Issue #05 - January-March 2022
- Discover their stories
- Understand their sacrifice
- Honour their legacy
HWT News
(news@historicwartours.com.au)
Welcome to this issue of HWT News.
We have an exciting announcement for anyone interested in visiting the Western Front in France and Belgium.
Would you like to do a day trip to the Western Front from Paris? Here’s how!!
We talk to Mathilde Greuet from Lille University, an tour guide intern with Sacred Ground Tours.
We examine the role of nurses during WWI.
We look at the history behind the 1942 Fanning Airstrip (North Queensland) which was built but never used.
And then there is the little known story of Singapore’s Dunkirk when thousands fled Singapore just days before it’s Fall in 1942, only to become victims of the Japanese navy’s brutality.
If you want to have a look at past isses of HWT News, please click here.
Announcement
Historic War Tours is proud to announce it is now the exclusive agent for Sacred Ground Tours in Australia.
Sacred Ground Tours is run by an Australian living in France and has become the biggest battlefield tour provider for small groups on the Western Front. The popularity of their day tours is thanks to the high quality of their historians, unmatched by any other tour company.
Ist Australian Corps Memorial at Le Hamel
Western Front Day Trip from Paris
Take the early morning train from Paris to Arras (about 50 minutes) to arrive in good time for the start of your tour. Join the Out in the Somme Day Tour and walk the sacred ground of the Somme - Villers-Bretonneux, Pozieres, Le Hamel etc. and the must visit Sir John Monash Centre. Then return on the evening train to Paris.
An Interview with a Tour Guide Intern on the Western Front
A fulfilling day tour depaends on the knowledge and passion of the guide. Sacred Ground Tours proudly has the highest quality of historians available on the Western Front. Furthermore, their annual intern program allows valuable experience for futute historians. In this interview, we sit down with Mathilde, who was a tour guide intern with Sacred Ground Tours, as she shares her story and experiences.
Nurses in WWI
in 1914 no women were to be found on the front line. But by the end of WWI, about 90,000 women, from the British Empire, had volunteered as nurses with more than 3,000 from Australia and about 550 from New Zealand.
Fanning Airstrip today (disused) - Road to station homestead runs along northern side of old runway.
Fanning Airstrip NQ
Near Charters Towers west of Townville NQ, is a disused WWII airstrip that was never used. Today it is evidence of the degree of uncertainty that existed in 1942-1943 when the war against the Japanese was on Australia’s doorstep.
Singapore’s ‘Dunkirk’ 1942
The massacre of 21 Australian nurses on a beach on Bangka Island, following the sinking of the SS Vyner Brooke, had everyone outraged. But the sinking of the Vyner Brooke was not an isolated incident. In an operation that would be described as Singapore’s ‘Dunkirk’, the incompetence of the British led Allied High Command in Singapore was evident and many people died as a result.