Battlefield Tours Research Articles

“Welcome to Divinity College”

“Welcome to Divinity College,” reads a welcome sign to the state-sponsored fieldtrips of the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) battlefields in Iran. Rahian-e Noor battlefield tours follow the model of Shia pilgrimage and commemorative rituals, while also tapping into nationalist discourses of the country as an ancient homeland. I ask whether these trips are a means of disseminating knowledge, and what forms of ignorance are assumed to prevail among the visitors that this “Divinity College” seeks to eliminate? Even more importantly, since the tours are state-sponsored, what ignorances are rendered possible, if not encouraged, at the cost of this selective knowledge dissemination? Drawing on fieldwork, I argue that the tours provide a space of encounter with what is presupposed as the visitors’ already acquired knowledge. On RN tours, both knowledge and ignorance are co-constitutive of the transformative power of pilgrimage, where ultimate knowledge is interpreted as putting the already-known-words into deeds.

‘Remembrance isn’t working’: First World War battlefield tours and the militarisation of British youth during the centenary

Between 2014 and 2019, secondary school pupils from every state school in England were given the opportunity to visit the battlefields of the Western Front as part of the UK government’s flagship educational initiative to mark the centenary of the First World War. Based on empirical research conducted with pupil participants on the First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme, this article explores the processes of militarisation present within these tours as well as the way young people participated in and made sense of these practices.

Lessons of war. The significance of battlefield tours for the Dutch military

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the personal experiences of Dutch army members during military battlefield tours to historical war sites. We present a qualitative interview based analysis of the experiences and uses of the past by the Dutch military and discuss the tensions present in the military battlefield tours. In doing so, we argue for integrating research about cognitive procedures of re-enactment and bodily experiences on historical sites. Our findings suggest that the military battlefield tours help to evoke a specific place-bound engagement with the past. Visits to former war sites evoke detailed and vivid images of the past. The historical landscape thereby provides external clues and arguments that assist in comprehending the course of a historical event. The multiple visual and sensual triggers on a historical site allow for cognitive and bodily knowledge and appeal to the participant’s imagination. How and to what extent the past is imagined strongly depends on the knowledge and cultural background of the participant, as well as the attempts of the participants to actively do something imaginatively with the material present on site. When trying to understand the emotional impact and consequences of warfare, the participants tend to identify with past actors, which sometimes generates dilemmas.

Slaughter at the Chapel: The Battle of Ezra Church, 1864 by Gary Ecelbarger, and: The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood's First Effort to Save Atlanta by Earl J. Hess

