SHB Battlefield Tours

01/07/2026

Today marks the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. 1st July 1916. The single bloodiest day in British military history. By the time the battle ended in November, casualties on both sides totalled around 1 million men. Thiepval stands over this ground still — the Memorial to the Missing carries the names of thousands with no known grave. Just names carved into Lutyens’ arches, forever facing the battlefield they never left. A few miles up the road, Bapaume Post Cemetery holds the men from the 34th Tyneside Division who attacked along this very road on that first morning. Many of them unidentified. Unknown but not unremembered. Today isn’t a date on a calendar. It’s a debt we owe. Stand at Thiepval and read the names. Stand at Bapaume and read the silence where names should be. Both mean the same thing. We remember. Lest we forget. 🇬🇧🌹

30/06/2026

CHRISTMAS BAUBLE
In the month of December 1944, a family from Flémalle-Haute (the Liège region) temporarily housed an American soldier. When he left the family, a little bit before Christmas to head back to the front, he offered them a Christmas bauble which the children hurried to put on the branch of the Christmas tree in their home.
Some days later, a V1 rocket launched by the German army exploded not far from the Flémalle home. The Christmas tree was blown to smithereens by the explosion and all the baubles were broken... with the exception of the one given by the American soldier. This bauble was still letting its Merry Christmas' message shine.
Little Jane, youngest in the family, was incredibly moved by this event. She preserved the decorative bauble preciously during the years before she decided to donate it to the Bastogne War Museum. This symbol of the terrible Christmas of 1944 was passed on to us by the family after Jane's death in 2020.

30/06/2026

Sometimes you find yourself outside a random house, down a quiet street and then find out who stood before you 😮 The house was Runstedts' headquarters in 1940, that man in the picture visited once

26/06/2026

Day 1 of my Battlefield Tour to Bastogne and the Battle of the Bulge is done and what a day it’s been.

Started with a stunning sunrise before making a stop to pay my respects at Ranville CWGC Cemetery — always a privilege, never taken for granted. Then on to Honfleur for coffee and a croissant because some traditions are non-negotiable.

Over the Pont de Normandie and into the long drive east towards the Ardennes.

First stop was La Gleize to see the King Tiger tank — that thing is an absolute beast in person. Then to Baugnez Crossroads. The Malmedy Massacre memorial. Eighty-four American POWs shot in a field by the SS in December 1944. 😥Standing there you feel the weight of it.

Day 1 done. Hotel found. Dinner ordered. Cold beer in hand. Day 2 is going to be something else. 🦅🪖🌿

25/06/2026

Current view

25/06/2026

07/06/2026

Have you ever stood on Omaha Beach? I have. More times than I can count. And I still can’t speak for the first few minutes. Because when you’re standing there — looking up at those bluffs — you understand what those men faced. You feel it in your chest. And no amount of reading about it, watching documentaries about it, prepares you for that moment.

That’s why I do this. I want to take you there. All five beaches. Pegasus Bridge. Pointe du Hoc. The American Cemetery. Easy Company’s Normandy. Ranville. Merville Battery.

The places where ordinary people did the most extraordinary thing. 4 days. From Portsmouth. I’ll be with you every single step. I’ll tell you the names. I’ll tell you the stories.

I’ll make sure you leave understanding exactly what happened on those beaches — and exactly why it still matters today. From £849 per person. This isn’t a holiday. This is history that will stay with you forever. DM me. Drop a 🌹 in the comments if Normandy is on your list. Or just tell me — have you been? Would you go? 👉 shbbattlefieldtours.co.uk

06/06/2026

These are the Bedford Boys.

Leslie. Wallace. John. Frank. Taylor. Nick. Bedford. Raymond. Clifton. Earl. Jack. Weldon. John. John. Ray. John. Gordon. Elmere. Grant.

This is why we remember. Not as numbers. Not as statistics. As people

19 young men from a small town in Virginia. Population 3,200. They trained together, shipped out together, and on 6th June 1944 — they died together. In the first wave. On Omaha Beach.
Look at their faces. Really look at them. These aren’t names on a memorial. These are real men. Sons of Bedford. Brothers. Neighbours. Boys who grew up on the same streets, went to the same schools, knew each other’s families.

In a matter of minutes, Bedford lost 19 of them.
Proportionally, no other town in America suffered more on D-Day.
A whole town’s heart was ripped out on that beach. Telegrams arriving one after another. Mothers answering the door and knowing before they even opened it.

06/06/2026

6th June 1944. The ramps dropped on Omaha Beach. this beach — THIS beach — was different. Different to every single other one that day. Look at it.

Look at the bluffs. There was nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. Just open sand, a sea wall, and German guns looking straight down on them from every angle. These men waded into a killing ground. The ones who even made it to the water’s edge — they used their dead brothers as shields just to stay alive. Can you imagine that? Men frozen at the sea wall. Paralysed. Soaking. Terrified. While machine guns cut through them like they were nothing. Brothers. Husbands. Sons. Dying screaming for their mothers on a beach they’d never even heard of six months before.

And the medics — they ran INTO that. Into the chaos, into the fire, trying to save men who were already gone. Over 2,000 casualties. In a single morning. The sea ran red.

THAT’S why they called it Bloody Omaha. And when you understand this ground — when you actually stand here and look up at those bluffs — you understand why. This wasn’t just a battle. This was hell on earth. And they went anyway. Now look at it. Quiet. Empty. Peaceful. Don’t ever take freedom for granted. Never. Forget

05/06/2026

How I wish I was there this weekend 😞