the climate and

food were more to their liking.

Festubert: ‘The attack was ordered off a map and no general staff officer came to look at the

ground’. Complained Major George Jeffreys. This was the first night attack of the war. Both 1st and

2nd Bns of Grenadiers took part and although in different Brigades were at one point in the attack

were side by side in line. It was another fruitless and expensive battle. ‘Well lads, you may have been

boys yesterday; you’re men now- yes men’ Colonel Harry Walker, Black Watch, after the Battle of

Festubert. British casualties were 16,648. Germans about 5,000.

The Guards Cemetery at Windy Corner.

Used by the 4th Guards Brigade from

February 1915 to May 1916 it contained

681 graves. Designed by Charles Holden it

now contains 3,442 burials. Guardsman

G. E. Kensall aged 22 bears the moving

message ‘In a grave that we may never see.

May someone place a flower for me’

Guards Cemetery at Windy Corner

Lunch

Cuinchy communal cemetery: The grave and story of Captain Alwyn Bertram Robert R Gosselin, 2

Bn Grenadier Guards.

Loos: The September battle of Loos in 1915 where

the British used gas for the first time, Kipling’s son

disappeared and in the biggest offensive of the war

so far the Guards Division received a baptism of

fire. Insufficient preparation and a delayed reserve

support from totally inexperienced ‘Kitchener’s’

divisions led to 4 Grenadier Battalions suffering

appalling casualties. We visit Dud Corner

Cemetery, The area of Hill 70 and learn of this 15

Day slaughter battle. The Double Crassier that overlooks the battlefield

Grenadier names of the missing - Dud Corner Cemetery

Of the attack at Loos an officer of one of the

London regiments wrote to the Press. “The

grandest scene I have ever seen in my life was

the Guards advancing in the open in broad

daylight, slowly and in perfect order. Coming

over the hills to recapture a lost position, they

came on in step, left, right, left, right, under the

most diabolical shrapnel fire I or anyone else

had ever seen. If anyone had watched it and not

jumped up and yelled as we did, they must have

been mad. Wonderful isn’t the word for it. Not

a waver nor the least hesitation on any man’s

part; just left, right, left, until they reached

their objective. Oh those Guards!”

Dinner in Arras – free time to explore this Roman town.

Day 5: Friday 25th September – Outnumbered and an atrocity

Agincourt: Agincourt is certainly a worthwhile visit in this the 600th Anniversary year. So many

arrows were leased that day that one recollection claims that it looked as if it had snowed. The snow

was the massive assembly of white goose feathers that Henry’s archers leashed off.

Agincourt Battlefield where a massive French army blocked Henry V’s route to Calais

Lunch

Esquelbecq: Scene of the 1940 massacre by Hitler’s Leibstandarte SS that took place before

Dunkirk

Depart for Calais and Dover Ferry. Arrive Wellington Barracks 1900 Hrs (approx)

Tour Value:

Included in the price of the Tour:

4 Nights 3 Star Hotel Accommodation (B&B)

4 Dinners (3 Course with wine, water, coffee)

Coach Transport

All museum entry fees

Guild of Battlefield Guides - Qualified Guide

Maps and Tour Notes

Excluded from the price of the Tour:

All Lunches

Breakfast on 21 September

Hotel extra services, telephone, bar and business facilities

Personal Insurance

Cost of Tour:

Cost per person sharing = £ 435 Deposit = £ 120 Single Supplement = £140

Your Guide - Graeme Cooper

Graeme Cooper

Graeme Cooper has been battlefield guiding for several years and now operates Cooper's

Waterloo Tours which specialises in the Napoleonic Campaign battlefields of the

Peninsular War and Waterloo for adults, and leadership training for the military. He had

the pleasure of guiding the Grenadier Guards tour to Ypres, Oudenaarde and Waterloo in

2013. A Fellow of the International Napoleonic Society (FINS), Graeme qualified as a

Waterloo Campaign Guide with ‘Les Guides 1815’ in 1998. His interest in the Waterloo

Campaign was sparked during his time as a cadet at the Royal Military Academy

Sandhurst by his lecturers and renowned military historians Professor Richard Holmes

and Dr David Chandler. This intrigue, kept alive by a military career, has maintained his

fascination for the Campaign and a strong concern for the preservation of the battlefield,

which he first visited in 1972.

In November 2002, Graeme founded ‘The Guild of Battlefield Guides’ and was the first to be received into

the Guild’s Roll of Honour for services to the Guild and the craft. In May 2006 he created Corporate

Battlefields, a business leadership training company for corporate management. His company has serve

Boeing, Brother UK, Lilly, eBay, HSBC and other global brands with battlefield based leadership Events.

He is married and has a son and daughter who commissioned through Sandhurst. Graeme lives in Essex and

enjoys golf, chess, photography and telemark skiing.

Cooper’s Waterloo Tours

Cooper’s Court

Moreton

Ongar

Essex

CM5 0LE

Graeme Cooper - Qualified Guide

Guild of Battlefield Guides Badge No 7

Tel/Fax: 0044 (0)1277 890470

Mob: 07968 984347

E-mail: cooper@waterlootours.co.uk

Website: www.waterlootours.co.uk