Reviewed by: Slaughter at the Chapel: The Battle of Ezra Church, 1864 by Gary Ecelbarger, and: The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood's First Effort to Save Atlanta by Earl J. Hess Christopher M. Rein Slaughter at the Chapel: The Battle of Ezra Church, 1864. Gary Ecelbarger. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016. ISBN: 978-0-8061-5499-2, 275 pp., cloth, $26.95. The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood's First Effort to Save Atlanta. Earl J. Hess. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-4696-3419-7, 344 pp., cloth, $37.50. Comparative reviews provide a unique challenge for the reviewer—in addition to discovering similarities in coverage and contrasting differences in approach, style, and content, the reviewer can find it difficult to avoid developing a preference for one work over the other and then using the review to justify that opinion. While Gary Ecelbarger's Slaughter at the Chapel and Earl Hess's The Battle of Peach Tree Creek continue both authors' investigations into the pivotal Atlanta campaign of 1864, providing detailed, traditional accounts of Confederate general John Bell Hood's series of wasteful, attritional assaults in the last weeks July 1864, which eventually cost the Confederacy control of the city, there are subtle differences in approach, argument, and conclusions. Both books could be described as traditional military history, but Hess includes detailed information on women soldiers in the battle (202), while Ecelbarger provides extensive descriptions of leaders on both sides and command arrangements and, more accurately, dysfunction that will appeal to military professionals and students, demonstrating that both scholars have their eyes on a scholarly, or, at least, professional, as well as a popular audience. Though both accounts are deeply grounded in solid academic research and both read exceptionally well, a comparative analysis reveals Hess's scholarly approach and highlights Ecelbarger's popular appeal, betraying their respective occupations as a distinguished professor of history and as a public historian and battlefield tour expert. One hopes that Earl Hess does not run out of energy before he runs out of Civil War topics to write about. An established dean of the military and social history of the conflict, the prolific author has contributed studies on tactics, battles, individual commanders, theaters of the war, soldiers, and campaigns, including his own work on the Battle of Ezra Church published in 2015, making possible a true "apples to apples" comparison. But his goal here is to set the stage for the later actions by exploring the incredible challenges Gen. William T. Sherman faced in tightening the noose around Hood's still dangerous forces coiled like a snake inside Atlanta's formidable defenses. To untrained observers, Civil War battles appear to be decided before they begin in favor of whichever side can marshal greater combat power on the field, but this ignores the incredible complexity that reveals Sherman's military genius. Hess details how the Union commander had to constantly maneuver his forces toward and around the fortress city and shows that doing so exposed portions of his command to a sortie by the Confederate garrison. [End Page 304] Hess focuses on Hood's first opportunity to inflict a potentially decisive blow on a portion of Sherman's command as it straggled across Peach Tree Creek, leaving parts of Gen. George Thomas's Army of the Cumberland isolated and beyond supporting distance from the other two Union armies under Sherman's command. Fortunately, Confederate errors in deployment and stalwart Union resistance frustrated Hood's elaborate plans on that day, holding the position and inflicting irreplaceable casualties on the Confederate commanders. Hess's narrative unfolds geographically, as the echeloned attack hit sections of the Union line sequentially, pushing some portions back but failing to roll it up in the decisive action that commanders on both sides sought but rarely achieved. Befitting his exhaustive knowledge of Civil War tactics, Hess highlights the Union's superiority in artillery, a testament to the attention paid to both technology and logistics, but Ecelbarger's detailing of the almost complete absence of Union artillery at Ezra Church reveals there was more to the Sherman's army than just superior technology and...

Books: Colonel Belchamp's Battlefield Tour: Wounding and Healing: A Doctor's Journey.

Adrian Crisp Matador Books , 2017 , PB, 272 pp, £ 7.99 , 978-1788036818 Dr James Butland’s son is killed in a car crash. This nightmare scenario propels the doctor into the realms of his past — his preparation for studying history at Oxford, his fighting with a rifle brigade at the ill-fated Battle of Calais in May 1940, his astonishing escape back to England, and his subsequent action with his regiment in …

Taught to remember? British youth and First World War centenary battlefield tours

ABSTRACTUnderstanding the centenary of the First World War as a “future making process” helps to explain the substantial focus of state-sponsored commemorative activity in Britain on young people. For it is they, according to many official outlets – as the “next generation” – who have to bear the responsibility of carrying memory forward. The cornerstone of this activity is the UCL/Institute of Education (IoE) and Equity Travel First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme (FWWCBTP), a national education initiative funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). Between 2014 and 2019, the FWWCBTP will provide the opportunity for approximately 8–12,000 young people and teachers from every state-funded secondary school in England to visit battlefields on the Western Front. Based on research data gathered predominantly from participants in the spring 2015 tours, this article seeks to explore the perspective of the programme participants, rather than the programme creators or accompanying teachers, to understand how they responded to the UK government’s unprecedented attempt to engage young people in the history of the First World War via the vehicle of battlefield tourism. It explores possible tensions within the blending of education and remembrance, arguing that despite laudable intentions to encourage critical thinking about the First World War, for pupil participants the tour experience predominately emphasises particular narratives of “British” remembrance shaped around sacrifice, duty and loyalty.

The Generals in Their Labyrinth

The Generals in Their Labyrinth

A lasting legacy to the First World War

The First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours continue this year, with thousands of students having already taken part. Emma Lee-Potter updates us on the government-funded initiative

A VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE WAR AT THE CHOSŎN GRAND EXPOSITION OF 1940 AND COLONIAL BELONGING

The opening event of the Chosŏn Grand Exposition, which took place at East Kyŏngsŏng Station in Seoul on 1 September 1940, was replete with spectacular military images, from warships and tank parades to various tributes to the war dead. This article extends the reading of this exhibition from a display of wartime propaganda more toward wartime battlefield tourism to discuss how colonial youth were mobilized in the war. This article is particularly focused on probing the similarities of two separate sites: battlefield tour sites and war-related pavilions in the exposition of 1940. By relating the two different sites, I argue that war images are associated with redefining belonging and creating boundaries. By juxtaposing the wartime exposition and the tour sites, this article investigates how the visual mechanism of battle site images functioned to create a sense of belonging for colonized people as imperial subjects—by posing to them the questions of who they were meant to grieve and for whom they fought.

