2010 Study Tour This year's programme
of study was very special. As part of the 100th Anniversary celebrations
of Canada's navy, the group visited Iceland and the United Kingdom to
examine the vital role played by the RCN in the Atlantic. After crossing
the Channel, participants then explored the Second World War campaign in
Normandy.
2009 Study Tour This involved a 16-day
Study Tour of Canadian Battlefields in France and Belgium from 29 May to
13 June 2009. The 2009 programme of study included First World War
battlefields atYpres, Beaumont-Hamel, and Vimy Ridge. Following a stop
in Dieppe, participants then explored in depth the Second World War
campaign in Normandy.
2008 Study Tour The 14th Annual Battlefield Study Tour 16 - 30 May 2008. Again this year we chose 12 keen university students from across the country to study the Canadian battlefields in Northwest Europe. As 2008 marked the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War, we spent five eventful days following the Canadians from Ypres to the Somme and Vimy and the Final Hundred Days. Then we headed to the Channel ports in Northern France and the Scheldt to see how First Canadian Army overcame its many challenges a generation later. With stays in Brugges and Arnhem, we followed the Maple Leaf Route into the Rhineland, then explored how the Canadians helped liberate so much of Northwest Europe. A final visit to Westerbork, from where so many Dutch Jews were deported to the death camps, was profoundly moving. The students ‘read’ many books, but they also ‘read’ the ground over which the Canadians fought, as well as the many cemeteries, monuments and rituals through which we have come to remember these events. There were many powerful moments.
2007 Study Tour The 13th Annual Battlefield Study Tour - The Canadians and the Liberation of Europe: Normandy, Dieppe, Vimy, Beaumont-Hamel 1-16 June 2007
2006 Study Tour The Tour program included visits to Vimy Ridge, Beaumont-Hamel and Dieppe before beginning an intensive study of the Canadian role in the Battle of Normandy.
2005 Study Tour The Canadians and
the Liberation of Europe: Normandy to the Scheldt 1-15 June 2005. The program included
visits to Vimy Ridge, Beaumont-Hamel and Dieppe before beginning an
intensive study of the Canadian role in the Battle of Normandy and the
operations to clear the Scheldt Estuary.
2004 Study Tour
The Foundation observed the 60th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of
Normandy by offering 16 Canadian University students the opportunity to
visit and study the Canadian battlefields in Normandy. The Study Tour
began with visits to Beaumont-Hamel, Vimy and Dieppe and then spent two
weeks in Normandy. The course was honoured to have Her Excellency
Adrienne Clarkson preside over Foundation ceremonies at Le Mémoriale and
place de L'Ancienne Boucherie in Caen and at L' Abbaye D'Ardenne in the
presence of students numerous veterans and French dignitaries and
citizens. Students and members of the Foundation including Normandy
veterans lived together at le Moulin Morin, a property close to the
beaches and inland battlefields.
Click here for a series of photographs of the 2004 Normandy D-Day Study Tour
2003 Study Tour Marking the
60th Anniversary of Operation HUSKY, the invasion of Sicily, this year’s
student tour was dedicated in its entirety to Italy. Twelve students from
across Canada were selected to attend this year’s tour which was led by
LCol David Patterson, of the Canadian Land Force Command and Staff
College. Two students assisted ably with the guiding duties; they were Lee
Windsor, a PhD candidate from UNB, and Major Mike Boire, a PhD candidate
from RMC.
The tour followed the path of the Canadian Forces in Sicily and Italy
starting where they did, on the beach at Pachino. The wide deserted
beaches, devoid of monuments, contrast sharply with the heavily
commemorated strand along Juno Beach. The students knew they were standing
on ground very few Canadians have visited, a fact that made the experience
all the more precious. After the beaches we visited the Canadian Memorial
at Manza (see photo) a large monument in one of the first villages seized
by the Canadians. We then followed the path of the 1st Division into the
rugged hills of Sicily. Famous names such as Leonforte, Assoro, Agira and
Regalbuto were transformed from two dimensional map references into craggy
hilltop towns that amply illustrated the tremendous achievement of the
Canadian troops. The cemetery at Agira was a sight few will forget.
After Sicily we moved north to Cassino and the Liri Valley, then crossed
the mountains to Ortona. The steep valleys of the Moro and “The Gully”
were visited along with the narrow streets of Ortona town itself. The
bitter fighting in the town and environs was described and the new museum
in Ortona visited. We continued north to visit the Gothic Line
battlefields of late summer and fall 1944. The achievement of the 1st
Canadian Corps in cracking the Gothic Line is often overlooked, but not by
the students of CBF Tour 2003. We visited all the important battlefields
and gained an enormous respect for the professionalism and courage of the
Canadian soldier.
We rounded out our tour with a ceremony in Bardi where we helped mark the
unveiling of a monument to two Canadian airmen, among a crew of six, who
died in a crash near the town in 1943. The dedication and respect of the
local population was overwhelming. The tour the ended in Milan where we
looked back on out two week odyssey with a new appreciation for the “D-Day
Dodgers.”
For more on
the tour click here
2002 Study Tour. Led by Dr. Geoff
Hayes, the 2002 tour visited Vimy, Beaumont Hamel, and Dieppe before
spending eight days examining the Normandy campaign. They followed this up
with a tour of the Channel Ports and Bruges, -and closed with a study of
the Battle of the Scheldt. The tour ended with a day in Paris.
2001 Study Tour
The 2001 tour visited the Ypres salient, and other Canadian battlefields
in the Somme, in and around Vimy, and Amiens.
Dieppe was the next destination allowing an in-depth tour of all
three Canadian landing beaches.
2000
Study Tour Participants
started in Great Britain and followed the Canadian Forces across the
English Channel, on to Juno Beach, and into the areas south of Caen.
1999
Study Tour The 1999
Canadian Battlefields Foundation study tour strayed from its normal
itinerary and ventured south to Italy. The participants were privileged
enough to spend eight days following the movements of the Canadian Army
from the Gustav Line to Rome and from Ortona to the San Fortunato Ridge.
In France the study tour spent a day in both Amiens and Dieppe, and seven
days following the Canadians from Juno Beach to Falaise.
1998 Study Tour This tour was led
by Professor Terry Copp of Wilfrid Laurier University, focussed on the
Normany and Northwest European Campaigns. After visiting several
Great War sites and Dieppe, the participants followed the 'Maple Leaf
Route' from Juno Beach to Njimegen, Netherlands.