Battlefield Tourism

Türk Kurtuluş Savaşı, Batı Cephesi savaş alanlarının bir tarihi coğrafya incelemesi. 1921 ve 1922 yıllarında gerçekleşen muharebelerin mekanlarınını, savaş alanları turizmi çerçevesinde güncel koruma/kullanma kriterleri açısından değerlendirilmesi.

, Director and Trustee Edinburgh and SouthEast Scotland, and myself, Archaeological Advisor and Trustee for South West Scotland and Glasgow, made a visit to the battlefield at Auldearn. In the wake of extensions to the A9 motorway, crossing both this battlefield and that at Culloden, potentially damaging what came to appear as an almost perfectly preserved contemporary landscape, we felt it was necessary to carry out a walking brief to understand the nature of the battle and the impact such changes would effect. This is the result. After a failed attempt on Dundee, Montrose's forces were forced to retreat northwards back towards the Royalist heartlands of highland Scotland. Reaching Auldearn, Maccolla's Irish brigade and the troops under Gordon garrisoned the village, the rest of Montrose's forces spread out to the East, a feature that would make concentration of forces in the morning difficult to achieve. Unbeknownst to them, they had been outflanked by the Covenanting forces of Sir John Hurry, after last seeing his covering force at dusk the previous day. Despite this a light picket was placed around the village, but due to bad weather during the night, this gradually, against Montrose orders, withdrew into the village. 7 miles away, near Cawdor, Hurry's forces had joined with the garrison of Inverness and Seaforth's highland levies. Undertaking a forced march north East along the present route of the A9, they stopped at Nairn to clear their muskets, thus supposedly breaking the element of surprise and informing Montrose's forces. Hurry's forces were made up of 5 regiments of foot, 2 of horse, a third of which were raw, numbering in the region of 3300-5000 men. Opposed to them, Montrose force was made up of Maccolla's Irish, the Strathbogie regiment and foot and cavalry under Gordon, numbering between 1400-2000 men. Auldearn's cottages and yards stretch for a quarter mile North to South, its modern setting bisected East-West. This acts as a very good marker defining the modern extent of the village, demarcated by a boxgrid system of development, the Northern extent a mishmash of streets, yards and buildings with no clear system-we got lost trying to navigate these several times. The battlefield is clearly demarcated between the extremities of the motte marking the original position of Auldearn castle, now marked by a 17 th century dovecote (every 17 th century site needs one-although its complete lack of use for interpretation of the site is a major oversite) and the brooding ridgeline in local crop fields of Garlic Hill. It is believed that it was here, on the motte and between Kinnudie farm, half a mile to the East, that Hurry's forces deployed at the start of the engagement at 7am, in particular Campbell of Lawer's black coated regiment. The site provides a good overview of the main valley area. What it does not provide though is a clear line of site through the village to the rear or flanks of anyone using it as a strategic position.

Los yacimientos olvidados: registro y musealización de campos de batalla is a project that aims to encompass all aspects of battlefield archaeology, in order to be a reference work in this study area. Therefore, a detailed historiographical study about this branch of archaeology has been made, from early origins until the present day, allowing us to gain a deeper understanding of the evolution of battlefield archaeology. Two methodologies, archaeological and museographical, are proposed for the treatment of this particular type of archaeological site. In order to prove the viability of both methodologies, a theoretical application has been carried out in two research examples from different periods, demonstrating both the project’s methodological validity and reinforcing our theories.

Two registers were made regarding battlefields ¬- one historical and another archaeological. The purpose of this was to catalogue all possible existing sites in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula from Roman times through to the Spanish Civil War, which will hopefully serve as a point of reference for future researchers. Through this book, people will be able to understand the great potential of Spanish battlefields and their heritage. Furthermore, Spain could be regarded as a very important country regarding battlefield archaeology.

