#OTD 110 years ago, hero of France Colonel Emile Driant is killed in battle. He & his men have miraculously held off thousands of German troops at the Bois des Caures. Their resistance delayed the German timetable & bought precious hours for Verdun’s inner defences to be manned. #Verdun

#OTD 110 years ago, the First World War's longest battle began. Today the battlefields of Verdun are a haunting reminder of the brutality of all-out mechanised war. Read more about what you can see on a visit to #Verdun: tinyurl.com/ezkaskm5

I love seeing parents bring their children to the battlefields. It’s hands-on learning at its very best & hopefully the spark that becomes a lifelong fascination with history. Today we have 3 British guests exploring #Verdun, a landscape that never fails to leave an impression.

1/2: Back from a magical 6 days with some of the SGWT team exploring Verdun & the Meuse-Argonne. Trenches were walked, bunkers explored, stories uncovered, steak enjoyed & perhaps the odd beer along the way.

First full day of the #Verdun recce with @sophie1wwtours.bsky.social. Began at a German concrete experimentation site, well behind the front lines, then moved on to some more familiar, but extremely moving, battlefields. This place is truly mesmerising. #FWW #WW1

Just arrived in Verdun for a weekend’s recce / training with @sophie1wwtours.bsky.social. #FWW #WW1 #SGWT #Verdun

Travel News: 1/2: From 25th February 2026, the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) requirement will be strictly enforced. ETA is a legal requirement & carriers will not board eligible visitors without one.

81 years ago today, Auschwitz was liberated. More than ever, we must remember. Remembrance is a responsibility. On Holocaust Memorial Day, we remember the victims, honour the survivors, and reflect on what happens when good people do nothing. #HMD26

Our first guests of the year are on their way to the exquisite Parisi Udvar Hotel, Budapest. At SGWT, we’re able to open the doors to exceptional Virtuoso luxury properties, with preferred rates & exclusive perks you won’t find booking elsewhere.

The 2026 #TravelTrend. One of the most meaningful travel trends we’re seeing this year is the rise of multi-generational journeys. Grandparents, parents & children choosing to explore the world together. Some stories are best experienced together. tinyurl.com/bdxamv7u

2026: Our private battlefield tours are designed for travellers who want more than surface history, blending Europe’s battlefields, cities, and stories into journeys with real purpose. Read on: tinyurl.com/3sz8ys6f

1/2: OTD in 1879, the Anglo-Zulu War begins. Visiting the battlefields of Isandlwana & Rorke’s Drift is without doubt one of the best things I have ever done. Amazing history, beautiful scenery, exquisite food and sunsets you never forget - what's not to love!?

1/5: Happy New Year! What a year 2025 has been. We’ve had the honour of guiding guests from Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia & New Zealand across Europe’s battlefields. From Napoleon’s great campaigns, the horrors of the Holocaust to the final brutal chapters of Germany '45.

1/2: Our next tour is out today! 2 British guests are following in the footsteps of their relative, a man that went all the way through the war, from its opening months in 1914 to the final days of 1918.

1/3: OTN in 1940, the Luftwaffe unleashed its most devastating raid on the City of London. For hours, incendiary & high-explosive bombs ravaged streets & buildings in what became known as the Second Great Fire of London. More than 160 civilians lost their lives.

Just seen my Christmas post never made it through...🤦‍♀️ It said:🎄Merry Christmas Everyone!🎄 Thank you for following along with our Advent calendar. Whether we’ve shared stories from 1WW, 2WW or more recent conflict, the heart of it has always been the same, remembrance & respect. Sophie & the team.

24th December 2025. 1/4: We often imagine the First World War as silence punctured by gunfire. But on Christmas 1914, along certain parts of the Western Front, the night sounded very different. Corporal Robert Renton of the Seaforth Highlanders wrote home:

Some Christmas decorations at Chez Shrubsole. Which 2WW film does this remind you of…?

23rd December 2025. 1/4: Sometimes I hesistate about posting graphic lines, but we cannot sugar-coat war. This advent series is about sharing the real voices of those who served and suffered. Cyril Hoodless, writing in August 1915 from Cairo says:

22nd December 2025. 1/5: War effects everyone differently. Some carry physical scars, others mental scars, some just carry that weight, every single day. What an incredibly moving letter this is from American soldier Richard Luttrell.

21st December 2025. 1/3: The most extraordinary moments in war can be described in the plainest language, language that allows us to visualise what's happening. Reading these words whilst standing on the spot where it happened is one of the reasons I love battlefield tours.

20th December 2025. 1/3: In 1946 John Meades, stationed near Hamburg as Europe rebuilt itself, wrote home with a different kind of longing: “Let us look forward to some day when it won’t be necessary to have to write, and I am a settled down City Business Man.”

19th December 2025. 1/5: Today’s letter captures a crucial point about war & it's end, what is left behind when the guns fall silent. In 1918, US soldier Frank Striker wrote of an encounter with a French civlian.

18th December 2025. 1/6: Some letters don't soften what war was like. 2nd Lt Wilfred Stanford wrote: “A shell came along & landed about two or three yards away. The result was the man just in front of me was heard to call out ‘Oh!’ & has never been seen or heard of since.”

