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Time and Cost-efficient virtual Staff Rides
Our team of history and military experts allows for the training of entire battalions using a proven system of virtual staff rides.
Feedback from Units on our virtual Staff Rides
"First Fusiliers weren't able to conduct a battlefield study due to COVID travel restrictions. Battle Guide provided a bespoke virtual tour that allowed us to teach more people and cover even more ground! The passion of the team is unrivalled. Having previously conducted tours of the Dardanelles, I was astounded by how much more could be delivered on a virtual tour."
"Telemark Battalion HRF/Norwegian Army used a virtual battlefield study from Battle Guide Virtual Tours as part of officers and senior sergeant’s education and preparations before NATO field training exercise Cold Response. The study of how the German mechanized units conducted their defense in Normandy in 1944 was a good way to acquire a historical perspective on the challenges we as a mechanized battalion battle group is set to encounter. It is fascinating to see how alike and relevant the challenges soldiers and units had in the 1940’s is to today’s armies. The case study we attended was a good and rewarding activity, thanks to thorough preparations and a tailor-made study from Battle Guide Virtual Tours."
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Why are digital Staff Rides so efficient?
Visiting a virtual battlefield or studying a campaign online can provide a number of tangible benefits for any Unit looking for force development opportunities in the form of military studies shaped against traditional ‘Staff Rides’, Training without Troops or simple unit heritage tours
✔ Cost Effective, ✔ Effective Time Management, ✔ Provision of Bespoke Training, ✔ Support from an Experienced Team
Cost effective Staff Rides
Staff Rides and tour elements of Battlefield Studies abroad can often be expensive for large groups against a tight training budget.
Virtual studies can be provided for military groups of over a 100 personnel at a time online, often at a price per head less than one night's accommodation abroad for each participant.
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Effective Time Management
Although it is great to travel to battlefields abroad, we know that it is time-consuming and that it can be difficult to get people away from their primary roles at busy times. Military Studies and Staff Rides can be provided online at a time, place and duration of your choice to maximise ease of access and promote whole unit participation. A typical training package is run
on a single day, and usually includes three online components – a one-hour preliminary study presentation to set the scene, a 90-minute dynamic virtual tour and a 45-minute final Q&A session. But flexible sessions can be run, which could also include unit-led syndicate work too.
Provision of Bespoke Training and Staff Rides
We strive to effectively deliver studies against training objectives that specifically meet your force development needs. Each military tour is designed in consultation with your unit to ensure maximum professional benefit is gained and key learning points achieved. This could be shaped by Principles of War, Operational Art, Combined Arms considerations, Theatre specific tactical challenges, examination of current doctrine, Realities of War, National Remembrance and Unit Heritage. Our end-to-end service also includes access to support and recordings of all online presentations, virtual tours and discussion sessions for 30 days after your event to assist with any post exercise reporting.
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Support from an Experienced Team
Many members of our team have served in the military and been exposed to the principles and doctrine that shape today’s operations. They work together with a first class line up of academics, many of whom have themselves, spent years researching, advising and teaching military educational organisations in the classroom and on the battlefields. We understand the need to bring history alive from both 'sides of the wire', put it in context and make it applicable to every specific audience.
What could a Virtual Staff Ride look like for your Unit?
A short demo from our CEO Dan Hill and our Military Liaison Rocky Salmon.
How do we develop a Staff Ride or Military Study for you?
From first contact we will help you to develop the theme and structure of your Staff Ride based on the training objectives you are looking to meet.
Our team will help identify a particular campaign or battle which will best suit your needs and your dedicated tour manager and specialised historian will do much of the leg work to ensure that key learning points are achieved. Full ‘joining instructions’ will be produced for you to minimise your workload and lay down a fully agreed itinerary for you to follow.
Pre-tour online presentations will set the scene and focus on your training requirement and post-tour we are happy to support the generation of unit-led syndicate discussions, along with a full online Q&A session with your historian.
Our Battlefield Guides & Historians
Our international team of Battlefield Guides and tour managers have a wide range skills and come from many different backgrounds. University lecturers, public historians, tech professionals, published authors and military servicemen. The one thing we all share is passion.
We take pride in delivering virtual tours to a global audience because we feel strongly that sharing and preserving history is something that needs to be done.
