Operation Market Garden was the largest airbone offensive conducted by
the allies and its biggest military defeat. Tha plan, devised by
Montgomery, was to take the main bridges in the Netherlands (under
German occupation) in order to cross the Rhine and reach Germany.
It was carried out from 17 to 25 September 1944. Despite that the first bridges were succesfully captured they couldn't take the last one in Arnhem. On the map of the operation we can see the progress of Allied troops and the German defensive positions.
PLAN YOUR TRIP
The operation was located in the Netherlands , near the German border. To visit the battlefields you can start from Arnhem . It is best to fly to any of the nearest airports and once there, rent a car or take a train.
View of the River Rhine at Arnhem.
The airports with the best access to the battlefields are the Amsterdam's and the Düsseldorf's .
From the airport of Amsterdam to Arnhem. There are direct trains for about 15 euros. The trip takes 1h15min.
From Düsseldorf Airport you can take a train changing at the Central Station in the city for about 30 euros. Travel time is approximately 1h20min.
Once in Arnhem you can rent a car or follow the route by train.
To check the ticket prices and the train times:
The so-called Battle of Guadacanal or Operation Watchtower was the first
offensive launched by the Allies against the Empire of Japan on August
7, 1942 and lasted until February 9, 1943. It was one of the longest battles of the Pacific. 30,000 people died. U.S.
forces landed on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi and Florida with
the main objective of taking the airport to break the Empire base of the islands. There were several attacks that culminated with the Naval Battle of
Guadalcanal when the Japanese were forced to withdraw its troops after a
failed landing.
VISIT THE ISLAND GUADALCANAL
Solomon Islands tourism is quite expensive if we start from Europe (about 1300 euros the entire trip by plane). There are direct flights from Brisbane (Australia) , where the plane transfer should be done to reach the airport from Honiara, the capital of the island of Guadalcanal. The
Solomon Islands are tropical and full of wild vegetation. The islands keep a lot of war relics from the battle.
There are companies that offer battlefield tours around the islands. Please note that the currency is the SBD (Solomon Islands Dollar) and 1 SBD = 0.10 euros.
Moving around Guadalcanal: accessibility to certain areas of the island is not good, if we want to do it by public transport. Honiara has a network of taxis and buses but only goes through the main roads. Renting a car is almost essential if you want to explore the area. There are car rentals at the airport or at the city center.
The
Kinugawa Maru ship belonging to the Japanese Imperial Navy's mission
was to land on the island of Guadalcanal in November 1942. It was discovered and sunk by American artillery fire. Today is only partially visible but can be seen in full scuba diving.
In the summer of 1945, the Empire of Japan suffered a nuclear attack by the United States, ordered by the President Truman. On August 6, the bomb Little Boy was dropped on the city of Hiroshima and on August 9 the Fat Man bomb on Nagasaki. It is estimated that both nuclear weapons took the lives of 220,000 people. Furthermore,
the effects of radiation on the surviving population caused serious health problems, including numerous cases of fatal cancer.
Cloud after the Hiroshima bomb (left) and Nagasaki (right) .
Getting to Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
From Tokyo: there are
direct flights from Tokyo's Haneda airport that take us to Hiroshima and
Nagasaki (about 1h45min) but their prices are very high (about 600
euros). A cheaper option is to go by train from Shinagawa Station (Tokyo). We can reach Hiroshima in 3h 40min. and the ticket price is usually around 150 euros.
From Osaka: from Shin-Osaka Station you can take the Nozomi train that leads to Hiroshima in 80 minutes.
Once in Hiroshima we can take a train ride to Nagasaki changing at Hakata (about 3 hours).
For schedules and train tickets in Japan there is a page that I recommend:
The Peace Memorial houses the ruins of the adjacent buildings to the center of the explosion in commemoration to the victims.
Panoramic of Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. (photo: Dean S )
Dome Genbaku before 1945, following the explosion and as it looks today.
Museum Peace Memorial
Location: here . Tram stop: Fukoromachi / Genbaku Dome Official Website: http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/index_e2.html Openinghours (admission until half an hour before closing):
From 1 March to 31 November : 8:30-18:00
From December 1 to February 28: 8:30 to 17:00
From August 1 to August 31: 8:30 to 19:00 Admission: 50 yen (0.50 euros)
This museum covers the history and reconstruction of Hiroshima from 1945
through models, photographs, objects collected from the ruins, etc.
