Military History Tours-
Battle of Stalingrad
Battle for Stalingrad 75th Anniversary Trip 1-5 september 2017, £1199 plus £40 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Last few places available. The Battle of Stalingrad (August 23,...
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Operation Valkyrie
Operation Valkyrie 8-12 September 2017, £799 plus £35 per night single room supplement, where applicable. £200 deposit. Places available. Operation Valkyrie (Operation Walküre) was an order for the Territorial...
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Operation Musketoon Raid on Glomfjord
Operation Musketoon: Commando Raid, Norway 15-17 September 2017, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Just 1 room left! Operation Musketoon was the codeword for an Anglo-Norwegian...
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Nuremberg: Mass Rallies, Race Laws & Nazi War Crimes Trials
Nuremberg: Mass Rallies, Race Laws & Nazi War Crime Trials 20-22 October 2017, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where appllicable. Places available. The Nuremberg...
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Colditz Castle
Escape to Colditz 26-28 October 2017, £549 plus £30 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. Oflag IVC, “Colditz”, the infamous WW2 POW Sonderlager or...
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Poets of the Great War
November 3-5 2017, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available! One outstanding legacy of the Great War is the literature produced by...
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Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution: 100th Anniversary Trip 6-10 November 2017, £1199 plus £50 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. “Russian Revolution” is the collective term...
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Auschwitz
Auschwitz Trip 9-11 November 2017, £549 plus £35 single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. “Auschwitz”: the very word itself is synonymous with man’s inhumanity against man....
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Third Reich Berlin
Third Reich Berlin 16-18 November 2017, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. Welthauptstadt (“World Capital”) Germania was the name Adolf Hitler gave to the projected renewal of...
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Operation Frankton
Operation Frankton: The Cockleshell Heroes 8-10 December 2017, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. Operation Frankton was an Allied raid on shipping in...
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Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge Anniversary Trip 15-17 December 2017, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The Battle of the Bulge...
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RAF Raid on Dresden
RAF Raid on Dresden Anniversary February 12-14 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The bombing of Dresden was a British...
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Operation Jericho – Raid on Amiens Prison
Operation Jericho: the Raid on Amiens Prison 16-18 February 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. Operation Jericho was a low-level bombing...
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Operation Biting: Bruneval Raid
Operation Biting: Bruneval Raid 24-25 February 2018, £329 plus £35 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. Operation Biting, also known as the Bruneval Raid,...
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Himmler’s SS Wewelsburg Castle
Himmler’s SS Wewelsburg Castle March 15-17 2018, £549 plus £30 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. It is said that the Wewelsburg was going to...
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The Great Escape Camp: Stalag Luft III
The Great Escape Camp: Stalag Luft III Trip 23-25 March 2018, £549 plus £40 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. Stalag Luft III, known...
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Operation Chariot: St Nazaire Raid
St Nazaire: The Greatest Raid of all 23-25 March 2018 Raid Anniversary , £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The St Nazaire...
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Rhine Crossings ’45
The crossing of the Rhine: Operation Plunder and Operation Varsity 23-25 March 2018, Rhine Crossings 75th anniversary, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable....
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V Rockets in the Harz Mountains
V Rockets at Nordhausen: Mittelwerk & Kohnstein Mountain, Mittelbau Dora Camp & Buchenwald Concentration Camps April 5-7 2018, £549 plus £40 per night single room supplement, where...
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Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 75th Anniversary 20-22 April 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act...
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German U Boats & the Battle of the Atlantic
German U Boats & the Battle of the Atlantic: Brest, Lorient, St Nazairre, La Rochelle & Bordeaux Pens April 27-29 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room...
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Operation Chastise: Dambusters
Operation Chastise: Dambusters Raid on the Mohne, Eder & Sorpe Dams 15-17 May 2018, 75th Anniversary, £549 plus £40 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places...
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Battle of Crete
Battle of Crete 24 – 28 May 2018, £899 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The battle began on the morning of...
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Operation Anthropoid: Assassination of Heydrich, Prague
Operation Anthropoid: The Assassination of Heydrich in Prague 26-28 May 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where appllicable. Places available. Operation Anthropoid was the...
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Cologne “1,000 Bomber” Raid: Operation Millenium
1000 Bomber RAF Raid on Cologne Anniversary Trip 2-4 June 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The German city of...
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German Defence of Normandy 1944
German Defence of Normandy 1944 15-17 June 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The 6th June 1944, D Day, a heroic...
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Nazi Munich, Berchtesgaden, Obersalzburg, Hitler’s Berghof & Eagles Nest
Nazi Munich, Berchtesgaden, Obersalzburg, Hitler’s Berghof & Eagles Nest June 21-23 2018, £599 plus £50 per night single room supplement, places available. The Bavarian capital of Munich...