Lest we forget

The First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme is helping students to develop a deeper understanding of the Great War. As Remembrance Day approaches, Emma Lee-Potter accompanied students on a recent trip

A Critique of the Militarisation of Australian History and Culture Thesis: The Case of Anzac Battlefield Tourism

This paper analyses the militarisation of Australian history and culture thesis with specific reference to the increasing popularity of Anzac battlefield tourism. I argue that the militarisation thesis contains ontological and epistemological flaws that render it incapable of understanding the multifaceted ways in which Australians experience Anzac battlefield tours. I then argue that in order to study how Australians both at home and overseas respond to the upcoming Anzac Centenary researchers will need to deploy an empirically-grounded and multidisciplinary framework. I demonstrate how proponents of militarisation: (1) ignore the polymorphous properties of Anzac myths; (2) are complicit with constructions of ‘moral panics’ about young Australian tourists; (3) overlook the reflexive capacities of teachers, students and tourists with respect to military history and battlefield tours; and (4) disregard the complex and contradictory aspects of visits to battlefields. My counter-narrative relies both on Stuart Hall’s work on popular culture and empirical studies of battlefield tourism from myriad disciplines.

Cultural capital, Life Course Perspectives and Western Front battlefield tours

This paper argues that battlefield tours have strong religious overtones covering remembrance and sacrifice that features non-spiritual philosophies built on emotional and cultural capital. This paper canvasses views of tourism, icons, memorials and cemeteries as contributors to cultural capital. There is a view that religion and pilgrimages follow the Life Course Perspectives of religious influences on individual life stories, events and interactions. The proposition suggests that religion meets commemoration. Insights from a group of 28 visitors to the Western Front in 2008 contribute to, and support the tenets of this paper. The Western Front is a single icon built on the cultural elements of emotion, earthiness and respect rather than destination sophistication. Tourists felt the region had not succumbed to excessive or unwarranted infrastructure development that would spoil the experience. Tour party participants considered the tour to be a pilgrimage enabling the achievement of long-held personal goals, and created their own memories and heritage to compliment their family history. Ultimately, in the beliefs of Australian tourists to the Western Front, religion does meet commemoration and connects with Life Course Perspectives influences and values.

Visiting the trenches: Exploring meanings and motivations in battlefield tourism

This paper provides insights into the motivations and experiences of tourists who visit sites associated with war and conflict, specifically 25 individuals who participated in a tour of the World War One battlefields of the Somme and Ypres. The paper discusses the narratives of four of these individuals to illustrate in detail how such battlefield tours offer opportunities for pilgrimage, collective and personal remembrance and event validation. All of the participants had a prior interest in warfare, which was a key influence on their battlefield tour experiences. For the study participants battlefield tours emerge as complex, deeply meaningful and in some cases life-changing experiences.

Crossing the Rhine: Breaking into Nazi Germany 1944 and 1945—The Greatest Airborne Battles in History (review)