In the spring of 1940, the Katyn Forest witnessed the massacre of 20,000
Polish officers and civilians accused of spying by the NKVD. The slaughter was carried out under the command of Stalin but the Soviets attributed to Germany. It
was not until 1990, when Mikhail Gorbachev brought to light the hidden
documents. After that, Russia recognized their involvement in the incident. Years later a memorial was set in the place.
For Poles is a cursed place since, in 2010, President Kaczynski and 95
others including leading figures of Polish government and clegy
suffered a plane crash with no survivors when traveling to Katyn to
commemorate the 70th anniversary of the slaughter.
VISITOR INFORMATION Official website: http://www.katyn-memorial.ru Opening hours: 9:00 to 17:00 Guided tour: 800 rubles (20 euros) Museum admission: 50 rubles (1.25 euros)
The memorial complex was inaugurated in 2000. It consists of a large cemetery, some monuments and a museum. All Polish officers killed in the slaughter of Katyn were buried in mass graves in June. Part of the cemetery is Russian and here are buried more than 6,000 victims of the Soviet Great Purge of 1930.
Located in Russia 400 km away from Moscow and 320 km away from Minsk. The
railway line that links Moscow (Belarus station) to Minsk (Minsk station
Pas) passes through Smolensk, 20 km away from Katyn. The journey takes about 4-5 hours from both cities.
The history of the Soviet gulag system (labor camps run by the NKVD) goes from 1917 to 1991. In general, prisoners were common criminals, political prisoners and anyone who showed opposition to the state. They were used, among other things, as labor to build infrastructure, felling trees and extract minerals from mines.
It was not until 1974, when Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn , a former Soviet prisoner, published a full story of the life in a Soviet camp in The Gulag Archipelago, which discloses the hidden reality of hard labor prisons.
Gulag archipelagomap (Photo: you save heritage)
Today, it is virtually impossible to visit most of these areas, as many of them are lost in Siberian taiga where there are no roads. There's just one in Russia, the Perm'36, open to the public as a museum. In addition, there is one prison bunker in Lithuania where they have created a "theme park" called 1984
where you can live the experience of a prison of the gulag.
You can see a complete photo gallery of these camps in Siberia here .
MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL REPRESSION PERM '36
For groups an English guide can be requested for 1500 rubles (37.70 euros) per group.
How to reach the Perm '36? Located 100 km away from the city of Perm (Russia), where it's quite easy to get by train (though long) from Moscow as it is in the Trans-Siberian route. Once in Perm you can rent a car and follow the route indicated on the map or go to the camp by public transport. We
have two options: take a bus to Chusovoy (Чусовой), which costs about
200 rubles (5 euros), and from there take a bus to Kutchino (Кучино), or go by train to Chusovoy and there take the bus to Kutchino.
The Gulag Perm '36 was founded in 1946 under the order of Stalin. It remained open until 1985, when Gorbachev decided to end the prison regime. Here, there were prisioners as Varlam Shalamov , author of Tales from Kolyma . Thanks
to the persistence and work of former prisoners and historians, it was
open to the public as a museum (the only one in Russia).
In the museum, in addition to temporary
exhibitions, we can find the permanent one about the repression in Russia and
recreations of life in the camps, prisoners objects, the old buildings, etc. The last part of the visit is a video documentary about the gulag.
In this video, you can see a virtual tour of the place:
Entrance to the underground bunker Museum: 30 litas (8.70 euros) per person.
Participating in recreation: 1500 litas (435 euros) per group of up to 25 people. For more than 25, each additional person will pay 84 litas (24 euros.)
How to reach the 1984 bunker? It's 30 km away from Vilnius. You will have to drive or negotiate transport with the organizers. You can take the 102 to Nemencine and hence the road to Buivydžiai. At 5 km, just past the river, you will see a turning on the right signposted by a red sign indicating the bunker.
As they explained in the project site it was created to reach people the
rawness of Soviet repression and prison life in the gulag. Museum admission allows the access to a secret underground bunker of two levels.
