Mat McLachlan History Cruises - USA

Name: Mat McLachlan History Cruises - USA
Address: Manhattan Beach, CA, US
Telephone: +18444002288

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Mat McLachlan History Cruises - USA

Luxury history river cruises with broadcast historian Mat McLachlan. D-Day, Waterloo, the Western Front, the Mekong and more.

06/10/2026

Exploring the Hotel Majestic in Saigon, where JFK stayed in 1951.

05/19/2026

For centuries, battlefields have been all about roads. Although armies can move slowly and for short distances cross-country, they need roads to properly move across a landscape. So if you control a town where roads intersect, you can control a startlingly large area.

Gettysburg only became a battlefield because nine roads converge there. Wellington defended the ridge near Waterloo because it straddled the road that Napoleon would need to get to Brussels. In the German Spring Offensive of 1918, their objective was the town of Amiens, the main road and rail hub in the Somme.

I saw a perfect example of this while researching the 1944 Normandy campaign for our D-Day cruise next year. On August 2, 1944, the US 4th Armored Division broke through German lines and charged for the city of Rennes in Brittany. They were low on fuel and ammunition so had no hope of capturing the city, so instead they set up as a blocking force west of the city and with that one action cut off the entire German force in Brittany.

And you can see why from this map. The only way the Germans could move in Brittany was by utilising the small number of main roads, which all converge in Rennes. With Rennes cut off, they were marooned on the peninsula.

Although major strongpoints like Brest held out until September, Brittany was cut off and liberated by the Allies within 10 days of the 4th Armored’s arrival on the outskirts of Rennes.

www.historycruises.com

05/11/2026

Eighty-three years ago in June 1944, the largest amphibious invasion in history put 156,000 Allied soldiers ashore on five Normandy beaches. By nightfall on D-Day, more than 4,000 were dead. By the end of the campaign that followed, the war in the West was won.

In June 2027, on the anniversary of the landings, Mat McLachlan History Cruises is sailing from Paris to Normandy aboard AmaWaterways' AmaLyra.

Eight days through the heart of D-Day country. You'll stand on Omaha and Utah where the American First and Fourth Divisions came ashore. You'll attend the anniversary commemorations at the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, where more than 9,000 Americans lie above the Channel. You'll trace the route the GIs took inland, through the hedgerows where they fought yard by yard toward the breakout.

Throughout the voyage, an expert military historian will travel with you. On board: dedicated presentations on the planning, the landings, the men who made it ashore and the men who didn't. On the ground: shore excursions designed by Mat McLachlan, walking the beaches, the bunkers and the burial grounds where the story is told best.

Aboard the AmaLyra: panoramic staterooms, all-inclusive dining, complimentary wines and beers with every meal. By day, the battlefields. By night, the Seine.

Departs Paris 3 June 2027. Numbers limited.

Find out more: historycruises.com/d-day-anniversary-river-cruise-normandy

05/08/2026

VE DAY, 8 MAY 1945

Eighty-one years ago today, the war in Europe ended.

At 2:41am on 7 May 1945, in a small red schoolhouse in Reims that served as Eisenhower’s headquarters, General Alfred Jodl signed the unconditional surrender of all German forces. President Truman, three weeks into the office he had inherited from Franklin Roosevelt, announced the news to the American people by radio the following morning. “The flags of freedom fly over all Europe,” he said.

The cost had been staggering. Between D-Day and VE Day alone, the US suffered more than 552,000 casualties in the European theater. Of those, nearly 105,000 Americans were killed in action in eleven months of fighting from the Normandy beaches to the Elbe. The Battle of the Bulge, fought through the freezing Ardennes the previous winter, was the largest single battle the US Army has ever fought, costing around 19,000 American lives. Over Germany, every B-17 and B-24 lost meant ten more empty seats at American dinner tables.

In Times Square, a quarter of a million people gathered to celebrate. Church bells rang from coast to coast. But the celebrations were tempered. American forces on Okinawa marked the moment by firing a midnight barrage at Japanese positions, a reminder that half the war remained. Truman, in his radio address, dedicated the victory to the memory of Roosevelt and warned that the work was not yet finished.

For the GIs who had crossed the Channel, fought through the hedgerows, broken out at St Lo, liberated Paris, held Bastogne and crossed the Rhine at Remagen, 8 May 1945 was the day they realized they might actually be going home.

We remember them.

05/05/2026

Friday marks the anniversary of VE Day, the formal end of the war in Europe. But the actual unwinding started days earlier, in a series of regional surrenders across Germany. For the American soldiers who'd fought across France and into the heart of the Reich, one of those surrenders mattered more than the rest.

