I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Paul Trickett and I am a former
Royal Marines Musician and have launched Kimber Battlefield Tours after spending 9 years in the 
military and returning to full-time education to achieve a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master
of Arts degree in history.

This is me explaining how HMS Ajax's 6 inch guns fired 2,587 shells on D-Day, a couple of which came through here. The proverbial eye of a needle shot.

My time in the military gave me unrivalled access to the workings of the military mind and I put this knowledge to the test whenever the chance presented itself in the form of a battlefield. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit many historically important battlefields and sites during my time in the Royal Marines, including: Bermuda, Singapore, Yorktown, Gibraltar, Monmouth (New Jersey), Sevastopol, Balaklava, Alma, Inkermann and of course Normandy, Arnhem, Somme, Ypres, Verdun, Culloden, Falkirk (I & II), Prestonpans, Auldearn, Dunbar (II), Pinkie, Killiecrankie, Stirling Bridge, Sheriffmuir, Stamford Bridge, Sedgemoor, Naseby, Flodden, Bosworth, Lewes and Hastings.

I take a personal interest in every aspect of planning and research for each battlefield tour with my colleague Phil Adams who is the Senior Guide at Kimber and also happens to be a colleague of mine from our time together in the Royal Marines.

Phil Adams was born in Exmouth, Devon. His passion for military history began when he was taken to see the film 'Zulu' at a young and impressionable age. The impact of the film was soon reinforced when Phil discovered that his father had a copy of Donald Morris's groundbreaking book, 'The Washing of the Spears' and the rest they say, is history.

This is Phil proving his point that you should never wander around battlefields alone!

Like myself, during Phil's 23 years service in the military he took every opportunity whilst on deployment to visit any battlefield and historic site he was near, applying knowledge learnt and researched as he went and acting as an impromptu tour guide for colleagues who asked, 'What happened here then?'

23 years of battlefield touring presents itself as a very long list but as they are all places of heroic deeds and human sacrifice they each deserve a mention, so here goes (don't forget to breathe!): Ypres, Dunkirk, Normandy, Singapore, El Alamein, Bull Run (I & II), Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Antietam, Gettysburg, Arnhem, The Rhine Crossing, Kalkriese, Minden, Prestonpans, Culloden, Stirling, Falkirk (I & II), Killiekrankie, Towton, Bosworth, Hastings, Verdun, The Argonne, The Ardennes, Aspern-Essling, Wagram, Waterloo, Mars-la-Tour, Gravelotte-St Privat, Sevastopol, Balaklava, Naseby, Stratton Hill, Lostwithiel, Cheriton, Sedgemoor, Gibraltar, Dieppe, and all of the Zulu War sites(!).

Despite being a musician by trade, the Commandos in charge of Phil's command course described him as having, 'an above average military knowledge', which means he understands the tactical benefits of a frontal feint combined with a good right flanking manouevre, and when not visiting battlefields he is building and re-fighting them at his local war games club, The Exmouth Imperial Wargames Club. Here he regularly enhances his well founded reputation as a tactical genius whose dice hate him! Phil was recently 'volunteered' to be club secretary and had one of his Napoleonic scenarios featured in Military Illustrated Wargames magazine.

 

Phil and I are both members of the Guild of Battlefield Guides which allows us to go away on weekends and share military history knowledge for very, very many hours at a time. This also allows us by default to give you access to the thoughts of some of the finest military historians in the UK, Europe and even Worldwide. Everyone in the Guild is dedicated to analysing, developing and raising the quality of battlefield guiding which is essential to promoting an understanding of the art of warfare and goes a long way towards appreciating the sacrifices made by ordinary people in the service of their countries.

As well as undertaking the tours ourselves we also offer a research service for anyone wishing to know a little more information about an individual who fought in any particular conflict. The research part of Kimber Battlefield Tours is led by Joe Woodward, a friend and colleague from the University of Bristol.

Joe on his very own 'Champagne Campaign' 60 years later.

Joe completed a BA and MA in History, specialising in the history of the First World War, and the way we remember and memorialise conflicts.