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Prof Matthias Strohn
Battlefield Guide
Prof. Strohn is a specialist in the history of war in the 20th century, with special interest in the World Wars, the inter-war period, command and leadership and the application of military history in the current military context. He has published widely in these fields (including writing and editing 17 books and numerous articles) and his works were chosen as the core readings for Operation Reflect, the British Army’s commemoration of the First World War. He is a keen battlefield studies guide and has led military and civilian tours in Europe from Madrid to Stalingrad. He has also worked on television and radio as both historical adviser and interviewee.
Dr. Robert Lyman
Battlefield Guide
Dr Robert Lyman FRHistS is a leading writer and military historian. After finishing a twenty year career in the British Army in 2001 he has published widely on the Second World War in Europe, North Africa and Asia.He is Field Marshal Bill Slim’s military biographer. His presentation of the case for Slim won a National Army Museum debate in 2011 for Britain’s Greatest General and his case for Kohima/Imphal won a National Army Museum debate in 2013 for Britain’s Greatest Battle. He was the BBC’s historical adviser for the VJ commemorations in 2015 and 2020 and is a regular contributor to documentary films on aspects of the war. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has been a trustee of the Kohima Educational Trust since 2004, and Chairman between 2008-2016.
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Dr Spencer Jones
Battlefield Guide
Spencer is an award-winning historian and author. He is a Senior Lecturer in Armed Forces and War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton and is the President of the Guild of Battlefield Guides. He also serves as the Regimental Historian of the Royal Regiment of Artillery.
Prof John Buckley
Battlefield Guide
John Buckley is Professor of Military History in the Department of History, Politics and War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, UK.
He is the author of a number of books on the interwar years and the Second World War, including Monty’s Men: The British Army and the Liberation of Europe 1944-5 (Yale, 2013), British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944 (Cass, 2004) and (as editor) The Normandy Campaign 1944: Sixty Years On (2006). He has also published widely on aspects of air power in the Second World War. He has led battlefield study tours to Normandy since the late 1990s and has focused on the Anglo-Canadian battles with the Germans in and around Caen such as EPSOM, GOODWOOD and TOTALIZE. -
Michael Salmon
Battlefield Guide
‘Rocky’ Salmon served for 35 years in the Royal Navy, primarily flying Sea King Helicopters from Aircraft Carriers and as an instructor, whilst also completing numerous exchange tours with the Royal Air Force and United States Navy. He retired as a Captain in 2019, but his passion for the history of the First World War pre-dates his naval career, triggered when he completed a general studies project on the Battle of the Somme at college in 1982; he has continued to read and research widely on the subject ever since, spending much time on the battlefields delivering guided tours for friends and military colleagues. He has a Masters degree in First World War Studies
Prof John Buckley
Battlefield Guide
John Buckley is Professor of Military History in the Department of History, Politics and War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, UK.
He is the author of a number of books on the interwar years and the Second World War, including Monty’s Men: The British Army and the Liberation of Europe 1944-5 (Yale, 2013), British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944 (Cass, 2004) and (as editor) The Normandy Campaign 1944: Sixty Years On (2006). He has also published widely on aspects of air power in the Second World War. He has led battlefield study tours to Normandy since the late 1990s and has focused on the Anglo-Canadian battles with the Germans in and around Caen such as EPSOM, GOODWOOD and TOTALIZE. -
Dan Hill
CEO & Tour Manager
Dan is incredibly proud to have worked for over a decade as both a professional military historian and battlefield guide across Europe. Having led thousands of battlefield tourists on trips across battlefields, he understands just how powerful the experience can be. It was this understanding, along with a desire to share that experience far and wide using the latest technology, which led to the creation of Battle Guide Virtual Tours. Dan holds a Masters degree in the History of Britain in the First World War and has worked as a consultant in the media and on a number of national and international military history projects. He enjoys boxing and cycling, neither with particular skill.
Dr John Greenacre
Battlefield Guide
Dr John Greenacre is a military historian with a particular interest in the development of conflict during the twentieth century. John spent over twenty years in the British Army as a helicopter pilot before completing his PhD at Leeds University. He is a part-time lecturer at the University of Suffolk and also works as a tour guide across Europe and supports current military professional development activity.
Have we aroused your interest
Feel free to contact us!
Rocky Salmon retired from the Royal Navy as a Captain in 2019 after 35 years service, mostly flying Sea Kings from aircraft carriers. He is now a First World War historian and Battlefield Tour Guide and has been working with Battleguide running all military liaison for the last 2 years.
Having facilitated many real and virtual staff rides, he understands the benefits that our military studies can provide in reinforcing your professional and personal development. He will work closely with you to develop an event that meets your precise training objectives from first contact.