On 5 May 1945, at the Thorak estate in Haar, just outside Munich, a German delegation led by Lieutenant General Hermann Foertsch signed the unconditional surrender of Army Group G, all German forces in Bavaria and western Austria. The man who accepted it was General Jacob Devers, commanding the US 6th Army Group.

The general European surrender came later, signed at Reims on 7 May and ratified at Berlin on 8 May. But for the GIs of the 6th Army Group, the men of the US Seventh Army and the French First Army who'd landed in southern France, fought up the Rhône valley, crossed the Rhine and driven into Bavaria, the war effectively ended that day in Haar.

It was a quiet surrender. No famous photograph, no household name. Just a signature in a Bavarian country house that meant the shooting was over.

Five years and five months earlier, Germany had invaded Poland and started the war. On 5 May 1945, in a small town outside Munich, that war ended for the Americans who'd fought it across two continents.

05/02/2026

Just came across this aerial photo of Caen in Normandy in 1944 (first photo). Although located only 10 miles from the nearest landing beach, the Germans managed to hold out in Caen for 75 days after D-Day, and the city was leveled during the fighting. Eerily reminiscent of the town of Ypres, Belgium, in 1917 (second photo).

04/30/2026

German Helmet with Bullet Hole

This helmet was worn by a member of the Luftwaffe in Normandy, and was souvenired by an Allied soldier. It’s an amazing piece of history, the most amazing part of which is the bullet hole in the side. It’s highly unlikely that the man who wore this survived.

Adding to the story is the helmet’s colour. At some stage prior to the Normandy campaign the standard field grey paint was overpainted in dark brown, in order to provide better camouflage in a warm environment like North Africa or Italy. When the soldier was transferred to Normandy, the dark paint was a hindrance, not a help, so he scratched most of it off to reveal the original grey, and in doing so has actually created an effective mottled camo colour.

There’s a Luftwaffe decal just visible under the brown paint.

What an amazing artefact - if only it could talk! I’ll be heading back to Normandy later this year and can’t wait to walk the ground where stories like this unfolded. I’m looking forward to sharing them with you.

04/28/2026

Exciting news! I'm heading to Europe for an extended stay from June. I'll be spending several months exploring the battlefields, visiting historic sites and producing new history content via podcasts, social posts and YouTube videos.

On the agenda: Normandy in August for the D-Day beaches, Bastogne and the Ardennes for the Battle of the Bulge, the American cemeteries at Colleville and Luxembourg, the Western Front in autumn. Plus the Mekong Delta in Vietnam earlier in the year, and a few history festivals along the way.

I'll be posting from the ground throughout. If you've followed this page for the history, the next six months will be worth sticking around for.

Watch this space!

Cheers,
Mat

08/07/2025

Three Battles River Cruise: Waterloo, WW1 and WW2

Imagine visiting battlefields from three of the most pivotal conflicts in history on a single extraordinary journey. Mat McLachlan’s exclusive 2027 Signature Tour combines the luxury of river cruising with unparalleled battlefield exploration across the Netherlands and Belgium.

This exceptional 8-day voyage departing Amsterdam on 18th September 2027 takes you through the heart of European military history. Walk the hallowed ground where Wellington faced Napoleon at Waterloo, explore the trenches and memorials of the Great War in Ypres, and follow in the footsteps of the heroes from Operation Market Garden during the anniversary of this famous WW2 battle.

What makes this tour truly special? In addition to touring Waterloo and the Ypres Salient, you’ll spend two full days immersing yourself in the Market Garden battlefields - the same dramatic operation immortalised in “A Bridge Too Far” and “Band of Brothers”. There’s no better time to experience these sites than during the anniversary commemorations.

As we sail between Amsterdam, Kampen, Utrecht, Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp and Dordrecht, you’ll enjoy exclusive on-board seminars led by Mat himself, combined with comprehensive cultural shore excursions that reveal the broader history and beauty of this remarkable region.

This is the only tour Mat personally leads each year, making it an intimate and exclusive experience for military history enthusiasts. From Waterloo’s decisive moments to the courage displayed in the trenches of WWI and the heroism of Market Garden, you’ll witness where history was made.

Full details will be released in the coming weeks, so pre-register now for this once-in-a-lifetime historical journey.https://battlefields.com.au/pre-register-for-2027-battlefield-river-cruises/

02/10/2025

New podcast!: Join me and historian John McManus as we discuss the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, on the latest episode of Living History. Listen for free here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1c5aSeyWYxF4KMPFmP1Amb?si=Y17ybBi7ToKcTdxiAiTnUg

Address

Manhattan Beach, CA

Telephone

+18444002288

Website

http://www.historycruises.com/

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