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Operation Husky: Allied Invasion of Sicily
Operation Husky: Allied Invasion of Sicily 19-23 July 2018, £949 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed...
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Operation Gomorrah: Hamburg Raid
RAF Raid on Hamburg July 20-22 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War...
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Battle of Moscow
Battle for Moscow Trip 7-11 August 2018, £1249 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The German strategic offensive, named Operation Typhoon, called...
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Peenemunde & Operation Hydra
Peenemunde & Operation Hydra 17-19 August 2018, £549 plus £40 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. Located on the Baltic coast the Peenemünde Military...
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Operation Jubilee: Dieppe Raid
Operation Jubilee & the Dieppe Raid Anniversary Trip 17-19 August 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The Dieppe Raid, also...
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Operation Citadel: Battle of Kursk
Operation Citadel: Battle of Kursk 17-21 August 2018, Operation Citadel & the Battle of Kursk 75th Anniversary, £1249, places available The Battle of Kursk was a Second...
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Siege of Leningrad
Siege of Leningrad Trip 22-26 August 2018, £1249 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the...
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The Holocaust
HIGHLIGHTED TOUR: The Holocaust 24 August – 3 September 2018, 10 nights/11 days: £2999 plus £45 single room supplement, where applicable. All airport transfers, private transport between...
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V Rocket launch sites in North West Europe
V Rocket launch sites in North West Europe 31 August – 2 September 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. In...
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Operation Reinhard & The Holocaust
Operation Reinhard & The Holocaust 7-9 September 2018, £549 plus £35 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. Operation Reinhard (Aktion Reinhard or Einsatz Reinhard) was the code...
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Operation Market Garden: Drop/Landing Zones & Bridges
Market Garden: Hells Highway, the Drop Zones & Bridges 21-23 Sept 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. Following the initial successes...
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German occupation of the Channel Islands: Jersey
German occupation of the Channel Islands: Jersey 28 – 30 September 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The Channel Islands...
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Wooden Horse Escape: Stalag Luft III
The Wooden Horse Escape: Stalag Luft III 75th Anniversary Trip 27-29 October 2018, £549 plus £35 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The Wooden...
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Blitzkrieg in the West
Blitzkrieg in the West, May 1940 10-12 May 2019, £599 plus £50 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available. The German plan for the invasion...
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2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, SOE/SAS & The French Resistance – June 1944
2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, SOE/SAS & The French Resistance – June 1944 7-10 June 2019, £849 plus £50 per night single room supplement, where applicable....
MHT
Military History Tours are THE experts and here at MHT we take great pride in what we do. We specialise in low group numbers and are experts in each of our chosen fields. We wish to share this ‘on the ground’ knowledge with you as we believe it is only by walking in the footsteps of those who were there can you get a real insight into what went on. MHT enables you to ‘live’ the history. Please check out our specialist trips via the menu above.
Stalingrad
Stalingrad
1-5 September 2017
MHT also offer tours and guidance to some of our city destinations all year round.
These tours are organised to the same exceptionally high level of planning and detail as the MHT “Trips” we have become famous for, indeed they are run by the same Historians. In Berlin, Warsaw, Saint Petersburg, Sarajevo and Kaliningrad the MHT Historians live locally so in oder to cater for our guests on a year round basis we are delighted to be able to offer city tours on dates that suit the individual needs of our guests.
Battle for Stalingrad 75th Anniversary Trip
1-5 september 2017, £1199 plus £40 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Last few places available.
The Battle of Stalingrad (August 23, 1942 – February 2, 1943) was a major battle for control of the city of Stalingrad in the southwestern Soviet Union. Marked by constant close quarters combat and disregard for military and civilian casualties, it is among the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare. The heavy losses inflicted on the Wehrmacht make it is arguably the most strategically decisive battle of the whole war – the German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew vast military forces from the West to reinforce their losses.
Highlights include:
Operation Valkyrie
8-12 September 2017, £799 plus £35 per night single room supplement, where applicable. £200 deposit. Places available.
Operation Valkyrie (Operation Walküre) was an order for the Territorial Reserve Army of Germany to execute and implement in case of a general breakdown in civil order of the nation. German Army (Heer) officers, including Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, modified the plan with the intention of using it to take control of German cities, disarm the SS, and arrest the Nazi leadership once Hitler had been assassinated in the July 20 Plot. The tour is split between Hitler’s Wolfs Lair where the bomb was detonated and Berlin itself, where the story, tragically, unfolded and where Hitler unleased his fury in the aftermath.
Operation Musketoon: Commando Raid, Norway
15-17 September 2017, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Just 1 room left!