Reviewed by: Crossing the Rhine: Breaking into Nazi Germany 1944 and 1945—The Greatest Airborne Battles in History Martijn Lak Crossing the Rhine: Breaking into Nazi Germany 1944 and 1945—The Greatest Airborne Battles in History. By Lloyd Clark. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008. ISBN-13 978-0-87113-989-4. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xxviii, 415. $25.00. Arnhem, the afternoon of 17 September 1944. Wehrmacht artillery officer Lieutenant Joseph Enthammer gazes up to the clear skies, hardly believing what he sees. The next moment 'snowflakes' appear to hang in the air. He is then quoted by Robert J. Kershaw as thinking: 'That cannot be! It never snows in September! They must be parachutists!' Enthammer was indeed correct, as he witnessed the first wave of the British airborne attack on Arnhem. Operation Market Garden, Montgomery's bold but overly ambitious plan to seize key bridges across the Rhine by dropping parachutists deep into enemy-held territory and thus opening the way to a swift end to World War Two, had just begun in earnest. As Lloyd Clark correctly notes in this thoroughly researched book, the battle for Arnhem and the resulting Allied defeat—and as a consequence last German victory of the war—has received a lot of attention from military historians and even Hollywood. Perhaps that explains why Arnhem is one of the most famous battles of World War Two, because if one takes some distance, one notices it is dwarfed by other operations, especially on the Eastern Front, and it is moreover [End Page 996] highly debatable if an Allied success at Arnhem would have indeed brought the war to an earlier end. Much less attention has been paid to operation Plunder Varsity, the Allied airborne landings in Germany in March 1945. Or, as Clark writes: 'When compared to Market Garden it has attracted scant attention from authors, its commemorations are muted and far less well attended by the public, and battlefield tours to its important sites are rarities' (p. xix). This is remarkable, as Plunder Varsity was the largest single airborne lift operation in history. In his book, Clark tries to bring more balance into the coverage of Market Garden and Plunder Varsity, and he does so very convincingly. With regard to Arnhem there's not much new information, but Clark's style is gripping and his extensive use of eyewitness accounts—both Allied and German—makes for a thrilling read. The same goes for the author's coverage of Plunder Varsity. The US XVIII Airborne Corps—consisting of the US 17th Airborne Division and the British 6th Airborne Division—was to play an integral part in the Allied crossing of the Rhine, the last natural defensive barrier in Germany. It was not just to seize and hold ground: it was to resist enemy counterattacks against the bridgehead that was being established, take key ground objectives and bridges and facilitate the advance inland. In this Plunder Varsity succeeded splendidly. Clark deservedly devotes considerable attention to this operation, and recounts the often underestimated viciousness of the ensuing fighting. To many, Montgomery's plan for crossing the Rhine was overly cautious and conservative. However, Clark states Monty's approach was justified given the circumstances: he wanted to prevent casualties and, according to Clark, it was 'a supreme example of risk management, because by this stage in the war the Germans were as good as beaten, great political objectives such as the taking of Berlin had been ceded to the Soviets, and there was a distinct lack of British manpower' (p. 335). This is debatable, however. Although Clark is absolutely right when he writes Plunder Varsity was by no means a foregone conclusion, to compare it with Market Garden in this respect seems unjustified, be it alone for the fact that German resistance in March 1945 was totally different from that of the autumn of 1944. The huge success of Plunder Varsity may also explain why it has received far less attention than Market Garden. The latter was a costly failure, the former an overwhelming success in which the lessons of Normandy and Arnhem were put to good use. There was, to put it bluntly...

Battlefield tours and staff rides: a useful learning experience?

A key component of current British military education is the battlefield tour and staff ride. These tours allow students to visit the location of military events, most commonly the battlefields of the First and Second World Wars in northern Europe, to facilitate their understanding of military history and draw contemporary parallels from the events concerned. While these tours are commonly hailed as excellent opportunities for learning, there has been a lack of critical discussion on the learning and teaching implications of these exercises. This article aims to provide a review of the available literature on the pedagogical value of battlefield tours and staff rides and to bring them within a theoretical learning context. It will then present some conclusions on the ways in which learning outcomes from battlefield tours and staff rides can be improved.

‘Contested memories: Contested site’: Newfoundland and its unique heritage on the Western Front

The Beaumont Hamel Newfoundland Memorial is a 16.5 hectare (40 acre) tract of preserved battleground dedicated primarily to the memory of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment, who suffered an extremely high percentage of casualties during the first day of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. Beaumont Hamel Memorial is a complex landscape of commemoration where Newfoundland, Canadian, Scottish and British imperial associations compete for prominence. A previous paper argued that those who chose the site of the Park, and subsequently reordered its topography, helped to contrive a particular historical narrative that prioritized certain memories over others (Gough, 2004). This argument focused on the premeditated redesign of the ‘park’ after the Great War, and then again in the early 1960s. Since the publication of the paper the soaring popularity of battlefield tours and visits has placed an intolerable strain on the very land that many regard as sacred and hallowed. A land that took decades to recover and reclaim from violation is now being threatened again both by developers and by crowds of tourists. As a result, measures have been taken to restrict access and control roaming rights. This paper will revisit the original arguments and examine the many tensions that have arisen in one of the most popular destinations on the old battle front. Reflecting on the recent dispute, the paper will explore issues of historical accuracy, topographical legibility, freedom of access, and assumed ownership. It will also try to understand the recent disputes as examples of borrowed ‘entitlement’ and a resistance (by some British visitors) to recognizing the historic value of Canadian (or more specifically, Newfoundland) heritage.

