Virtual Tours - 'The Rearguard affair at Etreux' is now available to view
Members of The Western Front Association will be aware of the 'Virtual Tours' we have invested in, as an antidote to the inability of being able to visit the battlefields. These tours are being provided through a partnership with our friends at Battle Guide Virtual Tours.
These tours 'sold out' very rapidly and approximately sixty members are enjoying these 'live' experiences on a fortnightly basis. These tours are being staged in a chronological sequence, with a tour of a 1914 battlefield being the first to be undertaken, with 1915, 1916, 1917 and two covering 1918 in the pipeline.
As promised, we are making these available to members for free (after the live event) but with a slight 'time lag' after each tour. We are delighted to now make the first tour available. A four minute 'clip' of this is available below. (Click the right pointing arrow in the bottom left corner of the image)
Whilst most who focus on the early actions of the BEF concentrate, with some justification, on Smith Dorrien's II Corps, the 27 August saw a determined and costly stand by men of the 2nd Royal Munster Fusiliers, a detachment of the 15th Hussars and a section of 118th Battery RFA. This small force, acting as the rearguard for Haig's I Corps, fought on throughout the day against the overwhelming numbers of the German X Reserve Corps. Despite bridges being blown and their eventual encirclement, their stoic resistance would earn the respect and admiration of their comrades and opponents in equal measures, this virtual battlefield tour will follow their defence from the initial contact on the crossroads at Chapeau Rouge to the orchard just outside Etreux where they made their fateful, final stand.
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