From what I have seen in Afghanistan since 2001 the west is confused about war , trying to win hearts and minds and enforcing rules of engagement that make western troops in Afghanistan sitting ducks. As an American friend summed it up , we have lost that brutality necessary to win wars and are very confused. Our author attempts to rationalize and submit to logic a massive human endeavour known as military history.A gargantuan enterprise.He writes fluently and logically but as I read through the book , I could not agree with his logic.Rather I found his logic lopsided and at times unjustified and sweeping. Naturally I read every page of this massive 729 page book so that no injustice is committed in reviewing the book. From page-2 my impression was that our writer is a staunch pacifist who hates war :-- On page-6 the writer rightly identifies misperception as a major cause of failure in war :-- The writer delivers judgements with which I could not agree like on page -7 where he claims that the idea of decisive battles became fashionable from 1815 :-- The battle has always been a fascinating topic from time immemorial and the writer does not prove how 1815 was a landmark ? Again on page-8 one may not agree with his logic :-- Some battles were foregone conclusions like Lees failure at Gettysburg keeping in mind the Union superiority in numbers and logistics was inevitable. Waterloo was again a foregone conclusion keeping in view the odds that Napoleon was facing . Military writers should avoid passing such sweeping judgements. The writer concentrates on land combat and ignores naval powers influence on outcome of battles. The writers claim about defence on page-10 is again fallacious:-- Defence was never the decisive form of warfare except in Russia where the outcome was decided by space logistics and mechanics.But not so in most other European battles. Why our writer had to make such a claim needs to be contested ? On page-12 he was nothing to say about role of naval power in Napoleons ultimate strategic defeat which remains a weak part of the narrative :-- He makes broad brushed like not taking into account the fact that Austro Hungarian army was no match for Moltkes army since Austro Hungarian Army was not a homogenous army and had severe issues of integration. Similarly he ignores the fact that superior doctrine and tactics played a major role in Franco Prussian war but by First World War due to radical advances in power of defensive weapons the offense as it existed in 1914 had become obsolete. As I read the book , I realized that the writer was trying to simplify many complicated issues and in the process delivering judgements that were not wholly or sometimes even partially accurate. What he wrote was good enough to convince the judges to give him a 50,000 USD prize, but not convincing for a military history enthusiast like this scribe ? On page-14 the writers conclusions are erroneous:-- In Crimea Russia lost and Britain achieved all its objectives and the attrition was not very high , apart from blunders like charge of light brigade. In US Civil war manoeuvre was alive and the north won because of overwhelming material superiority. As I read I cannot agree with the authors line of thought and reasoning as on page-15 :--

The purpose of this article is to expand the discussion pertaining to Vimy beyond traditional historic and military circles and to illustrate that the site is a significant tourism attraction featuring evolving management and interpretation approaches. This is achieved by describing the commemoration of First World War sites and the evolution and transformation of visitor typologies at these sites. The conversation is framed within a discussion of the role of heritage dissonance in management. Since this article was written at the onset of the centennial of the Great War, an examination of the management of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, which includes a tourism perspective, is timely.

Since the middle of the 20th, there have been two places of division caused by war in east Asia. One is in the Korean peninsula, the other is related to the Taiwan Strait. After the war and the long-term military confrontation, the two places of division had many exhibition halls which discoursed on the war and the military confrontation. How the displays of the historical opposite subjects discourse on the same war is the topic that this study concerns about.
Extending the meaning of the South Korean scholar Youngseo Baik’s “core location” makes the intersection points of modern east Asian history where disputes exist be connected. This study will focus on main battlefield display discourses of north and south sides of the Korean peninsula and both sides of the Taiwan Strait. The content of battlefield display in four places, “ROK and DPRK” and “Taiwan and mainland China”, will be analysed and be directly compared. Integrated comparison of the battlefield display in the Korean peninsula and the Taiwan Strait will be carried on with the macro-memory and the micro-memories perspectives as well. All is to find out the core values of battlefield display. After a series of comparative study, the core values of battlefield display are summarized as “keep peace”, “keep reconciliation” and “keep talk”.