17th December 2025. 1/3: Some letters feel unnervingly modern, like this one from Louis Barthas, a French cooper turned infantryman. “May the new year bring reason to men.” It could have been written yesterday.

16th December 2025. 1/5: German soldier Erich Maria Remarque, who went on to write the world famous 'All Quiet on the Western Front' is the subject of today's letter extract.

15th December 2025. 1/3: I particularly enjoy letters that give candid insights into the every day lives of soldiers. The small but crucially important aspects that often get overlooked due to the enormity of the Great War.

14th December 2025. 1/3: Not all letters home tried to sound brave. Some were raw with grief, written in moments when the war stripped everything back to loss. Australian soldier Owen Donlen wrote home after the death of his closest friend, George.

13th December 2025 1/3: Letters from the front weren’t always comforting, some carried frustration. Dr Ivan Pirrie RAMC wrote in 1914: “If only some of those men in England who are still watching football matches would take their share, perhaps our poor devils could have a rest.”

12th December 2025 1/4: Maj Rodney Maude, 246 Field Comp Royal Engineers, bound for Sword Beach. “It simply doesn’t occur to anyone as a possibility that anything unpleasant can possibly happen, to other people yes, but not to oneself, so naturally nobody worries about it."

11th December 2025. 1/3: Today we hear from Ernest William Bratchell, Royal Fusiliers. “Had a game of football about two weeks ago with R.G.A. Battery, the pitch being a serious drawback. I think it was a cabbage patch.”

10th December 2025. 1/4: Today’s extract comes from Company Sergeant Major George Shipley, 10th Middlesex, writing as he sailed to the Dardanelles.

9th December 2025. 1/2: “Your dad is quite lonely without you. Can you still climb? I would like to feel you climbing on my shoulders now.” Jack Corey was captured in Singapore in 1942 and sent to the notorious Changi prison.

I'll be in Ypres tonight. Come and say hello if you are too!

8th December 2025. 1/2: Private George Coppard, a Canadian machine-gunner, wrote after moving into a newly captured trench: “The smell was awful, but we told ourselves it was only the Germans’ socks.”

#OTD in 1941, Churchill finally believed, "we have won the war". Why? Because 360 Japanese planes attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor killing 2,400 Americans - the final act that moved American from an economic supporter, to combat ally.

7th December 2025. 1/4: Vera Brittain, serving as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, tried to put into words what she was witnessing: “I wash the blood from their faces and wonder how the world can bear so much pain.”

6th December 2025 1/7: “I played so they would know they were not alone.” An extrodinarily moving line written by Piper Daniel Laidlaw, 7th King’s Own Scottish Borderers about the action at Loos, 1915.

5th December 2025. 1/2: In 1982, as ships moved south through rough seas towards the Falklands, a Royal Marine wrote this: “The sea is wild tonight, but so are we.” Short. Stark. And full of raw determination.

4th December 2025. 1/2: Deliveries from home were a god send for soldiers, a letter, parcel of food, socks or cigarettes. Writing from France in 1918, Sgt Sam Avery U.S. 32nd Div thanked his sister for a gift that had made its way across the Atlantic: “Your parcel saved the day.”

3rd December 25. 1/3: Writing to his young daughter, Pte Edward Stanley offered a promise shaped by the English countryside they both knew: “When the birds return to the hedgerows, I’ll be there too.”

2nd December 25 1/2: Soldiers letters often spoke of the longing for normal life. Writing to his fiancée in 1915, Private Percy O’Brien, Leicester Regiment captured this perfectly in a single line: “When I come home, the first thing I want is a bath. The second is you.”

1st December 25 1/3: Soldiers’ letters home in the 1WW share a blend of reassurance, understatement & the quiet details of daily life. With letters censored, what survived on the page was often the monotony of trench routine & the instinct to protect loved ones from the truth.

Every December, SGWT opens a little window into the past. 3 years ago, we started a simple idea: an Advent calendar for history lovers, 24 days of daily posts that honour the people, places & objects that shaped the world we live in. Read about what we have in store here: tinyurl.com/2hhfujry

1/2: #OTD in 1941, Admiral Nagumo set out across the Pacific at the head of Japan’s First Air Fleet, destined for Pearl Harbor. His orders were clear: if talks with the US succeed, the fleet was to turn back.

🖤#BlackFriday isn’t just for gadgets, it’s a brilliant time for travel lovers too. Every year, the travel industry quietly rolls out some of its best offers, hotel & resort deals, weekend escapes, family villas & more. Let’s find your next adventure for the best possible price. Drop us an email 📩

1/3: #OTD in 1917, the Battle of #Cambrai begins. It marked the first time the Allies used true all-arms warfare on a mass scale, most famously with 476 tanks committed to the assault.

Thanks for recognising our story in your blog Sophie - a story which you and Steve are now indelibly part of!

When SGWT began, I imagined we’d simply be a licensed travel company, organising tours to battlefields. Over time, we’ve become something much deeper: a place for families to connect, discover & honour their own stories. Read more about our work here: tinyurl.com/5n7xbs7c

Remembrance Sunday services are taking place across the UK today. I will pause for 2 minutes at 11am, on the banks of Loch Lomond. A silence to think of those that made the ultimate sacrifice and to give thanks for all that played their part. #WeWillRememberThem