Favorite Battlefield Visit

[J Melvin]

+1

+2 to Gettysburg.

[Spanish Freiwillige]

I enyoied all my battle field visits, among them:

Alcazar de toledo

Omaha beach
Battery at Longes sur mer
Avranches
La pallice U boat base
Bordeux U boat base

Berchdesgarden (the Eagle´s nest)

Here in Mexico sveral museums, and great archeological sites, but concerning battles that I like, I sepcially enoy things of the spanish Conquest, but there are no battle areas as such only the forts and museums. like:

San Juan the Ulua
Baluarte de santiago
Muro de campeche
Templo Mayor
The castle of Cortes

[juoneen]

You cant go into gettysburg at night any longer, as the vandallism has started an upheavel to locate the perpetraitors of the last few years's damages to the monuments. Like breaking off the ends of a swords scabbard, or toppling the monuments. Just google it sometime, and if they catch you there after hours you will be arrested now as a result of these others who did the damage to one of our most sacred battlefields. And verdun must just look like a big mudhole the way it is described. Might be dangerous because of unexploded munitions like many of europes battlefields.

Blue ball is near intercourse, paradise, bird in hand ,lancaster, and recently they put a major highway thru intercourse, and split the town in two, now they call it ...coitus..interruptus..hahah(its a joke man)

[Xray]

There are really no legit reasons to be on a historic battlefield at night anyhow.
True, some might like to go just for the "feeling" or whatever, which in a perfect world would be fine.
But I think that we must accept that at least a decent percentage of those who wish to visit a battlefield at night do so for nefarious purposes, so I agree with the ban on night shenanigans there.

[peleliuexplorer]

There are really no legit reasons to be on a historic battlefield at night anyhow.
True, some might like to go just for the "feeling" or whatever, which in a perfect world would be fine.
But I think that we must accept that at least a decent percentage of those who wish to visit a battlefield at night do so for nefarious purposes, so I agree with the ban on night shenanigans there.

I would have to disagree. I spent an eerie night in the Peleliu ridges to experience what it would have been like for the Marines who fought and died there along with the Japanese, who usually only fought at night. Many of the famous counterattacks only occured at night. Totally different experience/aura and I recommend a night visit to any battlefield.

-Eric

[Xray]

Well, an isolated area like Peleliu or Tarawa would be a bit different than a Gettysburg, where vandals and diggers would likely far outnumber anyone there for a legitimate experience, as you describe.
For that reason I agree with the total after hours ban, as there is no good way to separate the two.
Perhaps there are, or will be, sanctioned after hours tours if there is enough interest.

[Bobwirtz]

I've been to many of the Civil War battlefields in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. I've been to Fort Sumpter in Charleston, Fort Clinch down in Jacksonville, FL, Castillo de San Marcos (renamed Fort Marion after the Swamp Fox) in St. Augustine, Fort Pickens in Pensacola (as well as the other fort and redoubt guarding the once navy yard), Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay. I lived in Sicily for two years and have been to Berlin several times and have found many of the III. Reich sites and buildings... been to Peenamunde.

I think the battlefields that I would be interested in seeing are the Civil War battlefields in the West, e.g. Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Atlanta, etc. And I would love to take a trip down to one of the keys and visit the fort that Dr. Mudd was imprisoned in.

Bob

[Greg]

Well, an isolated area like Peleliu or Tarawa would be a bit different than a Gettysburg, where vandals and diggers would likely far outnumber anyone there for a legitimate experience, as you describe.
For that reason I agree with the total after hours ban, as there is no good way to separate the two.
Perhaps there are, or will be, sanctioned after hours tours if there is enough interest.

One way to do it is to be part of a Park-sanctioned living history event. I've spent many a night at Shiloh, Stones River, and Chickamauga National Battlefields (and Perryville, KY - state park, not Federal). Never gotten a real eerie feeling at night, though picket duty in a thicket near Stones River on a cold December night sent chills through me (real chills!).

Maybe the oddest occurence to me camping during living history on a National Battlefield was once at Shiloh, we were camped near one of the main roads, with monuments in the near distance. We went into camp at night so we didn't see the monuments. At dawn it was foggy with dense ground fog, but as the sun rose we could see a shiny spark in the distance through the fog. As we walked in that direction the spark became a shiny gold spot. When we got there we saw that it was part of a bronze monument .. one of those half-nude "Victory" statues, where visitors had rubbed the exposed t!t shiny!

Best,
Greg

[sneakerd]

I would love to spend a night near where Armistead fell at Gettysburg. The draw for me would be the total silence, no (other) tourists or anyone else. The crowds for the most part ruin the experience for me.

[Scott H]

I would love to go to the Magionet Line, Sedan, Kursk and Stalingrad myself.

[Tim O'Keefe]

Agree with with comments about Gettysburg. Visited Little Round top during a thunderstorm and could almost hear the cannon, pretty somber place.....Would like to go to Tobruk and HellFire Pass myself.

[sscrooge]

I would like to visit the battlefields of ww1 in belgium also thermopylae in greece , 1 day eh

[pimpf]

My favorite routes are around Novgorod: Demjansk pocket and so on. There are some interesting places around Moscow as well: Dmitrov, Belij Rast, Rogachevo.

[Greg]

I would love to spend a night near where Armistead fell at Gettysburg. The draw for me would be the total silence, no (other) tourists or anyone else. The crowds for the most part ruin the experience for me.

I'll go with you! I have walked the Perryville (KY) battlefield on a warm, windy October 8th, as that day was in 1862, with not another soul in sight. A great experience!

Best,
Greg

[sneakerd]

Another draw for Gettysburg, which to the best of my knowledge is hard to equal, are the number of bullet-marked houses and buildings in town. For the most part, European towns were heavily damaged or destroyed in the battles and totally rebuilt after the war. Of course there are exceptions. Gettysburg was not. There is a small restaurant in Gettysburg where many of the props/uniforms worn by the movie stars who were in the movie are displayed behind glass. When I walked out of that place after lunch, I looked up and to the left and saw the side of an obviously original house right next door. There were literally a hundred? or more bullet scars in the brick, from the ground to the roof. Then I started looking for that sort of thing, it's everywhere.