Operation Musketoon was the codeword for an Anglo-Norwegian Commando raid in the Second World War. The operation was mounted against the German-held Glomfjord Hydro Electric Power Station, pictured above, in Norway between 11–21 September 1942. The men selected were two officers and eight men from No. 2 Commando and two Norwegian corporals from the Norwegian Independent Company 1, part of the Special Operations Executive. The daring raid was highly successful and rendered the plant inoperable for the rest of the war. However, seven men were captured and executed under the new Hitler ‘Commando Order’.
Nuremberg: Mass Rallies, Race Laws & Nazi War Crime Trials
20-22 October 2017, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where appllicable. Places available.
The Nuremberg Rally was the annual rally of the Nazi Party inGermany, held from 1923 to 1938. They were large Nazi propaganda events, especially after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 and were held at the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg from 1933 to 1938 and are usually referred to in English as the “Nuremberg Rallies”.
At the annual party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the Nazis announced new laws which institutionalized many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of “German or related blood.” Ancillary ordinances to the laws disenfranchised Jews and deprived them of most political rights.
The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the Allied forces after World War II, which were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in The Holocaust and other war crimes. The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg, Germany. The first, and best known of these trials, described as “the greatest trial in history” by Norman Birkett, one of the British judges who presided over it.
Escape to Colditz
26-28 October 2017, £549 plus £30 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
Oflag IVC, “Colditz”, the infamous WW2 POW Sonderlager or ‘Bad Boys Camp’ for Allied Officers. Made famous by the old 1955 black & white John Mills film and the 1970’s TV series starring David McCallum. Colditz truly is an amazing place. Here the Germans attempted to collect all the prolific escapers and high profile prisoners in order to keep them under lock and key. Instead they created an ‘Escapers University’ – with more “Home Runs” from Colditz than any other POW camp! Come and let us show you how they did it…
November 3-5 2017, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available!
One outstanding legacy of the Great War is the literature produced by some of its combatants. Thrust into situations of such an intensely horrific nature, these individuals, through their poems and prose have recorded for posterity just what life in these awful situations must have been like. Equal to this sense of doom was how they were able to capture the essence of everyday life for the soldier as he found himself miles from home, thrown together with his new found comrades and living a life filled with boredom, hunger, tiredness and an overriding sense of the unknown. This tour visits the locations in which many of the poets of the Great War served. Here we discuss and read their poetry and prose close to where it was written, or, potentially, at their graveside. To study their works is rewarding in itself, but to read and discuss them at the places so closely connected with the authors is a wonderful experience and a fitting homage to the memory of those that penned such great works for later generations to enjoy.
The Russian Revolution: 100th Anniversary Trip
6-10 November 2017, £1199 plus £50 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
“Russian Revolution” is the collective term for a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, and the old regime was replaced by a provisional government during the first revolution of February 1917 (March in the Gregorian calendar; the older Julian calendar was in use in Russia at the time). In the second revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a Bolshevik (Communist) government – an event that shook the world.
Auschwitz Trip
9-11 November 2017, £549 plus £35 single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
“Auschwitz”: the very word itself is synonymous with man’s inhumanity against man. It was a network of concentration and extermination camps built and operated in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany. It was the largest of the German concentration camps, consisting of Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Auschwitz III-Monowitz and 45 satellite camps. MHT sets these camps within the overall story of the German occupation of Poland and we explore the mechanisms of power in the Old Town, the WW2 Jewish Ghetto, the Old Jewish Quarter, the Plaszow Forced Labour Camp and the story of Oskar Shindler.
Auschwitz is a location that simply everyone should visit in their lifetime.
Third Reich Berlin
16-18 November 2017, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
Welthauptstadt (“World Capital”) Germania was the name Adolf Hitler gave to the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin to have been completed by 1950 in time for Berlin to host a World Fair. However, his vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II was dashed by the destruction of war. Albert Speer, “the first architect of the Third Reich”, produced many of the plans for the rebuilt city and these and the work of other architects are traced on our amazing journey through time. From the seat of Nazi Government to cultural displays of Third Reich power, from gratuitous exhibitions of nationlism to meticulously organised military might, we see it all. Berlin, the very heart of what was Nazi Germany is an amazing city. Steeped in history and full of amazing places, if you know where to look for them…
Operation Frankton: The Cockleshell Heroes
8-10 December 2017, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
Operation Frankton was an Allied raid on shipping in the German occupied French port of Bordeaux in the Bay of Biscay during the Second World War. The raid was carried out by a small unit of Royal Marines known as the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment (RMBPD), part of Combined Operations. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill believed the mission shortened World War II by six months and Admiral Louis Mountbatten, the commander of Combined Operations, deemed the raid “the most courageous and imaginative of all the raids ever carried out by the men of Combined Operations”.
The Battle of the Bulge Anniversary Trip
15-17 December 2017, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. United States forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties for any operation during the war. The battle also severely depleted Germany’s armored forces on the western front which Germany was largely unable to replace. German personnel and Luftwaffe aircraft also sustained heavy losses.