In February 1916 a small group of German army pioneers approached the looming bulk of Fort Douaumont near Verdun, at the time considered impregnable. This article describes the remarkable events surrounding its almost single-handed capture  by one of these men and the complacency amongst the French army's high command which led to this debacle.

This dissertation discusses the material heritage of the German military presence in Finnish Lapland during the Second World War (WWII), as seen through archaeological and multidisciplinary studies. The Nazi German presence as brothers-in-arms in northern Finland has been a difficult and downplayed issue on multiple levels throughout the post-war decades. This study presents the first wider, problem-oriented and theoretically informed investigation about the archaeologies, materialities and heritage of the German WWII presence. However, even this work barely scratches the surface of this multifaceted subject and sets out future research directions. The experience of WWII in Lapland was different from the war experience elsewhere in Finland. The German troops had the frontal responsibility in Lapland in 1941–1944, and at the height of their military build-up there were more German troops and their multinational prisoners in the area than local inhabitants. After Finland made a cease-fire with the Soviet Union in 1944, a Finno-German Lapland War (1944–1945) broke out between the former brothers-in-arms. Due to the long nation-level downplay of the complex German presence, also the northern Finnish and Sámi war experiences have become side-lined. Accordingly, the German material remains have been treated dismissively as “war junk” littering Lapland’s nature. However, for the locals these were well-known throughout the post-war decades, as active material agents of communal and familial memories, and as part of Lapland’s cultural landscapes. This dissertation has two main focuses. Firstly, I study the Germans’ and their prisoners’ experiences in Lapland during the war through the material remains and archaeological inquiries, and secondly, the ways in which the different stakeholders have signified the traces of war in the post-war decades. The material traces illustrate and highlight in many ways the experiential aspects of the German soldiers’ and their prisoners’ wartime existence in an unfamiliar northern environment. The post-war perceptions of the German material remains underline the social value of these as part of the local long-term heritage and lived-in cultural landscape. Many locals see themselves as custodians of their “own past”, including the WWII legacy, wish to control access and engagement with the sites in their local landscape, and often feel that the authorities neglect their heritage. Thus, the traces of German presence have become one symbol of the continuing north-south confrontations, and the marginalization of the north. These issues tie in with Lapland’s long colonial history. The vast differences in engaging with the German WWII material remains appear to derive from fundamentally different mental templates with which the people perceive the subject and its importance. The people propagating the “clearing” of “war junk” appear to approach the subject, and the landscape, with a “western” gaze, and draw a division between “nature” and “culture” which labels the locals’ historical cultural landscape as a natural wilderness. Conversely, in the northern environmental awareness it is not meaningful to separate “nature” and “culture”, and instead, the landscape and its various layers form a web of relations, which tie together the past, present and future into a cognitively controlled and embodied unity. It appears that the different stakeholders should come to recognize and accept the differing standpoints from which they engage into the discussions, before a fruitful dialogue can be instigated.