After leaving university he joined the army, going through officer training at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Just over a year into his military career he severely injured his shoulder and was medically discharged, much to the relief of his Sergeant, who had found out the hard way the truth behind the old maxim that there is nothing more dangerous than an officer with a map!
For the last two years Joe has been working as a journalist and latterly as the Editor of two lifestyle magazines. However he has continued to indulge his love of military history with repeated trips to the battlefields of the Western Front, the Italian Front of the Great War, Normandy, Arnhem, the Seven Years War and the Peninsular War, where he tries to apply the military doctrine he learned at Sandhurst to the battles of the past (he is a particular fan of going straight up the middle, moving fast, keeping low and using lots of smoke!).

He has led tours to the Western Front for his old school but his real passion is for researching the lives of individual soldiers for which he has undertaken a vast amount of work. This has given him a unique way of looking at the personal stories of those who fought in the great battles of the twentieth century and this knowledge is applied and dissemintaed throughout the tours at Kimber.

Caring for the Resource

The battlefields we visit and even the ones that we don't are all under threat from a number of quarters including but not exclusively; housing developers; renewable energies; coastal erosion; and even the local wildlife. In fact, the constant flow of human traffic around these sites also affects them, which is why at Kimber we believe we have an ethical responsibility to the historical resource. Therefore, we are fully committed to ensuring that the historical resource, wherever it may be, is used thoughtfully, and that we in turn go some way to helping the local communities that support and derive their existence from the battlefields. We are currently members of The Battlefield Trust (Membership no.G70).

The Name

In case you were wondering, Kimber Battlefield Tours was so named after my Great Uncle, Frederick Charles Kimber, a Flight Engineer in Bomber Command who served in Lancasters and Stirlings during the Second World War.

Unfortunately, ‘Uncle Freddie' ran into a spot of bother in Lancaster ED424 UM-E2 (E for Echo) and 'bought it' during the early hours of the 25th April 1944 whilst returning from a raid over Karlsruhe. He is buried with the other crew members in a French cemetery within the town of Haguenau, close to where the the ‘Lanc' came down.

Here is some information relating to his crew and 'E for Echo' for which I would like to thank Mr Ken Harbour and the RAF Wickenby Memorial Collection for providing.

On April 16th 1944, the following crew were posted from 1667 Conversion Unit, RAF Sandtoft to 626 Squadron, RAF Wickenby. They were:

F/Sgt F.B. Baker, Pilot

Sgt F.C. Kimber, Flight Engineer (my great uncle)

F/Sgt E.G.M. Eyres, Navigator

Sgt J.H. McVey, Bomb Aimer

Sgt B.M. Kimber, Mid Upper Gunner

Sgt F. Skelly, Rear Gunner

They flew the following sorties:

March 25th 1944, to Aulnoye in DV244 UM-L2

March 26th 1944, to Essen in LM472 UM-U2

March 30th 1944, to Nuremberg in ED424 UM-E2

April 9th 1944, to Villeneuve in ED424 UM-E2

Aptil 10th 1944, to Aulnoye in ED424 UM-E2

April 18th 1944, to Rouen in ED424 UM-E2

April 24th 1944, to Karlsruhe in ED424 UM-E2

On this last sortie the aircraft crashed at 0400 hrs on the return journey, near Haguenau, France. There has been some debate about how this aircraft met its end. W.R. Chorley in his book 'Bomber Command Losses', states that it was shot down by a German night-fighter. However, a French aviation historian says that it collided with JB719 of 7 Squadron which crashed nearby.

The keen eyed amongst you will have noticed that there are only six members of the crew listed and that you needed seven to fly a Lancaster with any reasonable assurance of making a good fist of it. Buried alongside the rest of the crew is another member, F/Sgt R.G. Craddock, Wireless Operator/Front Gunner. He may possibly have been 'recruited' to the crew when they arrived at RAF Wickenby, possibly with only six crew members.

We hope that Kimber Battlefield Tours may be able to be of service to you and we hope you enjoy looking through the website and I look forward to personally welcoming you on to a Kimber Battlefield Tour in the near future.