Welcome to the International Guild of Battlefield Guides

The Richard Holmes Lecture is given annually; sponsorship rotates between the Battlefields Trust, The British Commission for Military History and the Guild.  This year’s sponsor is the Battlefields Trust.  Subject to confirmation, the Richard Holmes Memorial Lecture 2025 will be held on the afternoon of Saturday 1 November 2025 at National Army Museum, London.  Remote participation/access will be available.

The speaker will be Dr Ismini Pells of the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education and a noted specialist on the British Civil Wars.  The subject of her lecture is Atrocity, Justice and Reconciliation in the English Civil War.

A great opportunity to catch up at the end of the year; the Guild’s annual Christmas lunch will be held at the Union Jack Club, Sandell St, London SE1 8UJ (which is adjacent to Waterloo Station) on Friday 5 December.

The bar opens at 11.00 a.m. and members are asked to assemble for 12.30 for lunch at 12.45 when a three course lunch will be served.  The event is informal (lounge suits and equivalent for female members and guests) and offers members a convivial atmosphere to enjoy the company of others at the end of what is normally a long year of guiding.  The cost for the lunch this year will be published when known.

Full instructions will be sent to members and their guests joining the lunch in early November.

Members wishing to be attend should contact the organiser, Bob Shaw (rtnshaw@hotmail.com).

One of the series of Guild webinars, given by Alan Wood, will take place on Wednesday 9th December commencing at 1930 (UK time).

 
On the 24th February 2022 hundreds of Russian tanks drove across the Ukrainian border.  This was a scenario that many believed would never happen in Europe again. This thinking had been prevalent in Western European politics since the 'Cold War' ended with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact.  Those same politicians then sought a commensurate 'peace dividend'.  Those policies saw the reduction in national tank fleets to levels that are now perceived as dangerously low and many nations rebuilding their tank fleets.  Such is the benefit of hindsight.  
 
In the British Army today there are three Regular regiments trained to fight on Main Battle Tanks (MBT) with not enough MBTs for all their trained crews.  At the height of the Cold War there were some 15 armoured regiments, all fully manned with either 62 or 47 MBT's each, and spares. But what was life like for the soldiers who crewed those tanks and would they have been able to hold a Soviet invasion fi it had come? The answer to the latter we thankfully never had to know, but we can take an insight into what life was like in those tank regiments.  Allan Wood, aka Chippy, served in an armoured regiment in Germany for the latter years of that 'Cold War'.  He has prepared a talk for the regular series at the Union Jack Club and will give that talk to the Guild on 9th December as a webinar. 

This will include Battlefield of Blenheim , the German Great War Museum at Ingolstadt and Dachau Concentration Camp. 

Note that April 1 is a place marker in the calendar rather than the actual start date which is to be advised

For more information contact the organiser John Cotterill via the Guild Secretary, or via the Member contact details

In France in 1916, plans were being drawn up to relieve the pressure on Verdun; in Dublin plans were being finalised for an insurrection.  The Easter Rising would see ordinary men and women become national heroes who would shape Ireland’s destiny.
Join me in Dublin on May 1st to 3rd 2026 as we look at various locations and learn about the people involved.

THIS RECCE IS BEING PUT BACK TO 2026 SO AS NOT TO CLASH WITH OTHER EVENTS. THE DATES ARE MERELY A PLACE SAVER AND ARE TO BE CONFIRMED.

Operation Frankton was the famous WW2 raid on German blockade running shipping in Bordeaux, France.  The raid was carried out by the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment (RMBPD), which was part of Combined Operations.  Inserted by the submarine HMS Tuna, five folding kayaks, (Cockleshells) paddled up the Gironde and attacked the cargo ships with limpet mines.  The recce is a detailed study of the intelligence, planning, execution and outcomes of a strategic mission that ended with only two of the ten men surviving the mission, including “Blondie” Haslar and Bill Sparks, (who used an MI9 escape line), with six being executed by the Germans and two dying from hypothermia.

The St Nazaire raid (Operation Chariot) was an attack by Combined Operations to destroy the dry dock in the port of St Nazaire to prevent it being used by the German battleship Tirpitz and force her to return to Northern Germany for maintenance.