Finnish: Tämä väitöskirja käsittelee arkeologisten ja monitieteisten tutkimusten kautta saksalaisten toisen maailmansodan aikaisen sotilaallisen läsnäolon materiaalista kulttuuriperintöä Suomen Lapissa. Natsisaksan joukkojen läsnäolo aseveljinä Pohjois-Suomessa on ollut sodanjälkeisinä vuosikymmeninä vaikea ja vähätelty aihe. Tämä työ on ensimmäinen laaja-alainen, teoreettisesti suuntautunut tutkimus saksalaisjoukkojen materiaalisten jäänteiden arkeologiasta, materiaalisuudesta ja perinnöstä Suomen Lapissa. Tämäkin tutkimus kuitenkin raaputtaa vain hieman tämän monikerroksisen aiheen pintaa ja tarjoaa tulevia tutkimussuuntia. Toisen maailmansodan kokemukset Lapissa erosivat merkittävästi muusta maasta. Saksalaisjoukoilla oli rintamavastuu pohjoisessa 1941–1944 ja enimmillään alueella oli enemmän saksalaisjoukkoja ja heidän monikansallisia vankejaan kuin paikallista väestöä. Suomen tehtyä tulitauon Neuvostoliiton kanssa 1944, entisten liittolaisten välille puhkesi Lapin sota (1944–1945). Koska saksalaisten läsnäoloa on pitkään vältelty kansallisella tasolla, myös pohjoissuomalainen ja saamelainen sotakokemus on jäänyt syrjään. Vastaavasti saksalaisten materiaaliset jäänteitä on usein vähättelevästi nimetty ”sotaromuksi”, joka sotkee Lapin luonnon. Paikallisille nämä jäänteet ovat kuitenkin olleet tunnettuja ja tärkeitä läpi vuosikymmenien osana paikallista kulttuurimaisemaa sekä yhteisöllisten ja yksilöllisten muistojen aktiivisina materiaalisina ilmentyminä. Tällä työllä on kaksi päätarkoitusta. Ensinnäkin tutkin saksalaisten ja heidän vankiensa sodan aikaisia kokemuksia Lapissa materiaalisten jäänteiden ja arkeologisen tutkimuksen avulla. Toisekseen selvitän tapoja, joilla eri yhteisöt ovat merkityksellistäneet näitä jälkiä sodan jälkeen. Materiaaliset jäänteet heijastelevat monilla tavoin saksalaisten ja heidän vankiensa sotakokemuksia vieraassa pohjoisessa ympäristössä. Sodanjälkeiset näkemykset saksalaisjäänteiden merkityksestä alleviivaavat niiden sosiaalista arvoa osana paikallista pitkän aikavälin kulttuuriperintöä ja –maisemaa. Monet paikalliset näkevät itsensä ”oman menneisyytensä” vartijoina ja toivovat voivansa valvoa ulkopuolisten toimintaa sota-aikaisilla kohteilla. Lisäksi he usein kokevat, että viranomaiset ylenkatsovat heidän kulttuuriperintöänsä. Tämän johdosta saksalaisten jäljet maisemassa ovat muodostuneet myös nykyisen Pohjois- ja Etelä-Suomen vastakkainasettelun sekä pohjoisen marginalisoinnin symboleiksi. Nämä näkemykset heijastelevat myös Lapin pitkää kolonialistista historiaa. Erilaiset tavat lähestyä saksalaisten toisen maailmansodan jäänteitä vaikuttavat olevan lähtöisin perustavanlaatuisista eroista maailmankatsomuksessa ja tavassa tulkita maisemaa. ”Sotaromun puhdistamista” kannattavat henkilöt näyttävät lähestyvän aihetta ”länsimaisella” katseella, joka vetää rajan ”luonnon” ja ”kulttuurin” välille. Tämä leimaa samalla paikallisten historiallisen kulttuurimaiseman tyhjäksi, luonnolliseksi erämaaksi. Toisaalta pohjoisessa ympäristötietoisuudessa ei ole mielekästä erotella “luontoa” ja “kulttuuria”. Sen sijaan maisema ja sen eri kerrostumat muodostavat kognitiivisesti kontrolloitujen ja kehollistuneiden suhteiden kokonaisuuden, joka sitoo yhteen menneen, nykyisen ja tulevan. Eri toimijoiden tulisikin tiedostaa ja hyväksyä toistensa eroavat lähtökohdat, ennen kuin he pystyvät rakentavaan keskusteluun aiheesta.

1812 was the year of one of Wellington's greatest victories in the Peninsular War: Salamanca, the battle that proved Wellington as effective a commander on the offensive as on the defensive.  Salamanca opened the road to Madrid and helped to set the conditions for the expulsion of the French from Spain.  The Battle of Salamanca has also come to be the Regimental Day of The Rifles, the British Army's largest infantry regiment, given the number of antecedent units that fought on the day.

I wrote this short book to complement battlefield tours to the town of Ciudad Rodrigo and to the field of Salamanca that took place in autumn, 2019.  It offers a concise history of the Peninsular War interspersed with short, focused analyses of the two battle sites, and finally summarises the tactics of the age together with providing some additional vignettes and portraits of some notable commanders.

