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Classic Battlefield Tours, Alton (2025)

03/07/2025

Who was Lady Lisle?

Walking in Wi******er last Sunday, I noticed a stone memorial to Lady Lisle and wondered who she was and why she was executed.

Alice, Lady Lisle (September 1617 – 2 September 1685), was a landed lady of the English county of Hampshire, who was executed for harbouring fugitives after the defeat of the Monmouth Rebellion at the Battle of Sedgemoor. While she seems to have leaned to Royalism, she combined this with a decided sympathy for religious dissent. She is known to history as Lady Lisle, although she has no claim to the title; her husband was a member of the "Other House" created by Oliver Cromwell, and "titles" deriving from that fact were often used after the Restoration.

Alice became the second wife of John Lisle (1610 – 11 August 1664), and bore him seven children. Lisle was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1659. He supported the Parliamentarian cause in the English Civil War and was one of the regicides of King Charles I of England. Fearing for his life after the Restoration, he fled to Switzerland, but was assassinated by an agent of the crown in Lausanne in 1664.

On 20 July 1685, a fortnight after the Battle of Sedgemoor, Lady Lisle agreed to shelter John Hickes, a well-known Nonconformist minister, at Moyles Court, her residence near Ringwood. Hickes, a member of Monmouth's defeated army, brought with him Richard Nelthorpe, another supporter of Monmouth who was under sentence of outlawry. The men spent the night at Moyles Court and in the morning were arrested. Their hostess, who had initially denied their presence, was charged with harbouring traitors.

Lady Lisle's case was tried by Judge Jeffreys at the opening of the Bloody Assizes at Wi******er. His antipathy to Lady Lisle was obvious: when she asked if she would be allowed to speak in her own defence, Jeffreys reminded her that her husband had once condemned a man (King Charles I) to death without letting him speak. The jury reluctantly, after much pressure from Jeffreys, found her guilty after fifteen minutes of deliberation.

Jeffreys respited the sentence for a week, but James II refused to extend mercy to her, though he allowed beheading as befitted her social rank to be substituted for burning at the stake. Lady Lisle was publicly executed by an axe in Wi******er marketplace on 2 September 1685; the last woman in English history to be beheaded by judicial sentence.

02/07/2025

Westland Whirlwind - retired too soon?

The Westland Whirlwind was a British twin-engined fighter developed by Westland Aircraft. It was the first single-seat, twin-engined, cannon-armed fighter of the Royal Air Force.

When it first flew in 1938, the Whirlwind was one of the fastest combat aircraft in the world and, with four 20 mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 autocannons in its nose, the most heavily armed. Protracted development problems with its Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines delayed the project, and only 114 Whirlwinds were built. During the Second World War, only three RAF squadrons were equipped with the aircraft, and, despite its success as a fighter and ground attack aircraft, it was withdrawn from service in 1943.

Many pilots who flew the Whirlwind praised its performance. Sergeant G. L. Buckwell of 263 Squadron commented that the Whirlwind was "great to fly – we were a privileged few... In retrospect, the lesson of the Whirlwind is clear... A radical aircraft requires either prolonged development or widespread service to exploit its concept and eliminate its weaknesses. Too often in World War II, such aircraft suffered accelerated development or limited service, with the result that teething difficulties came to be regarded as permanent limitations". Another 263 Squadron pilot said "It was regarded with absolute confidence and affection". In contrast, the test pilot Eric Brown described the aircraft as "under-powered" and "a great disappointment".

The Whirlwind was used to particularly good effect as a gun platform for destroying locomotives. Some pilots were credited with several trains damaged or destroyed in a mission. The aircraft was also successful in hunting and destroying German E-boats, which operated in the English Channel. At lower altitudes, it could hold its own against the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Though the Peregrine was a much-maligned engine, it was more reliable than the troubled Napier Sabre engine used in the Hawker Typhoon, the Whirlwind's successor. The twin engines meant that seriously damaged aircraft were able to return with one engine knocked out. The placement of the wings and engines ahead of the cockpit allowed the aircraft to absorb a great deal of damage, while the cockpit area remained largely intact. The rugged frame of the Whirlwind gave pilots greater protection than contemporary aircraft during crash landings and ground accidents.

