War Stories of the Rich and Famous
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...
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pd-allen
Jun 1410 min read
Rachel Tours Cambrai
On our last day of touring, we worked our way back south of Arras before heading back home to Maastricht. Monchy-le-Preux Our first stop...
43 views4 comments
pd-allen
Jun 513 min read
Rachel Tours Arras
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...
33 views1 comment
pd-allen
May 3012 min read
Rachel Tours The Somme
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...
77 views4 comments
pd-allen
May 2712 min read
Canadians at Passchendaele - Oct - Nov 1917
This tour is taken is following Norm Christie’s excellent series for King and Empire. The Battle of Passchendaele, episode 4, in his For...
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pd-allen
May 239 min read
Canadians at Mont Sorrel - June 1916
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...
49 views10 comments
pd-allen
May 217 min read
Canadians at Second Battle of Ypres - April 1915
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...
34 views7 comments
pd-allen
May 1512 min read
Mining Messines
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...
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pd-allen
May 28 min read
Last 100 Days - Cambrai 27 Sep 1918
Battle of Canal du Nord and Cambrai Less than 4 weeks after the success in the Battle of Arras, the Canadian Corps was again up to...
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pd-allen
Apr 2912 min read
Last 100 Days - Arras 26 Aug 1918
Battle of Arras 26 Aug – 2 Sep Two weeks after completing the Battle of Amiens, the Canadian Corps received 12,000 replacement troops,...
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pd-allen
Apr 259 min read
Last 100 Days - Amiens 08 Aug 1918
Introduction I recently visited Arras with the intention of tracing the three main battles of the Canadian’s Last 100 days of the War in...
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pd-allen
Apr 238 min read
Underground Battle at Arras
Les Bove d’Arras Caves were dug out under the Place des Heroes Square from the nineth century onwards, to extract chalk or limestone...
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pd-allen
Apr 134 min read
Fortress Thyboron
Adjacent to the Sea War Museum was the Thyboron Fortress, a portion of Germany’s World War Two Atlantic Wall. The Atlantic Wall contains...
46 views7 comments
pd-allen
Mar 177 min read
Vimy and the Drummond Family
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...
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pd-allen
Jan 287 min read
Goodfellow Brothers - Last Stand
Goodfellow Brothers – Missing in Action I have made several posts about the Goodfellow Brothers who were cousins of my maternal...
24 views1 comment
pd-allen
Nov 5, 20234 min read
Austrian Museum of Military History, Vienna
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...
27 views4 comments
pd-allen
Oct 16, 20234 min read
Commanding the High Ground
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...
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pd-allen
Oct 14, 20235 min read
Ernest Goodfellow - 1st Battalion Suffolk Regiment
Ernest Robert Goodfellow was born 05 Jun 1889 at 10 Old Barracks, Cemetery Road, Bury St Edmonds. His father was Henry Goodfellow, and...
33 views3 comments
pd-allen
Oct 14, 20233 min read
Walter James Goodfellow 7th Battalion Suffolk Regiment
Walter James Goodfellow was born on 13 Oct 1891 at 36 Cemetery Road, Bury St Edmunds, third son of Henry Goodfellow and Maria Reynolds....
24 views2 comments
pd-allen
Oct 13, 20233 min read
Dud Corner Cemetery - Walter Goodfellow
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...
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