My deep thanks are due to Professor Charles Esdaile, who accompanied the tour, leading the trip to Salamanca whilst I led on Ciudad Rodrigo.

Abstract

Battlefield sites are important cultural heritage attractions and serve to enhance local, regional and national tourism resources. They are able to stimulate powerful emotional responses in some visitors and have deep, if contentious, personal and collective meanings. This paper investigates a particular type of feeling that is thought to exist when visitors experience the past. The phenomenon of numinosity is defined as a deeply transcendental and connective experience which is stimulated by an engagement with the past. Applying this concept to battlefield sites this paper explores the extent to which this experience is present amongst visitors. Beginning with an assessment of the place of battlefields as dark sites the paper proceeds by discussing the theory of numinosity and how there has been some empirical analysis of the concept at battlefield sites. This is then developed by presenting the results of a study into numinosity at battle sites in Britain. The paper concludes by showing how numinosity is a rare phenomenon and suggests that we should adopt a more nuanced understanding of it. Instead of maintaining a homogenous interpretation of the phenomenon the paper concludes that, when present, there might be a number of different gradations of the numen. 

Keywords: Battlefields; numen; numinosity; dark tourism

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the omission of Indigenous narratives in battlefields and sites of conflicts while also highlighting how certain battlefields and sites of conflicts have attempted to address dissonant heritage by diversifying interpretation strategies and implementing elements of collaborative management approaches, thereby addressing Indigenous erasure.

Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a content analysis, field studies and case studies to examine dissonant heritage in warfare tourism sites involving Indigenous peoples in Australia and North America.

Findings – The content analysis reveals that aboriginal erasure is still prevalent within the literature on warfare and battlefield tourism. However, the case studies suggest that dissonant heritage in warfare tourism is being addressed through collaborative management strategies and culturally sensitive interpretation strategies.

Research limitations/implications – The content analysis is limited to tourism journals. The case studies highlight sites that are using adaptive management and integrating Indigenous peoples.

Practical implications – The study of dissonant heritage and warfare tourism, while relatively young, is beginning to address aboriginal erasure and cultural dissonance; this study is a contribution to this area of research.

Social implications – Addressing the impacts of aboriginal erasure and heritage dissonance in colonial settings heals the hurts of the past, while empowering communities. It also provides Indigenous communities with opportunities to diversify current tourism products.

Originality/value – This is a collaborative international paper involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars from Australia, Canada, and the USA.

Drawing on the recollections of veterans and former settlers, this article investigates the phenomenon of patriotic pilgrimages honouring the memory of the anti-Nazi Italian Resistance in the Dodecanese. Through this survey, the work aims to shed light on the interactions between memories of anti-Fascism, colonialist nostalgia, and tourism in the context of the Aegean islands.

This paper presents partial results of a large-scale multi-lingual (English, French, German, and Dutch) international study conducted in 2012, resulting in responses from over 60 countries (n=2490). This paper provides analyses of data obtained from respondents in nine countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States), which were involved in and impacted by the First World War (WWI). Eight factors influencing respondents’ memories of WWI (school lessons, TV news and documentaries, Internet, literature/arts, visits to WWI sites, story-telling, inheritance of memorabilia, and WWI movies), and impact of five demographic variables (country-of-origin, age, gender, education, and emotional proximity to WWI) on these factors are analyzed. Also examined is if how the way memories of WWI are formed relates to one’s intentions to visit a WWI heritage site in the near future and how it impacts support for granting UNESCO’s World Heritage Site (WHS) status to WWI battle fields. Results indicate that the way memories of WWI are formed vary by all five demographic factors and indicate that both intentions to visit a WWI heritage site in the near future and support for granting WHS status to WWI battlefields are related to how memories of WWI are formed. Implications for development and marketing of WWI heritage sites as tourism attractions are also discussed.

