The Maginot Line

Depart from your chosen UK pick-up point and travel to the port where a coach interchange will take place, you will then join your tour coach for the Channel crossing. On arrival on the Continent we continue to our hotel (passengers joining the tour in Europe will meet the group at the hotel this evening).

We begin this fortifications tour in Belgium and see the 1930s Liege forts used to defend Belgium against the Blitzkrieg. We start at Eben Emael, assaulted by German Airborne troops in gliders; we have a full tour of the site here. After lunch we see the heavily fought over Fort d’Aubin-Neufchâteau, completely surrounded in May 1940; here we take a guided tour of the fort, seeing the extensive damage caused in 1940. We then travel through the Belgian Ardennes, scene of the Blitzkrieg in May 1940, and into France to our Mainstay hotel were we stay for the next three nights.

*Breakfast Included

Today we start our look at the Maginot Line at Ouvrage Fermont. This massive system of bunkers and tunnels came under attack in May 1940 and proved how strong the Maginot Line could be. We descend in the original lifts, travel on an old ammunition train and see the fighting bunkers during our morning’s guided tour of the site. Lunch nearby. In the afternoon we see Villy la Ferte, a smaller Maginot Line complex that saw heavy fighting in May 1940. The site has been left as it was, with anti-tank rails, barbed wire and bunkers showing wartime damage. We have a fully guided tour around one of the few Maginot sites that saw heavy fighting.

*Breakfast Included

We continue with our look at the classic Maginot Line locations with a visit to Ouvrage Immerhof. Sited in the Thionville sector, it was built in the early 1930s with an extensive system of infantry and combat bunkers. In an excellent state of preservation we spend the morning visiting the whole site, with a 90-minute guided tour and also seeing the museum. Lunch nearby. In the afternoon we travel to Ouvrage Hackenberg. Set on high ground, this is the largest fortification on the whole Maginot Line and was one part of the line actually held by British troops in 1939/40. We spend two hours underground here seeing what a remarkable state of preservation the site is in, and seeing the many objects connected with the defence of this area. We continue our look at British troops in this area with a visit to the cemetery at Luttange, where the first British soldier killed in WW2 was buried.

*Breakfast Included

We leave the hotel after breakfast and travel to the Channel port. You will leave your tour coach behind as you join your transfer vehicle for your return journey to your original departure point.

*Breakfast Included