RAF Raid on Dresden Anniversary
February 12-14 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The bombing of Dresden was a British and American attack on the city of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony. In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 722 heavy bombers of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and 527 of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city.The bombing and the resulting firestorm destroyed over 1,600 acres (6.5 km2) of the city centre. Large variations in the claimed death toll have fueled the controversy. In March 1945, the German government ordered its press to publish a falsified casualty figure of 200,000 for the Dresden raids, and death toll estimates as high as 500,000 have been given. The city authorities at the time estimated no more than 25,000 victims, a figure that subsequent investigations, including a 2010 study commissioned by the city council, support.
Operation Jericho: the Raid on Amiens Prison
16-18 February 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
Operation Jericho was a low-level bombing raid by Allied aircraft on Amiens Prison in German-occupied France on 18 February 1944. The objective of the raid was to free French Resistance and political prisoners. The raid is remarkable for the precision and daring of the attack, which was filmed by a camera on one of the planes. Mosquito bombers succeeded in breaching the walls and buildings of the prison, as well as destroying guards’ barracks. We also explore Mosquito Raids on V Weapons sites in the nearby vacinity.
Operation Biting: Bruneval Raid
24-25 February 2018, £329 plus £35 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
Operation Biting, also known as the Bruneval Raid, was the code name given to a British Combined Operations raid on a German radar installation at Bruneval in northern France, which took place on the night of 27–28 February 1942 during World War II. A number of these installations were identified from Royal Air Force (RAF) aerial reconnaissance photographs during 1941, but their exact purpose and the nature of the equipment that they possessed was not known. Scientists requested that one of these installations be raided and the technology it possessed be studied and, if possible, extracted and brought back to Britain for further examination. It was decided that an airborne assault followed by seaborne evacuation would be the most practicable way to surprise the garrison of the installation, seize the technology intact, and minimise casualties to the raiding force.
Himmler’s SS Wewelsburg Castle
March 15-17 2018, £549 plus £30 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
It is said that the Wewelsburg was going to be the “Grail Castle” of the Nazi regime, once it had established itself as rulers of the world. Is this true, and, if so, what was their ambition in this vast building project? It is clear that any Grail Castle to be built would have a geometrical design, and in the case of the Wewelsburg, that is a triangle. For Himmler, the Wewelsburg was not so much the location where the Grail was hidden, but where his Grail Order – the SS, the Schutzstaffel – and its sacred treasures – rumoured to be the Spear of Destiny – would be brought, and from which the magical power of the Nazi regime would radiate out.
The Great Escape Camp: Stalag Luft III Trip
23-25 March 2018, £549 plus £40 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
Stalag Luft III, known to many as “The Great Escape” Camp was the vast POW Camp for Allied Airmen cut out of a thick forest in Upper Silesia, then in the East of Germany now in Poland and located 100 miles southeast of Berlin. The site was selected because it would be difficult to escape by tunneling given the sandy sub soil – however, the camp is best known for two famous prisoner escapes that took place there by tunneling: The Great Escape and The Wooden Horse Escape. We explore camp life as well as dozens of escapes attempts made by the POWs.
St Nazaire: The Greatest Raid of all
23-25 March 2018 Raid Anniversary , £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The St Nazaire Raid or Operation Chariot was a successful British amphibious attack on the heavily defended Normandie dry dock in German-occupied France during the WW2. The operation was undertaken by the Royal Navy and British Commandos under the auspices of Combined Operations Headquarters on 28 March 1942. It was targeted because the loss of its dry dock would force any large German warship in need of repairs, such as the Tirpitz, to return to home waters rather than having a safe haven available on the Atlantic coast.
The crossing of the Rhine: Operation Plunder and Operation Varsity
23-25 March 2018, Rhine Crossings 75th anniversary, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
Beginning on the night of 23 March 1945, Operation Plunder was the crossing of the River Rhine at Rees, Wesel, and south of the Lippe River by the British Second Army, under Lieutenant-General Miles C. Dempsey (Operations Turnscrew, Widgeon, and Torchlight), and the United States Ninth Army (Operation Flashpoint), under Lieutenant General William H. Simpson. The U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps, consisting of the British 6th and U.S. 17th Airborne Divisions, conducted Operation Varsity, airborne landings on the east bank in support of Operation Plunder. Involving more than 16,000 paratroopers and several thousand aircraft, it was the largest airborne operation in history to be conducted on a single day and in one location. All of these formations were part of the 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. This was part of a coordinated set of Rhine crossings.