Arqueología de campos de batalla medievales. Alarcos: un caso especial, es una de las sesiones que se impartirán durante los días 13, 14 y 15 de julio en el curso de la UNED: Campos de batalla, trincheras, búnkeres y centros de represión. Arqueología de los conflictos bélicos. 2ª Edición.

The Trojan War and the Gallipoli Campaigns are two pivotal battles that took place on the shores of the Dardanelles. They are similar in several respects: Both battles involve several groups coming from different places. Some of the
tactics employed during the Gallipoli campaigns are reminiscent of those used during the Trojan War. Many allied soldiers, as their memoirs and letters reveal, knew well the Trojan War and the deeds of its heroes. Their writings also reveal that they compared themselves to the ancient Greek heroes that fought at Troy. They also thought the Gallipoli Campaign as a sort of New Trojan War.

Le champ de bataille est le haut lieu dramatique qui témoigne par ses cicatrices - les paysages lunaires, les ruines, les arbres coupés - des ravages de la guerre. Il symbolise aussi le sacrifice du combattant qui a versé son sang et qui parfois y a laissé la vie. Cet espace sacralisé est perçu dès la guerre, par les acteurs du développement touristique comme par certains membres du gouvernement, comme un espace sacré vers lequel, la paix revenue, devront s’organiser des pèlerinages en provenance de tous les coins de France, d’Europe, mais aussi d’Amérique et d’Océanie.
  Dès 1919, les soldats récemment démobilisés, les familles, les scolaires et de simples curieux se rendent dans les régions dévastées jusque-là inaccessibles afin de « voir la guerre de près ». Ces premiers déplacements, limités dans l’espace et dans le temps, soulèvent de vifs débats qui révèlent à la fois, des tensions entre ces visiteurs et à la fois, des enjeux liés à la reconstruction et à la commercialisation des lieux de guerre.

L’économie de l’histoire définit l’histoire comme moteur de l’activité économique. Elle est d’une importance majeure dans les régions de la France les plus impactées par la première et la seconde guerre mondiales. L’attraction des touristes pour les champs de bataille est un phénomène bien connu et quantifiable, mais leur impact économique est peu abordé. Le tourisme des champs de bataille attire l’enthousiasme des touristes de France aussi bien que de ceux venant d’en dehors de ses frontières. Cette étude cherche à montrer l’importance relative de ce marché de niche, en utilisant les statistiques officielles gouvernementales ainsi que des données privées, comme celles trouvées pour l’Historial de la Grande Guerre à Péronne et le Centre de visite à Thiepval. Or les conséquences économiques se font sentir au-delà de la France ; elles traversent les pays avec ces touristes, comme le montre l’étude de Leger Holidays.

The “economy of history” in France, or history as a motor for French economic activity, is of great importance to those areas of the country most affected by the First and Second World Wars. The attraction of France to tourists is a well-known, and quantifiable, phenomenon, yet the impact of battlefield tourists on both the local and national economies has remained hitherto unknown.
Battlefield tourism attracts enthusiasts both from within France’s borders, as well as those journeying from further afield. This study seeks to show the relative importance of this niche market for those French villages that have been the most heavily touched by these historical events, making use of both official statistics as well as those published by the centres themselves, most notably the Historial de la Grande Guerre at Péronne and the Visitor Centre at Thiepval. However, the economic consequences are not simply felt within France, but also cross international borders along with those undertaking the journey, illustrated by the case study of Leger Holidays.

Resumen: La musealización de campos de batalla es un área de trabajo que tiene una larga tradición en otros países como Estados Unidos, Francia, Inglaterra o Alemania, debido a que estos yacimientos arqueológicos forman parte de su patrimonio cultural, y por esta razón son conservados y acondicionados para su visita. A lo largo del siguiente artículo exponemos las pautas de la propuesta de musealización que hemos desarrollado, y cómo sería su aplicación sobre un caso concreto, como es el campo de batalla de Uclés. Con este trabajo queremos mostrar la viabilidad del acondicionamiento museográfico de esta tipología de yacimientos.