The price of recreation includes: 3 hours of representation in Russian
with some English words, special clothes, Soviet
prisoner lunch / dinner, a certificate and a gift from the shop. Upon arrival, participants were greeted by guards with dogs and they remove all personal effects, money, cameras, mobile ... and they are given a typical Soviet coats. Visitors
are introduced as prisoners to a recreation of 1984, with typical
decorated shops and televisions, they are forced to learn the anthem of
the USSR, they are interrogated by the KGB and allowed to try to escape.
Attention to one of the input clauses: "The instructions must be
followed without any objection. Disobedience can be
punished physically or psychologically and the participant can be excluded from the
show."
You know, if you want to be yelled at, beaten, interrogated, harassed by
dogs and learn the Russian national anthem, this is your place.
The island of Iwo Jima, now called IOTO (sulfur island) was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. The
U.S. Marines landed in February 1945 and fought against the Japanese
Imperial forces until March, when they finally managed to conquer the
island. The Japanese resistance was extreme, which led them to lose almost all his men.
On this island, at the top of Mount Suribachi, it was made the famous photo Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.
VISITING IWO JIMA
Nowadays visiting Iwo Jima is almost impossible. It belongs to the army and there is only a naval base of the forces of Japan. No civilians live there. You can only go to Iwo Jima with an organized tour that visit the island once a year. The company http://www.miltours.com
organizes tours for military veterans, family members or people
interested. They meet every year in Guam to commemorate the anniversary of the battle. From there, an airplane takes them to Iwo Jima. This tour departs from Los Angeles and the places are very limited because they have a single aircraft to fly to the island. The tour price is about $3500.
REMAINS OF THE BATTLE AND MEMORIALS OF IWO JIMA
Here I show you some of the things that you can find on the island today. There are many more relics of the battle. The land is full of caves, bunkers, artillery and grenade shrapnel damage.
American Memorial Iwo Jima :
Location: here .
The memorial is situated where the American flag was raised on February 12, 1945. It commemorates the valor and sacrifice of the Marines.
If you travel to Belgium there are two interenting stops that you can make. Belgium is a small country and the distance between one place and another allows to make round trips in the same day.
Location here. It is located 115 km away from Brussels. Official website: http://www.fort-eben-emael.be For individual visitors only open one weekend a month . Dates vary each year. You can click here to see what they are.
Open to visitor groups all year except holidays listed on the web . If you go in a group will have to book by filling this form at least 15 days before your arrival. You can choose the language of the visit between English, French, German and Dutch. The
duration of the visit is from 1 hour (5 euros per person, minimum 60
euros per group) to 6 hours (12 euros per person, minimum 180 euros per
group).
How get to fort Eben-Emael from Brussels? You can rent a car in Brussels and take the E10 (see full itinerary ). To arrive by public transport the best option is to take a train from Brussels Central Station to Tongeren (for times http://www.belgianrail.be/en/Default.aspx ). The journey takes 1hr 50min. Once in Tongeren you have to take in front of the station the bus 39 that will leave you at the fort in 30 min.
Eben-Emael was a fortress built as a defense against a possible German invasion. It
was completed in 1935 and its structure of steel and concrete made
the Allies think that it was impenetrable. They thought they would be able to stop the German
invasion long time. The German army carefully studied its structure and they even built a replica for assault practices. Finally, in 1940, 85 Fallschirmjäger landed on the roof of the fort by gliders. After
a strong assault managed to retain the Belgians until the arrival of a
German infantry division, they had to surrender. Today, the fort is still military property although the Association of Fort Eben-Emael allows the tours.
The main weapons were distributed between turrets and casemates. It
is divided into: Blocks I, II, III, IV and V, Dome 120, North and South
Domes, Visé I and II, Maastricht I and II, North and South Canal,
Mi-North and South Block O1.
Open every day except January 1, 24 and 25 December and the annual pilgrimage. Official website: http://www.breendonk.be Opening hours: 9:30 to 17:30 (last admission 16:30) Admission: 7 euros
The duration of the visit is estimated a minimum of 2 hours. There are audio guides in English, Dutch, French and German.
Volgograd is a Russian city, which was known as Stalingrad between 1925 and 1961. The famous " Battle of Stalingrad ", was the most cruel and bloody battle of the World War II . It took from August 1942 to February 1943 . It
is estimated that almost 3 million soldiers and
civilians died.