Omaha Beach: D-Day June 6, 1944, and: Utah Beach: The Amphibious Landing and Airborne Operations on D-Day June 6, 1944 (review)

Reviewed by: Omaha Beach: D-Day June 6, 1944, and: Utah Beach: The Amphibious Landing and Airborne Operations of D-Day June 6, 1944 Adrian R. Lewis Omaha Beach: D-Day June 6, 1944. By Joseph Balkoski. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2004. ISBN 0-8117-0079-8. Maps. Photographs. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xxi, 410. $26.95. Utah Beach: The Amphibious Landing and Airborne Operations of D-Day June 6, 1944. By Joseph Balkoski. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2005. ISBN 0-8117-0144-0. Maps. Photographs. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xx, 380. $26.95. Utah Beach: The Amphibious Landing and Airborne Operations of D-Day June 6, 1944. By Joseph Balkoski. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2005. ISBN 0-8117-0144-0. Maps. Photographs. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xx, 380. $26.95. Historians have two primary tasks: first, to describe historical events as accurately and comprehensively as possible; and second, to explain change and identify the primary causes for the outcome of a given event. Balkoski succeeds brilliantly at the first task, but all but ignores the second task. In my book, Omaha Beach: A Flawed Victory (2001), I took the exact opposite approach. My objective was to explain the outcome of the battle for Omaha Beach, to explain why the Allies attacked and fought the way they did. I all but ignored the first task. Balkoski has provided us with the most comprehensive historical narratives available on the Army's one day, tactical battles for Omaha and Utah Beaches. He has spent a quarter of a century studying the Normandy invasion, collecting oral histories, conducting interviews, examining and collecting primary documents, walking the terrain along the Normandy coast, and conducting battlefield tours. His first book, Beyond the Beaches: The 29th Infantry Division in Normandy, published in 1989, was an excellent study of the Maryland and Virginia National Guard Division that fought under the [End Page 870] operational command of the 1st Infantry Division (ID) at Omaha Beach. (Though disguised, Balkoski is partial towards the 29th ID, particularly the Virginia 116th Regiment, which drew its lineage from the Confederate Stonewall Jackson Brigade). Balkoski's methodology is that of the Army Staff Ride (cf. Jay Luvaas and Harold Nelson, Guide to the Battle of Gettysburg). Balkoski takes a unit that fought at Omaha Beach, describes the unit, its mission and equipment, and identifies key leaders. He then takes the reader to the terrain where a particular action took place and retraces the footsteps of the soldiers who fought there. Using maps he shows the disposition of enemy and friendly forces. He then narrates the action. Finally, he provides the reader with firsthand accounts of what took place. These oral histories are excellent, and Balkoski has one of the largest collections in existence. In many cases he also provides a picture to depict a particular action or piece of equipment. (Balkoski eliminated the first step of the Staff Ride, which was to provide an overview of the entire tactical plan of battle; and the final step, which was to identify alternative courses of action.) Balkoski's work is chronological and sequential, starting with the watery approach; moving to the assault at the water's edge; and tracking the advance of major units across the beaches, over the bluff, and into the towns directly behind the beaches—a period of less than twenty-four hours. He moves back and forth describing the actions of major units. The appendixes are excellent. Appendix one is a breakdown of casualties, the most comprehensive available. No other work provides a more accurate and comprehensive narrative of the battles for the American beaches at Normandy. General comments: Footnotes on works cited would have enhanced the value of these works to future researchers. Maps would have been more effective had friendly and enemy forces been shown in color. The bibliographies are incomplete. Significant works are not cited. Focusing on the Omaha Beach book, the most controversial assault, it is important to say what Balkoski's work is not. It is not a study of combined operations. The British who greatly influenced the overall invasion plan were left out. It is not a study of joint operations. The...

