About Us
On this page is some more
information about Battlebus and how we work. Information about our Battlefield Guides can be found on our Staff pages , and for answers to other questions please look at our FAQ and Terms and Conditions pages and also our Battlebus Forum . Travel Agents please see here.
Vehicles
Our fully marked burgandy Peugeot minibuses seat 8 passengers (plus the driver/guide) and are, spacious, comfortable and well maintained.
It goes without saying, that we are fully insured to carry paying clients with the necessary Transport Licence and Liability insurances. All our vehicles have air-conditioning and seatbelts throughout - which we enforce the wearing of on all tours.
Qualifications
Please visit our staff pages for more information about our battlefield guides, all of whom are passionate historians of the Normandy campaign. However there is no qualification needed to become a member of the Battlebus team, enthusiasm and above all an ability to talk to people in an engaging way is the most important factor. Please also see our interpretation of the word "guide"
here
.
We use our pages of client
testimonials to inform you about our guiding skills, and much of our advertising is based on “word of mouth” referrals.
Knowledge of the region - All Normandy guides should know how to get to Pointe du Hoc, Sainte Mere Eglise and Pegasus Bridge. But our Battlebus guides know much much more than that, there are over 1000 memorials to WWII here, spread out over an area of 4000 square miles. We don’t necessarily know the stories of ALL these monuments, but we know countless tales about the dozens of little villages throughout Normandy, who served where, which division passed through here etc. etc.
Enthusiasm and passion - Be honest, we can all tell when a person in a job is just “going through the motions”. The last thing you want when you make your pilgrimage to Normandy is to be stuck with a guide who clearly has no interest in the events of 1944, knows less about the history than you do and simply can’t wait to get you back and take your money. If you read our testimonials, word’s like “enthusiasm” and “passion” are often used to describe our team. Don’t forget for all the Battlebus staff, 1944 history is not only their job but their hobby too, we literally live D-Day history. We spend a fortune on books about WWII and we enjoy touring and sharing our stories with you. Most of our guides are also avid militaria collectors and can field questions about military uniforms and equipment too.
Guiding style - The fact a guide maybe able to list all the Battalions making up the assault divisions on D-Day and their objectives is basically irrelevant if he or she cannot present the story to the group of clients they have. Our staff may visit the same sites several times a week, but the delivery of the information is based on the type of clients present each day. Our presentation to a American 29th Division Omaha veteran and his wife and children, is totally different to our version for a group of students. Our approach is such that we try and relate to the casual tourist with little or no prior knowledge of D-Day just as readily as we do the history buff.
Personal Stories - We find it’s the stories of individual soldiers and servicemen that enthral our clients. Though wars are won by armies, armies are made of men (and women of course). We find that it’s the little anecdotes and reminiscences we share that hit home better than reeling off pages of facts. Also facts can be reeled off from books, when a client is standing on Omaha beach with our Battlefield Guide we want them to “feel” what it would have been like to land there 65 years ago, and comprehend in, just a small way, what it was like for the young men and women who gave their lives for our freedom. Our job allows us to meet many veterans of WWII and indeed many of our best stories come from the guys themselves, often the men we talk about we have actually met or, at the very least, written to.
Facts - History constantly changes, our understanding of the events of 6th June 1944 doesn’t come from just one book or film. It has to be assimilated from a vast range of sources. There are different statistics about the same events, and from our experience you can speak to 5 veterans of exactly the same battle, and their accounts will be totally different. No-one at Battlebus says they know it all, and has all the facts at their command, all of us have spent years researching and learning our subjects. History should be written in pencil, not pen, as it changes all the time. What we at Battlebus try to offer is an insight, more of an emotional visit rather than a dry over-factual one. Each member of staff carries display books of their own researched stories and history. Each display book is packed with photos, plans and maps related to the sites you are standing at and the particpants in the battles. Please view this page of previous clients.
Numero TVA: FR334 434 83037
Only WWII Touring
We at Battlebus do not undertake tours of non-WWII sites. Why? Well put simply, the history of Normandy goes back over 2000 years and covers numerous diverse periods. At Battlebus we would like to be the first choice for people wanting a WWII military tour within Normandy. For the other periods of history we advise you to use guides from other companies,
specialising in those eras. We want to be experts in our field, we offer WWII military tours and nothing else.
This page last modified on Saturday, October 31st 2009
All text © Battlebus SARL 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009