Abstract: The musealization of battlefields is a work area with a long tradition in others countries as: United States, France, England or Germany, due to these archaeological sites form part of their cultural heritage, and for this reason they are preserved and prepared for tourist visits. Along this article, we show the guidelines of our methodology of musealization that we have developed, and how the implementation would be on a specific case, like the battlefield of Uclés. With this work, we want to show the viability of musealizing this type of sites.

An account of the events of 1 September 1939 when the first shots of World War Two were fired on the small Polish armaments depot at Westerplatte on the outskirts of Gdansk. Also commentary on the open-air and indoor museums at the site. From Military History Monthly (November 2015) 62, pp. 68-70.

(PAPER IN JAPANESE)
In this paper, I elaborate on the concept of "performative memory," which I have employed to analyse the attitudes of the living toward the dead. By applying the linguistic term "performative," I aim to highlight how the active character of memory can instigate the living to perform action directed toward the future as well as ritual acts. This article is based on two case studies on pilgrimages made by a Japanese war orphan and a veteran of the Asia Pacific War. In these cases I discuss how these pilgrims see the materials and places associated with the fallen soldiers as harbouring the souls of the dead. The orphan recognizes the vestiges of his father in the places in which he once stayed and the postcards he sent. The veteran carves Buddha statues and dedicates them to the temples near the battle sites as memorial offerings for his comrades. He also donates various goods to the local people. These pilgrims meet the living residents at the former battle sites and hold exchanges with them, especially with the young generation, through acts of commemorating the departed souls. In other words, these performative acts memorializing the dead begin to involve third parties and take place in the public sphere. Finally, I refer to three cases of building bridges by commemoration and religious practice which serve as a point of comparison to the two case studies above.

The Western Front has become, once again, and after 100 years, an important and increasingly popular tourist destination. The Centenary is already encouraging large numbers of visitors to engage with this highly poignant landscape of war and to commemorate the sacrifice and loss of a previous generation. Interest is also being sharpened in the ‘places of war’ as battle-sites, trench-systems, bunkers and mine craters gain a clearer identity as war heritage.

For the first time this book brings together the three strands of heritage, landscape and tourism to provide a fresh understanding of the multi-layered nature of the Western Front. The book approaches the area as a rich dynamic landscape which can be viewed in a startling variety of ways: historically, materially, culturally, and perceptually. To illustrate these two dominant interpretations of the region’s landscape – commemorative and heritage – are highlighted and their relationship to tourism explored. Tourism is a lens through which these layers can be peeled away, and each understood and interacted with according to the individual’s own knowledge, motivation, and degree of emotional engagement. Tourism is not regarded here as a passive phenomenon, but as an active agent that can determine, dictate and inscribe this evocative landscape. 

The Western Front:  Heritage, Landscape and Tourism is a timely addition to our increasing interest in the First World War and the places where it was fought. It will be indispensable to those who seek a deeper understanding of the conflict from previously undervalued perspectives.

Author biography

Stephen Miles is an Affiliate Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow’s Crichton Campus in Dumfries. He studied at the universities of Durham and Sheffield before undertaking a PhD at the University of Glasgow which he completed in 2012. He has previously written on ‘dark’ tourism and sense of place at conflict sites.

See reviews of this book at:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Front-Landscape-Heritage-Archaeology/dp/1473833760

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13683500.2017.1303983

http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Western-Front-Landscape-Tourism-and-Heritage-Hardback/p/12315

This paper explores the role of local entrepreneurs in the branding of Kinmen (Quemoy) Island, Taiwan as a battlefield tourism destination. Kinmen’s identity as a former battlefield presents both challenges and opportunities in positioning and branding it as a tourist destination. It is argued that a tourist destination is not a static entity, but is ‘fluid and created through performance’. Therefore, the Kinmen Brand is a result of both top-down ‘imagineering’ efforts by the state and bottom-up initiatives by local entrepreneurs, who are seen here as performing their identities. Locally produced tourism products and their symbolic meanings will be discussed to highlight entrepreneurs’ creative contributions to the island’s battlefield tourism landscape. In all, it is believed that planners’ identification of Kinmen has to be substantiated by locals’ self-recognition with the island’s identity so as to sustain any branding effort. Conversely, the emerging market of tourists from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will require increased sensitivity to a different audience. While the brand for the domestic market often alludes to patriotism and nationhood arising from the war, such messages might need to be toned down for the PRC market.