After a destructive bombing of the city by the German army, the fight began on both sides for the control of the ruins. Despite
the difficulties of the German army, Hitler refused to give up because he knew that the city was the port of entry to the
oil-rich Caucasus and the checkpoint of Volga River. After a winter chill and being encircled by the Russians, Göring proposed a plan of aerial delivery that resulted impossible. Dying of cold and hunger, Hitler forced them to stand within the city but contradicting his wishes General Friedrich Paulus ended up giving in to the Soviet army.
The outcome of this battle changed the course of events of the war.
GETTING TO VOLGOGRAD?
From Moscow: Almost 1000 km separate the two cities so there will be a long trip, unless you go by plane. Airlines like S7, Aeroflot or Utair have daily flights from 200 dollars one way/return. The flight is direct and its duration is 1h 40min. A cheaper option is the train (not much more if you take the express) and it
will take about 19 hours (even 24 hours depending on how many stops does it make). You can spend the night on the train to save time. The official website of the Russian trains where you can consult timetables: http://eng.rzd.ru/schedulee/public/rzdeng?STRUCTURE_ID=46 .
MOVING AROUND VOLGOGRAD
Besides the regular tram there is what they call the express tram (CT). In http://www.gortransvolga.ru you can consult timetables and routes.
The basic fare is 2 rubles (0.07$). Here you have a plane with the stops. The blue lines correspond to the tram and the red ones to the tram Express:
After the great battle, the land of Mamayev Kurgan hill remained dry and black, metal filled with the rests of the fighting. It was in 1959 when they began to build a memorial. The 105-meter sculpture of Motherland crowns its summit. At
the foot of the statue are buried some prominent characters of the
battle as Marshal Vasily Chuikov, Vasily Zaytsev the sniper (known for being responsible for the fall of more than 200
Germans at Stalingrad) and Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri, the son of Pasionaria who
perished in the battle. Memorial is accessible through a row of steps. The memorial complex is divided in several parts:
Motherland, Hall of the Warrior Glory and All Saints Church .
- "Memory of Generations"
- "Avenue of Poplars Pirameidales"
- "Square of those who fought to Death
- "Walls of ruins"
- "Square of the Heroes"
- "Monumenal Relief"
- "Hall of the Warrior Glory "
- "Square of regret"
- "Mother Earth Calls"
- "Church of All Saints"
is one of the largest memorials complex world that are dedicated to World War II.
Hours: 10:00-17:00 (winter) and 10:00-18:00 (summer) the ticket office closes 30 min. before closing. Admission: 100 rubles ($3) . If we want to take pictures you will pay a fee of 100 rubles ($3) and videos 200 rubles ($6).
Directions: tram CT, 8, 8a and 12. Bus 30, 30a, 77, 33, 55bis and 93 to the stop Площадь Ленина ( Lenin Square).
It is located in front of the Volga River. It was opened in 1985 . It contains about 4000 samples that shows us the battle. Among them, we can find letters, weapons, personal belongings of the soldiers, decorations ... As main attraction it contains an overview of the battle from the hill. It also shows the rifle of Vasily Zaytsev .
Next to the museum, stand the ruins of the mill that served as an important point guarded by the Red Army during the battle.
Around the museum, there is also a small outdoor exhibition of war vehicles.
Pavlov's House
Location here . Tram stop: Площадь Ленина (Lenin Square, CT line)
This is an apartment building defended by the Red Army under the command of Yakov Pavlov during battle. It is a symbol of Soviet resistance. The Germana failed to conquer it although there used to be little more than ten soldiers defending it. He even said that more Germans died in this building than in the liberation of Paris.
Today, you can read the inscription on the wall "In this building fused together heroic feats of warfare and of labor. We will defend / rebuild you, dear Stalingrad"
Located on the site of the old Alexander Square, where it ends the Avenue of Heroes. It
contains the tomb of over 100 Red Army soldiers, under a plaque that
states "Here lie the soldiers of the Army 62nd and 64th buried heroic
defenders of the city who died heroically in the Battle of Stalingrad in
1942-1943"
Tram stop: Улица 39-ой Гвардейской Дивизии (Ulitsa 39-oy Guardeyskoy Divizii line CT)
This factory was responsible for producing T34 tanks and military equipment during the battle. In October 1942 the 24th
Panzer Division and the 389th Infantry assault and managed to stop
production.