V Rockets at Nordhausen: Mittelwerk & Kohnstein Mountain, Mittelbau Dora Camp & Buchenwald Concentration Camps
April 5-7 2018, £549 plus £40 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The name Mittelbau refers to a complex of factories, storage depots, facilities and prisoner camps, some underground, that were used from August, 1943 until April, 1945 to manufacture and test the V-2 rocket near Nordhausen in central Germany. The main V-2 assembly line was located in an underground factory called Mittelwerk that was excavated beneath Kohnstein Mountain, about 2 km southwest of the town of Neidersachswerfen. The Dora concentration camp (later called Mittelbau KZ), where most of the Mittelwerk workers were imprisoned, was located on the southwest edge of the Kohnstein, near the southern portals of Mittelwerk tunnels A and B.
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 75th Anniversary
20-22 April 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany’s final effort to transport the remaining Ghetto population to Treblinka. The uprising started on 19 April when the Ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who then ordered the burning of the Ghetto, block by block, ending on 16 May. A total of 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. German casualties are not known, but were not more than 300. It was the largest single revolt by Jews during World War II.
German U Boats & the Battle of the Atlantic: Brest, Lorient, St Nazairre, La Rochelle & Bordeaux Pens
April 27-29 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, limited places available.
During World War II, U-boat warfare was the major component of the Battle of the Atlantic, which lasted the duration of the war. Germany had the largest submarine fleet in World War II, since the Treaty of Versailles had limited the surface navy of Germany to six battleships (of less than 10,000 tons each), six cruisers, and 12 destroyers. Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote “The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.”
Operation Chastise: Dambusters Raid on the Mohne, Eder & Sorpe Dams
15-17 May 2018, 75th Anniversary, £549 plus £40 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
Operation Chastise – better known as the Dambusters Raid – was an attack on the mighty Dams of the Ruhr Valley, the industrial heartland of Nazi Germany. It was here on the night of May 16/17 th 1943 Wing Commander Guy Gibson led the brave men of 617 Squadron in their quest to drop the pioneering “bouncing bombs” designed by scientist Barnes Wallis. 144 young men took off from RAF Scampton, 56 failed to return, 3 being taken prisoner, 53 making the ultimate sacrifice. On this trip MHT pays tribute to the ingenuity and bravery of all these men.
Battle of Crete
24 – 28 May 2018, £899 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The battle began on the morning of 20 May 1941, when the Germans began an airborne invasion of Crete. Greek forces and other Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island. After one day of fighting, the Germans had suffered very heavy casualties and the Allied troops were confident that they would defeat the invasion. The next day, through communication failures, Allied tactical hesitation and German offensive operations, Maleme airfield in western Crete fell, enabling the Germans to land reinforcements and overwhelm the defensive positions on the north of the island. Allied forces withdrew to the south coast. Over half were evacuated by the Royal Navy; the remainder surrendered or joined the Cretan resistance.
Operation Dynamo: Miracle of Dunkirk
25-27 May 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
In May 1940 the Germans conducted the ‘Blitzkrieg in the West’ and, after reaching the Channel, the Germans swung north along the coast threatening to capture the ports and trap the British and French forces before they could evacuate to Britain. Controversially the army were to halt for three days, giving the Allies time to organise an evacuation and build a defensive line. Despite the Allies’ gloomy estimates of the situation, with Britain discussing a conditional surrender to Germany, in the end over 330,000 Allied troops were rescued.
Operation Anthropoid: The Assassination of Heydrich in Prague
26-28 May 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where appllicable. Places available.
Operation Anthropoid was the code name for the assassination of SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Office, RSHA), the combined security services of Nazi Germany, and acting Reichsprotektor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It was carried out in Prague on 27 May 1942 after having been prepared by the British Special Operations Executive with the approval of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile. Wounded in the attack, Heydrich died of his injuries on 4 June 1942. His death led to a wave of merciless reprisals by the Germans, including the destruction of villages and the killing of civilians.
1000 Bomber RAF Raid on Cologne Anniversary Trip
2-4 June 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The German city of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids by the Allies during World War II, all by the Royal Air Force (RAF) but for a single failed post-capture test of a guided missile by the United States Army Air Forces. A total of 34,711 long tons of bombs were dropped on the city by the RAF. While air raid alarms had gone off in the winter/spring of 1940 as British bombers passed overhead, the first bombing took place on 12 May 1940. The most notable attack, the subject of our trip, was the first 1,000 bomber raid on 30/31 May 1942.
German Defence of Normandy 1944
15-17 June 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The 6th June 1944, D Day, a heroic tale of airborne and beach landings. It is a story that everyone knows and history tells us the Allies made it off the beaches on that ‘Longest Day’ but what is not widely known is the incredible defensive actions fought by the Germans in land over the following few weeks. Actions which, in post war years, would become the blue print to be used by the British Army on the Rhine during the Cold War to combat a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. On this trip we explore not only the beach defences but the fascinating tank actions in land by the legendary Michael Wittmann and others.