It Made You Think of Home: The Haunting Journal of Deward Barnes, Canadian Expeditionary Force: 1916-1919 (review)

Reviewed by: It Made You Think of Home: The Haunting Journal of Deward Barnes, Canadian Expeditionary Force: 1916-1919 Glenn Wright (bio) Bruce Cane . It Made You Think of Home: The Haunting Journal of Deward Barnes, Canadian Expeditionary Force: 1916-1919Dundurn. 318. $35.00 Over six hundred thousand Canadian men and women served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) during the First World War. It was and remains one of the most important events in world history, as Margaret Macmillan demonstrates in her study of the peace-making process, Paris 1919. For Canada too, the war had a significant impact on the course of our national development, and while less than a handful of our First War veterans remain, the war continues to occupy a prominent place in our consciousness. The 'Canada Remembers' program, sponsored by Veterans Affairs Canada, ensures that the sacrifices and achievements of our veterans are recognized, battlefield tours are popular, and books on the war are published and republished in great numbers. Canadian literature on the First War is extensive - biographies, memoirs, histories of battles and regiments, novels and poetry, and, in recent years, community histories. Throughout the war, soldiers were able to communicate with their families and loved ones by correspondence, but personal diaries and journals were strictly forbidden. Fortunately, a number of soldiers and nursing sisters chose to ignore the regulations and the historical record is better for the risks they took to leave us with first-hand accounts of their experiences. Many diaries were used as the basis for memoirs published soon after the war, while others were tucked away in drawers or trunks, forgotten and unread for several decades. Deward Barnes was born in Toronto in September 1888. He never attended high school and for several years prior to the war, he was employed at National Casket. In February 1916, he answered the call to arms and volunteered with the 180th Battalion, CEF. He arrived in England in November of the same year, was drafted to the 19th Battalion, and moved to France with his unit in April 1917. He missed the battle for Vimy Ridge but, over the course of the next eighteen months, saw his share of the fighting at Hill 70, Passchendaele, and the Allied breakthrough in August 1918. In October 1918, he received a 'blighty' when he was wounded by machine-gun fire. Following weeks of hospitalization and convalescence in England, Barnes arrived home in Toronto in March 1919. He had experienced the gruesome realities of war: he counted friends among the dead and in March 1918, he was selected to take part in the execution of a fellow soldier who had been convicted of desertion. Contrary to regulations, Deward Barnes kept a diary from the day he enlisted until he returned to Toronto in 1919. Like many soldier diarists, he recorded events, both large and small, of military life, but he often reflected on the war and on his own experiences in a way not always found in accounts of this nature. Seven years after the war, he transcribed his diaries in a series of notebooks, added some details, and then put his war story away for posterity. Now, in the capable hands of editor Bruce Cane, Barnes's story of the war is available to a wide audience for the first time. [End Page 371] Wartime diaries and letters are often published with few editorial enhancements, but Cane took a different approach and annotated the diary, providing the reader with the broad context by elaborating on events described by Barnes, filling in details about military life and operations that Barnes took for granted. In doing so, Cane has produced a very interesting account of one man's war, not to detract from the diary itself, but to place it firmly in the milieu in which it was written. This allows the reader fully to appreciate Barnes's experiences as a solider in the CEF. This is an excellent addition to Canadian first-hand accounts of the Great War, and brings us close to the realities of a war that continues to capture our imagination almost ninety years after the guns went silent. [End Page 372...

Enforced Tourists: American Women, Travel, and the ‘Far-Flung Fronts’ of World War II

The exigencies of World War II resulted in a massive expansion of travel opportunities for American women, both civilian and military, that formed an essential ingredient of their wartime experience. As enforced tourists, the geographical centres and states of knowledge of American women were greatly expanded as they travelled to distant and remote areas, met new people, took on new jobs, encountered different cultures and ways of life, and established themselves and their families in unknown locations. The far-reaching consequences of enforced wartime travel played an important role in transforming the way American women thought about themselves and their world, and the legacy of the war continues to reverberate in women's lives. Much has been written about how major wars have given rise to postwar pilgrimages, battlefield tours, and the establishment of commemorative memorials and museums, but the significance of enforced tourists who travelled during wartime itself has not been fully explored. The far-reaching consequences of wartime travel and the extent to which it transforms the lives of enforced tourists – both women and men, civilian and military – is a largely uncharted topic worthy of considerable attention by scholars.

IV. The Modern Model of the Battlefield Tour and Staff Ride: Post‐1815 Prussian and German Traditions

At the end of World War II, the Historical Division of the Foreign Military Studies Branch, United States Army Europe, commissioned military review studies on pre‐war enemy preparations and their i...