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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...
pd-allen
Sep 4, 202412 min read
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2 comments


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...
pd-allen
Jun 14, 202410 min read
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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...
pd-allen
Jun 5, 202413 min read
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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...
pd-allen
May 30, 202412 min read
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4 comments


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...
pd-allen
May 27, 202412 min read
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4 comments


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...
pd-allen
May 23, 20249 min read
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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...
pd-allen
May 21, 20247 min read
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7 comments


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...
pd-allen
May 15, 202412 min read
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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...
pd-allen
May 2, 20248 min read
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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,...
pd-allen
Apr 29, 202412 min read
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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...
pd-allen
Apr 25, 20249 min read
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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...
pd-allen
Apr 23, 20248 min read
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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...
pd-allen
Apr 13, 20244 min read
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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...
pd-allen
Mar 17, 20247 min read
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Goodfellow Brothers - Last Stand
Goodfellow Brothers – Missing in Action I have made several posts about the Goodfellow Brothers who were cousins of my maternal...
pd-allen
Jan 28, 20247 min read
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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...
pd-allen
Nov 5, 20234 min read
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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...
pd-allen
Oct 16, 20234 min read
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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...
pd-allen
Oct 14, 20235 min read
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3 comments


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....
pd-allen
Oct 14, 20233 min read
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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...
pd-allen
Oct 13, 20233 min read
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4 comments
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