The last Whirlwind mission to be flown by 137 Squadron was on 21 June 1943, when five Whirlwinds took off on a "Rhubarb" attack against the German airfield at Poix. P6993 was unable to locate the target and instead bombed a supply train north of Rue. While returning, the starboard throttle jammed in the fully open position, and the engine eventually lost power. It made a forced landing in a field next to RAF Manston, but the aircraft was a write-off, although, as in many other crash landings of the type, the pilot walked away unhurt.

01/07/2025

1st day of the Battle of the Somme, 1st July 1916

We shall remember them

30/06/2025

Tours for the Autumn months

Battle of Waterloo

15th to 19th September

On June 18, 1815, the Battle of Waterloo marked the ultimate downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte, culminating in the cessation of twenty years of conflict between France and various European nations.

Itinerary

Day 1

Arrive Brussels

Independent travel from the UK to Brussels, check into the Hotel Chambord, and enjoy a welcome dinner. Overnight, Urban Yard Hotel Brussels on a Bed and Breakfast basis

Day 2

Battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras

On June 16, 1815, during the Battle of Ligny, Napoleon achieved his final career victory. However, this triumph was not decisive and failed to prevent the Prussians from playing a crucial role in the Emperor’s defeat at Waterloo two days later. Today we will explore both the Battle of Ligny and the Battle of Quatre Bras, both fought on the same day, before heading to our hotel in Waterloo. Overnight: Van der Valk Hotel, Waterloo, Bed and Breakfast basis

Day 3

The Battle of Waterloo

Today, we explore the Battle of Waterloo, the battle that ended the dominance of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte over Europe. The French attack began at 8 am on 18th June 1815 with a bombardment of Hougoumont Farm to signal the start of hostilities. We will spend the next day exploring many of the battle sites and stories. Overnight: Van der Valk Hotel, Waterloo, Bed and Breakfast basis

Day 4

The Battle of Waterloo Day 2

We spend this morning finishing off our exploration of the battle sites around Waterloo before heading to Bruges after lunch. Overnight: Hotel Grand Casselbergh, where Charles II stayed whilst in exile. Bed and Breakfast basis

Day 5

Bruges

This morning we undertake a guided tour of this beautiful Belgian town, including a Canal tour or free time, as you wish. After our final lunch together, we drive to Brussels, where the tour ends

The tour guide is Dan Hill

To book, click on the link: www.vlassicbattlefieldtours.com/tours/battle-of-waterloo-tour/

29/06/2025

Vimy Memorial

28/06/2025

Operation Alberich

Operation Alberich was the code name of a German military operation in France during the First World War. Two salients had been formed during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 between Arras and Saint-Quentin and from Saint-Quentin to Noyon. Alberich was planned as a strategic withdrawal to new positions on the shorter and more easily defended Hindenburg Line (Siegfriedstellung).

General Erich Ludendorff was reluctant to order the withdrawal and hesitated until the last moment. The retirement took place between 9 February and 20 March 1917, after months of preparation.

The first intimation of a German withdrawal occurred when British patrols probing German outposts towards Serre found them unoccupied. The British began a slow follow-up, but unreadiness, the decrepitude of the local roads, and the German advantage of falling back on prepared lines behind rearguards of machine-gunners meant that the Germans completed an orderly withdrawal. The new defences were built on reverse slopes, with positions behind the defences from which artillery observers could see the front position. Experience had shown that infantry equipped with machine-guns needed a field of fire only a few hundred yards deep. Unfortunately for the Germans, General Ludwig von Lauter and Colonel Kramer from OHL ignored the new thinking and in much of the new position, they put artillery observation posts in the front line or in front of it and the front position was on forward slopes, near crests or at the rear of long reverse slopes.

The German retreat shortened the Western Front by 25 miles. The withdrawal to the chord of the Bapaume and Noyon salients provided 13 to 14 extra divisions for the German strategic reserve, which was being assembled to defend the Aisne front against the Franco-British Nivelle Offensive, preparations for which were barely concealed.