Nazi Munich, Berchtesgaden, Obersalzburg, Hitler’s Berghof & Eagles Nest
June 21-23 2018, £599 plus £50 per night single room supplement, places available.
The Bavarian capital of Munich held a special place in the Nazi pantheon … it was the “Hauptstadt der Bewegung” – the Capital of the Movement – the birthplace of the Nazi Party. Throughout the Third Reich period, Munich remained the spiritual capital of the Nazi movement, with headquarters buildings, museums to house the forms of artworks approved by Adolf Hitler, and shrines to the attempted Nazi putsch in November 1923. The Bavarian area of Obersalzberg was purchased by the Nazis in the 1920s for their senior leaders to enjoy. Hitler’s mountain residence, the Berghof, was located here. The Eagle’s Nest sits right at the very top.
Operation Husky: Allied Invasion of Sicily
19-23 July 2018, £949 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II, in which the Allies took the island of Sicily from the Axis powers (Italy and Nazi Germany). It was a large amphibious and airborne operation, followed by a six-week land campaign and was the beginning of the Italian Campaign.
Husky began on the night of 9/10 July 1943, and ended on 17 August. Strategically, Husky achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners; the Allies drove Axis air, land and naval forces from the island and the Mediterranean sea lanes were opened for Allied merchant ships for the first time since 1941. The Italian fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, was toppled from power in Italy and the way was opened for the invasion of Italy. Hitler “canceled a major offensive at Kursk after only a week, in part to divert forces to Italy,” resulting in a reduction of German strength on the Eastern Front.
Fly to Catania from Gatwick probably Easyjet. Dep LGW 1155hrs CAT 1555hrs. Book in to hotel.
Dinner and initial briefing.
Day One
Guests are met at Catania airport before transferring to our hotel outside of Catania in the foothills of Mount Etna. Here we have our initial tour briefing.
Day Two
Drive to Syracuse
Ponte Grande Bridge captured by Glider assault
Murro Di Porco – SRS (SAS) under command Paddy Mayne destroy guns
British landings at Fontain Bianche by 5th Br Div
Primosole Bridge 13/14 July assault by 1st Para Bde – largest British Airborne Op to Date
Malati Bridge 13/14 July – assault by 3 Commando
CWGC Syracuse
Day Three
American landings Gela
US 82nd Airborne defence of Piano Lupo
and Ponte Dirillo against German counter attacks
Day Four
Stands on the Huber Line and Forward Defensive Line – the controlled withdrawal of Axis forces around Etna to Messina. Will follow the route of 8th Army arriving at Messina
Centuripi – Assault by 38th Irish Bde
Canadians at Agira – CWGC Agira
Messina Straits – Evacuation by Axis Forces
Day Five
Catania War Museum – Excellent Museum dealing exclusively about events in Sicily
Catania CWGC – 2500 burial
German War Cemetery – Motte San Anastasia
Arrive Catania airport mid afternoon.
RAF Raid on Hamburg
July 20-22 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War II included numerous strategic bombing missions and diversion/nuisance raids. As a large port and industrial centre, Hamburg’s shipyards, U-boat pens, and the Hamburg-Harburg area oil refineries were attacked throughout the war.
The attack during the last week of July 1943, Operation Gomorrah, created one of the largest firestorms raised by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces in World War II, killing 42,600 civilians and wounding 37,000 in Hamburg and virtually destroying most of the city. Before the development of the firestorm in Hamburg there had been no rain for some time and everything was very dry. The unusually warm weather and good conditions meant that the bombing was highly concentrated around the intended targets and also created a vortex and whirling updraft of super-heated air which created a 1,500-foot-high tornado of fire, a totally unexpected effect. Various other previously used techniques and devices were instrumental as well, such as area bombing, Pathfinders, and H2S radar, which came together to work with particular effectiveness. An early form of chaff, code named ‘Window’, was successfully used for the first time by the RAF – clouds of shredded tinfoil dropped by Pathfinders as well as the initial bomber stream – in order to completely cloud German radar. The raids inflicted severe damage to German armaments production in Hamburg.
Battle for Moscow Trip
7-11 August 2018, £1249 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The German strategic offensive, named Operation Typhoon, called for two pincer offensives, one to the north of Moscow against the Kalinin Front by the 3rd and 4th Panzer Armies, simultaneously severing the Moscow–Leningrad railway, and another to the south of Moscow Oblast against the Western Front south of Tula, by the 2nd Panzer Army, while the 4th Army advanced directly towards Moscow from the west. Initially, the Soviet forces conducted a strategic defence of the Moscow Oblast by constructing three defensive belts, deploying newly raised reserve armies, and bringing troops from the Siberian and Far Eastern Military Districts. As the German offensives were halted, a Soviet strategic counter-offensive and smaller-scale offensive operations forced the German armies back to the positions around the cities of Oryol, Vyazma and Vitebsk, and nearly surrounded three German armies.
