This 10-day package combines the major WW2 campaigns, in NW Europe; Battle of Normandy, Battle of the Scheldt, Battle of the Rhine and the Liberation of Holland This complete package will especially appeal to those who have an in-depth interest of the entire Canadian campaign of NW Europe and especially for those who had a relative that served in the campaign. The Maple Leaf Tour follows the same route that our Canadian heroes took, from Juno beach in Normandy until the end of hostilities on VE Day, May 8, 1945, in Holland.
You will be responsible to get to Bayeux, Normandy where the tour starts. The tour ends in Nijmegen or Deventer, Holland. You will be responsible for onward travel from that point.
Here is the itinerary for this fascinating one-of-a-kind tour:
Day 1, 2 &3 – Your tour begins in Bayeux Normandy. You will a condensed itinerary set out in the following link – http://www.canadianbattlefieldtours.ca/battle-of-normandy/
Overnights in Bayeux.
Day 4 – This is a free travel day. You will arrange your own travel, at your own cost, from Bayeux to Bergen-op-Zoom, Netherlands to prepare for the Battle of the Scheldt tour. Overnight in Bergen-op-Zoom.
Day 5,& 6 – You will visit the Canadian War Cemetery. We then have a look at the events at the Leopold Canal and Moerkerke and work our way north to the heart of the Scheldt battles. You will explore the actions of Operation Switchback, Operation Infatuate & Vitality, Operation Suitcase and the terrible events at Woensdrecht. Overnights in Bergen-op-Zoom.
Day 7 – We continue our tour of the Scheldt and tour the Breskens Pocket, Woensdrecht, (where the Canadian Black Watch experienced their worst day of the war, on ‘Black Friday’ – October 13, 1944) Hoogerheide, the Causeway, Walcheren Island, Westkapelle.
http://www.canadianbattlefieldtours.ca/channel-tours-battle-of-the-scheldt/
Day 8 – This is a free travel day. You will arrange your own travel, at your own cost, from Bergen-op-Zoom to Nijmegen or Deventer, Netherlands to prepare for the Battle of the Rhine. Overnight in Nijmegen or Deventer
Day 9 & 10 – Begin your Battle of the Rhine tour where you will visit the Canadian war cemetery at Groesbeek; then into Germany where we stop at the largest Commonwealth Cemetery in Germany in the Reichswald Forest. We will visit Kleve, Wyler, Den Heuvel, Louisendorf, the Goch-Kalkar road, Mooshof, Xanten, the Hochwald Gap, Rees, Bienen, Speldrop, Emmerich, Hoch Elten.
We cover all areas of Operation Veritable, Operation Blockbuster, and Operation Plunder (Turnscrew). Please see detailed descriptions of these Operations on our Battle of the Rhine page. Overnights in Nijmegen or Deventer.
http://www.canadianbattlefieldtours.ca/battle-of-the-rhine/
Day 11 & 12 – We now turn to the Liberation of Holland to conclude your tour experience. Here, you will tour the route that our Canadian Liberators took in April 1945. You will visit Doetinchem, Arnhem, Nijmegen, Zutphen, Apeldoorn, Almen, Villa Rozenhof, (where Capt. Geo. Blackburn earned his MC), Deventer and the tour ends with a solemn visit to one of the most beautiful of all Canadian War cemeteries, in Holten, where 1,394 Canadian heroes now rest. Overnight in Nijmegen or Deventer.
http://www.canadianbattlefieldtours.ca/liberation-of-holland-3/
Your once-in-a-lifetime tour has now ended. Many thanks for touring with Canadian Battlefield Tours.
Additional Tour Information
Our Maple Leaf Route Tour condenses your time, resulting in savings on lodging and meals. We are able to condense the time for you by reducing travel times. You will still visit all the sites covered in the individual tour options, but the transition between the tours will be seamless and contiguous.
As with our other tour options, this tour will be a private, personalized tour, available anytime on a first come-first serve basis, ideally for groups of 1-3 people. If you have any special requests, like following the footsteps of a particular Veteran or unit, we are happy to accommodate, whenever possible. If you do have an interest in a particular soldier or unit, please provide us with his details and we will do extensive research on his service, to make your tour an even more meaningful experience.
Of course, the tours combined in this package are still available on a standalone basis or any combination thereof, that best suits your interests.
This tour, as well as our others, will be priced on the following basis. The price quoted will be for all ground transportation within the battlefield areas, with professional guide(s). It does not include anything else. Of course, we are happy to make recommendations to help with your travel planning, like hotels, B&B’s. There are many hotel booking sites but we have always liked http://booking.com.