Spain has been the scene of multiple armed conflicts throughout history, from the Punic Wars and Roman Civil Wars to the War of Independence and the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. As a consequence, different places in our geography turned into battlefields. Unfortunately, and despite their importance, Munda (45 BC), Navas de Tolosa (1212), Almansa (1707), Bailén (1808), Arapiles (1812) or Ebro (1938) have become an unknown and not valued heritage. Therefore, their heritage relevance and their educational and tourist potential are ignored. This situation contrasts with that of other European or American countries, such as Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Canada or the United States of America. This paper analyses the cultural heritage management and the situation of the Spanish battlefields throughout different international examples, as well as it formulates a management approach integrated into the National Plan for Cultural Landscape.

A chapter from my new book:
Medieval Battles: Wales, 1055 to 1216: Volume 2, part 1 [ISBN 9781899376933]

Introduction
The aim of this volume is to write the known history of the battles which were fought within the land of Wales.  Much has been written of this time between the coming of the Normans in the late eleventh century and the destruction of the principalities of Wales in the late thirteenth century.  However, much of this ‘knowledge' has been written without evidence.  Just compare the real historical facts as printed in this book with the entries of these battles on Wikipedia or even in supposedly more learned works.  It has often happened that historians' guesswork - which is often recognised as speculation by the original learned writer - is increasingly taken as fact by those reading it later, even when further contemporary evidence comes to light which clearly shows that the original assumption was wrong.  Therefore, this book will attempt firmly to stick to facts which can be verified by comparison with original sources - and the value of this original evidence will be examined as to its veracity.  Speculation will occur, as it is simply necessary to make sense of many of the events which have been recorded, but it will be noted as such.

This article explores the practice and political significance of politicians’ journeys to conflict zones. It focuses on the German example, looking at field trips to theatres of international intervention as a way of first-hand knowledge in policymaking. Paying tribute to Lisa Smirl and her work on humanitarian spaces, objects and imaginaries and on liminality in aid worker biographies, two connected arguments are developed. First, through the exploration of the routinized practices of politicians’ field trips the article shows how these journeys not only remain confined to the ‘auxiliary space’ of aid/intervention, but that it is furthermore a staged reality of this auxiliary space that most politicians experience on their journeys. The question is then asked, second, what politicians actually experience on their journeys and how their experiences relate to their policy knowledge about conflict and intervention. It is shown that political field trips enable sensory/affectual, liminoid and liminal experiences, which have functions such as authority accumulation, agenda setting, community building, and civilizing domestic politics, while at the same time reinforcing, in most cases, pre-existing conflict and intervention imaginaries.

Wśród rozległych pustkowi Aragonii leży niezwykłe, zrujnowane miasto, będące wstrząsającym świadectwem okrucieństw wojny domowej w Hiszpanii. Osiemdziesiąta rocznica zakończenia walk o Belchite jest okazją do przypomnienia jego tragicznych dziejów – tym bardziej że wplecione są w nie również polskie wątki.

Spain has been the scene of multiple armed conflicts throughout history, from the Punic Wars and Roman Civil Wars to the War of Independence and the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. As a consequence, different places in our geography turned into battlefields. Unfortunately, and despite their importance, Munda (45 BC), Navas de Tolosa (1212), Almansa (1707), Bailén (1808), Arapiles (1812) or Ebro (1938) have become an unknown and not valued heritage. Therefore, their heritage relevance and their educational and tourist potential are ignored. This situation contrasts with that of other European or American countries, such as Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Canada or the United States of America. This paper analyses the cultural heritage management and the situation of the Spanish battlefields throughout different international examples, as well as it formulates a management approach integrated into the National Plan for Cultural Landscape.