27/06/2025

D Day 6th June 1944

The first men ashore were Royal Navy clearance divers.

Selected from the naval service and the Royal Marines, their official name was Landing Craft Obstacle Clearance Units (LCOCUs), pronounced ‘lock-yews’. Their job was to clear obstacles and mines before the assault forces hit the beaches.

British frogmen were the first ground fighters to engage the enemy on D-Day—and they did it without weapons. Twenty minutes before H-Hour (07:25 am on 6 June 1944), they swam from their landing crafts to the waterline of the Gold, Juno, and Sword Beaches, armed with wire cutters and explosive devices. They blew several lanes through mines and obstacles, creating a passage for ships, tanks, and men right up to the shoreline. Their clearance success enabled soldiers and machines to pour through the breach and overwhelm the German defenders.

Their equivalent on the American beaches were the US Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDUs), but these were not equipped to swim or dive as they assumed that most obstacles would be above water at low tide.

Selection and training for this dangerous work began in January 1944. Men with previous experience with bomb disposal and minefield clearance were preferred, but they also had to be able to perform underwater in diving gear. Training was held at HMS Appledore in north Devon.

On D-Day, four Royal Navy and six Royal Marine LCOCUs, each comprising one officer and 11 men, were deployed from their landing craft at H-Hour. LCOCUs 3, 4, 9, and 10 were assigned to Gold Beach, 7 and 8 to Sword Beach, and 1, 5, 11, and 12 to Juno Beach. Using inflatable boats to carry kit, the frogmen had to clear obstacles between 1.4 and 3 metres deep while Royal Engineers cleared the shallow parts and the beaches. Under constant fire from artillery and mortars, the LCOCUs managed to clear wide passages through the various obstacles before assisting the Royal Engineers with their tasks.

By the end of the day, they had cleared approximately 2500 obstacles.

26/06/2025

Sealed Knot

The Sealed Knot was a secret Royalist association that plotted for the Restoration of the monarchy during the English Interregnum. The group was commissioned by King Charles II between November 1653 and February 1654 from his exile in Paris to coordinate underground Royalist activity in England and prepare for a general uprising against the Protectorate.

The Sealed Knot made ten attempts between 1652 and 1659 to bring about the Restoration. The largest uprisings were staged in 1655 and 1659:

Penruddock uprising (1655), named after one of the leaders of the revolt, John Penruddock. The revolt was easily put down by forces loyal to the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, and for his part in the rebellion, Penruddock was beheaded in May 1655. The conspiracy was ultimately ineffective, partly because of an abundance of caution, but not least due to the treachery of St Richard Willis, who was feeding information to Cromwell's spymaster John Thurloe from at least 1656, for reasons which remain unknown.

Booth's uprising (1659) occurred after the death of Oliver Cromwell. The conspiracy was known to Thurloe and the Royalists under the command of Sir George Booth, and was militarily defeated on 19 August at the Battle of Winnington Bridge by a New Model Army contingent under the command of General John Lambert.

25/06/2025

Battle of Naseby

The Royalist army were utterly defeated in 2 hours.

24/06/2025

Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, also known as d'Artagnan and later Count d'Artagnan (c. 1611 – 25 June 1673), was a French Musketeer who served Louis XIV as captain of the Musketeers of the Guard. A fictionalised account of his life by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras formed the basis for the d'Artagnan Romances of Alexandre Dumas père, most famously including The Three Musketeers (1844).

D'Artagnan found a way to enter the Musketeers in 1632 through the support of his uncle, Henri de Montesquiou d'Artagnan. D’Artagnan joined the guards in the mid-1630s and served under Captain des Essarts. The regiment saw considerable action in the early 1640s, taking part in sieges at Arras, Aire-sur-la-Lys, La Bassée, and Bapaume in 1640–41, as well as at Collioure and Perpignan in 1642. Whether or not d’Artagnan was personally involved is unclear, but he likely took part in some, if not all, of these sieges. While in the Musketeers, d'Artagnan sought the protection of the influential Cardinal Mazarin, France's principal minister from 1643. In 1646, the Musketeers company was dissolved, but d'Artagnan continued to serve his protector, Mazarin.