Peenemunde & Operation Hydra
17-19 August 2018, £549 plus £40 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
Located on the Baltic coast the Peenemünde Military Test Site was one of the most modern technological facilities in the world between 1936 and 1945. The first launch of a missile into space took place here in October 1942 and at the nearby air force testing area rocket engineers tested numerous flight objects equipped with revolutionary technology. From the start this research was directed toward one goal only: achieving military superiority through advanced technology. MHT traces the history of the Nazi weapons facility and the RAF’s attempts to destroy it.
Operation Jubilee & the Dieppe Raid Anniversary Trip
17-19 August 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The Dieppe Raid, also known as the Battle of Dieppe, Operation Rutter during planning stages, and by its final official code-name Operation Jubilee, was an Allied attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe during the Second World War. The raid took place on the northern coast of France on 19 August 1942. The assault began at 5:00 a.m. and by 10:50 a.m. the Allied commanders were forced to call a retreat. Over 6,000 infantrymen, predominantly Canadian, were supported byThe Calgary Regiment of the 1st Canadian Tank Brigade and a strong force of Royal Navy and smaller Royal Air Forcelanding contingents. It involved 5,000 Canadians, 1,000 British troops, and 50 United States Army Rangers.
Objectives included seizing and holding a major port for a short period, both to prove that it was possible and to gather intelligence. Upon retreat, the Allies also wanted to destroy coastal defences, port structures and all strategic buildings. The raid had the added objectives of boosting morale and demonstrating the firm commitment of the United Kingdom to open a western front in Europe. Virtually none of these objectives were met. Allied fire support was grossly inadequate and the raiding force was largely trapped on the beach by obstacles and German fire. Less than 10 hours after the first landings, the last Allied troops had all been either killed, evacuated, or left behind to be captured by the Germans. Instead of a demonstration of resolve, the bloody fiasco showed the world that the Allies could not hope to invade France for a long time.
Operation Citadel: Battle of Kursk
17-21 August 2018, Operation Citadel & the Battle of Kursk 75th Anniversary, £1249, places available
The Battle of Kursk was a Second World War engagement between German and Soviet forces on the Eastern Front near Kursk (450 kilometres or 280 miles south-west of Moscow) in the Soviet Union during July and August 1943. The German offensive was code-named Operation Citadel (German: Unternehmen Zitadelle) and led to one of the largest armoured clashes in history, the Battle of Prokhorovka. The German offensive was countered by two Soviet counter-offensives, Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev (Russian: Полководец Румянцев) and Operation Kutuzov (Russian: Кутузов). For the Germans, the battle was the final strategic offensive that they were able to launch on the Eastern Front. Their extensive loss of men and tanks ensured that the victorious Soviet Red Army enjoyed the strategic initiative for the remainder of the war.
Siege of Leningrad Trip
22-26 August 2018, £1249 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military blockade undertaken mainly by the German Army Group North against Leningrad in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. The siege started on 8 September 1941, when the last road to the city was severed. Although the Soviets managed to open a narrow land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943, the siege was only lifted on 27 January 1944, 872 days after it began. It was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history and possibly the costliest in terms of casualties (nearly 650,000 Russian civilian and the military deaths are well over 1 million Russian and 1/2 million German).
HIGHLIGHTED TOUR: The Holocaust
24 August – 3 September 2018, 10 nights/11 days: £2999 plus £45 single room supplement, where applicable.
All airport transfers, private transport between locations, hotel accomodation and breakfast, all dinners, all museum entrances, MHT Tour Manager and talks and guidance by MHT’s Holocaust Historians (2) are included. Places available but strictly limited.
We visit: the Lodz Ghetto, Chelmno Extermination Camp, Warsaw Ghetto, Lublin Ghetto, Majdanek Concentration Camp, Trawniki Forced Labour Camp & Ukrainian Guard Training Camp: the home of the notorious “Hiwis”, Belzec Extermination Camp, Lviv Ghetto (Ukraine), Sobibor Extermination Camp, Treblinka Extermination Camp, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Krakow Old Jewish Quarter: Kazimierz, Krakow Ghetto: Podgorze, Plaszow Forced Labour Camp & Oskar Schindler Story, Auschwitz I, The Ramp & Auschwitz II Birkenau Camps. With overnight stops in Lodz, Warsaw, Lublin, Zamosc, Lviv and Krakow.
V Rocket launch sites in North West Europe
31 August – 2 September 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
In order to carry out the planned V-1 “flying bomb” attacks on the United Kingdom, Germany built a number of military installations including launching sites and depots. Some of the installations were huge concrete fortifications. The Allies became aware of the sites at an early stage and carried out numerous bombing raids to destroy them before they came into use. V-1 launching sites in France were located in nine general areas – four of which had the ramps aligned toward London, and the remainder toward Brighton, Dover, Newhaven, Hastings, Southampton, Manchester,Portsmouth, Bristol, and Plymouth.
With the V2 because of the complexity of the missile and the need for extensive testing prior to launch, the V-2’s designers at the Peenemünde Army Research Center favoured using heavily defended fixed sites where the missiles could be stored, armed, and fuelled from an on-site LOX production plant before launching.
Operation Reinhard & The Holocaust
7-9 September 2018, £549 plus £35 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
Operation Reinhard (Aktion Reinhard or Einsatz Reinhard) was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps. During the operation, as many as two million people were murdered in Bełżec, Sobibor and Treblinka, almost all of whom were Jews. This is the most definitive tour of its kind. We visit all 3 camps, the Trawniki Ukrainian Guard Training Camp, Majdanek Concentration Camp and also the key SS locations of the Aktion Reinhard power base: Lublin.
Market Garden: Hells Highway, the Drop Zones & Bridges
21-23 Sept 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
Following the initial successes of D Day the Allied advance began to develop supply problems and eventually halted at the Dutch/Belgian border at the beginning of September 1944. In order to break the deadlock Montgomery proposed using airborne troops to make a daring leap over the German defences and open up the way for a mass advance by the Allied armour into Germany. Despite an outstanding valiant and heroic attempt by the British they were unable to ‘hold until relieved’ by the Second Army and, in the name of Ryan’s famous book and subsequent Hollywood movie, it tragically proved to be ….. “A Bridge Too Far….”
German occupation of the Channel Islands: Jersey
28 – 30 September 2018, £549 plus £45 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The Channel Islands were occupied by Nazi Germany for much of World War II, from 30 June 1940 until the liberation on 9 May 1945. On this trip we explore the Bailiwick of Jersey – a British Crown dependencies in the English Channel near the coast of Normandy. The Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to be invaded and occupied by German forces during the war. The Occupation tale is an extraordinary one of much resistance and some collaboration. It also gives a fascinating insight into how the forces of the Third Reich would have behaved in mainland Britain.
The Wooden Horse Escape: Stalag Luft III 75th Anniversary Trip
27-29 October 2018, £549 plus £35 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The Wooden Horse is a 1950 British Second World War war film starring Leo Genn, David Tomlinson and Anthony Steel. It was directed by Jack Lee. It is based on the book of the same name by Eric Williams, who also wrote the screenplay. The film depicts the true events of an escape attempt made by POWs in the German prison camp Stalag Luft III. The wooden horse in the title of the film is a piece of exercise equipment the prisoners use to conceal their escape attempt as well as a reference to the Trojan Horse which was also used to conceal men within. It was shot in a low-key style, with a limited budget and a cast including many amateur actors.
On the 75th Anniversary of the Escape we explore both fact and fiction.
Blitzkrieg in the West, May 1940
10-12 May 2019, £599 plus £50 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
The German plan for the invasion of France consisted of two main operations. In Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes Forest in southeastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg and then along the Somme valley to cut off and surround the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium to meet the expected German threat. When British, Belgian and adjacent French forces were pushed back to the sea by the mobile and well-organized German operation, the British government decided to evacuate the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) as well as several French divisions at Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo. After the withdrawal of the BEF, the German forces launched a second operation, Fall Rot (Case Red) on 5 June 1940. While the depleted French forces put up stiff initial resistance, German air superiority and armoured mobility overwhelmed the remaining French forces. German armour outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deep into France, with German forces arriving in Paris unopposed on 14 June. This caused a chaotic period of flight for the French government and ended organised French military resistance. German commanders met with French officials on 18 June with the goal of forcing the new French government to accept all of the agreements in an armistice offered by Germany. On this trip we concentrate on Fall Gelb/Case Yellow and the events that began on 10th May 1940.
2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, SOE/SAS & The French Resistance – June 1944
7-10 June 2019, £849 plus £50 per night single room supplement, where applicable. Places available.
Within days of the D-Day landings, the ‘Das Reich’ 2nd SS Panzer Division marched north through France to reinforce the front-line defenders of Hitler’s Fortress Europe. Veterans of the bloodiest fighting of the Russion Front, 15,000 men with their tanks and artillery, they were hounded for every mile of their march by saboteurs of the Resistance and agents of the Allied Special Forces. Along their route they took reporisals so savage they will live for ever in the chronicles of the most appalling atrocities of war inflicting appalling atrocities on French people in reprisal for real and imagined attacks by the Resistance. Most notoriously, men of the Das Reich hanged 99 innocent hostages from the balconies of Tulle in the Correze, and massacred more than 500 people of all ages in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane. This is a story of the Das Reich, French Resistance and Allied Special Forces.