D'Artagnan had a career in espionage for Cardinal Mazarin, in the years after the first Fronde. Owing to d'Artagnan's faithful service during this period, Louis XIV entrusted him with many secret and delicate situations that required complete discretion. He followed Mazarin during his exile in 1651, despite the hostility of the aristocracy. In 1652, d'Artagnan was promoted to lieutenant in the Gardes Françaises, and fought at the Battle of Stenay in 1654, as well as in sieges at Landrecies and Saint-Ghislaine, then to captain in 1655. In 1658, he became a second lieutenant in the newly reformed Musketeers. This was a promotion, as the Musketeers were far more prestigious than the Gardes-Françaises.

D'Artagnan was famous for his connection with the arrest of Nicolas Fouquet. Fouquet was Louis XIV's finance commissioner and aspired to take the place of Mazarin as the king's advisor. Fouquet was also a lover of grand architecture and employed the greatest architects and artisans in the building of his Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte. On 17 August 1661, he celebrated the completion with a most extravagant feast. The king, however, felt upstaged by the grandeur of the home and event and, suspecting that such magnificence could only be explained through Fouquet's pilfering of the royal treasury, three weeks later had d'Artagnan arrest Fouquet. To prevent his escape by bribery, d'Artagnan was assigned to guard him for four years until Fouquet was sentenced to life imprisonment.

After being recalled to service, d'Artagnan was killed in battle on 25 June 1673, when a musket ball tore into his throat at the siege of Maastricht.

23/06/2025

The ghosts of Edgehill

The Battle of Edgehill, fought on October 23, 1642, marked the beginning of the English Civil War – a devastating conflict that would rage across the country for nearly a decade. On that fateful autumn day, around 30,000 men clashed on the fields of Warwickshire in a ferocious struggle between King Charles I‘s Royalists and the Parliamentarian forces led by the Earl of Essex.

Yet Edgehill is remembered not only as the site of a pivotal battle, but also as the source of one of England‘s most enduring ghost stories. For months after the fighting ended, locals reported chilling apparitions of spectral soldiers still locked in eternal combat. These haunting tales have captivated the public imagination for centuries, earning Edgehill a reputation as the most haunted battlefield in Britain.

By day‘s end, around 1,500 men lay dead and many more were wounded. Although both sides claimed victory, the outcome was largely indecisive. The Royalists ultimately withdrew towards Oxford, while Essex‘s troops fell back to Warwick. Edgehill would prove to be only the first in a long series of bloody confrontations. The English Civil War dragged on until 1651, ultimately ending in defeat for the Royalists and the ex*****on of King Charles I for treason.

In the weeks following the battle, a new threat emerged to terrorize the traumatized residents of Kineton and the surrounding villages. People began reporting sightings of ghostly soldiers marching across the abandoned battlefield, locked in phantom skirmishes, and crying out in agony. These apparitions appeared so frequently and seemed so real that many feared a second spectral battle was taking place.

One of the earliest written accounts comes from a pamphlet published in January 1643, which describes how "In the very place where the battaile was stricken, have since and doth appeare strange and portentous Aparitions of two jarring and contrary Armies." The author claims that these visions appeared on multiple evenings, terrifying all who saw them.

As news of the sinister sightings spread, the villagers petitioned King Charles I to investigate. The officers arrived at Edgehill in January 1643 and began interviewing witnesses, hoping to put an end to the rumors. To their astonishment, on the first night of their investigation, the ghostly battlers appeared once more. The officers claimed they could make out individual figures in the chaos, including the king‘s late standard bearer, Sir Edmund Verney.

The sightings continued for several months, causing many to speculate that the battle had unleashed a terrible curse upon the land. The only thing that seemed to halt the haunting was when locals collected the hastily buried bodies scattered across the field and reinterred them in proper graves with religious rites.

Visitors still report hearing the ghostly sounds of clashing swords, galloping hooves, booming cannons, and anguished cries on the anniversary of the battle.

21/06/2025

St Peter’s church, Radway Part of the Battle of Edgehill

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