Testimonials

  December 3, 2016
We hired Edwin Popken of Battlefield Discovery Tours to act as our guide while visiting the Ardenne region of Belgium in late October of this year. ... read more I was interested in tracing the footsteps of my Uncle who fought in the “northern shoulder” of the Battle of the Ardenne Forest (Battle of the Bulge) in 1944 and 1945 with the 2nd Army Division. From reading about this part of WWII I had only sketchy ideas of the geography and terrain of the area and the names of the towns and battle areas were familiar but in a fragmentary way. Edwin was able to bring all this together by providing us a detailed tour of the areas where the 38th FAB would have been positioned throughout this campaign. The thoroughness of his knowledge about military history and this particular battle area was invaluable in bringing the fragmentary aspects of the battle engagements during that time into a meaningful whole. There is NO possible way (even with extensive reading and studying) that we could have found these locations and understood the movements of this Division, Regiment, and Battalion without Edwin’s expert guidance. Communicating with him before our visit was invaluable and he was responsive and thorough in his answers to my emails. He designed a tour SPECIFICALLY for us and understood the kinds of information that would be not only of great interest but also of great personal meaning to us.
We hired Edwin for a one day tour but felt we could easily have extended that to two or three. Edwin picked us up at our hotel in Malmedy and this worked perfectly. We were driven to all the sights in Edwin’s car. The day was full; we saw amazing sights and locations that only an experienced guide could bring us into and the accompanying historical information was thorough and excellent. We cannot say enough about the quality of the experience, the attention to detail of the tour, the personal nature of the tour, the ease and promptness of our communications with Edwin, the overall value of the day we spent, and the amazing experience of the bringing to life of what we had only read about. If you are looking for a guide to military sites during the course of the Second World War, we highly recommend that you will have the good fortune of hiring Edwin.

  We loved the tour with Edwin! I was together with my boys (8 and 10) and he specially made the tour with a lot of stories and a special program... read more very interesting for them. They will never forget the story about myrtle the para chicken and every street in Oosterbeek looks so much more interesting now .

Eelco van der Bij

  Thanks Edwin and Erik for researching and arranging such a memorable battlefield tour for my family. My request was to follow in my father’s footsteps during his time in... read more Holland when he glided into Holland with the 82nd Airborne, September 1944. We experienced so much of the military history as we drove through the fields and over the bridges. Special thanks for the maps, pictures, museum visit and book presented at the end of the tour as a keepsake.

  I booked a personalized tour with Edwin to follow the footsteps of my father who was a paratrooper with Easy Co, 2nd Bat, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne. Edwin took... read more us step by step from the time my Dad landed in a field near Son, NL to the point he was wounded at the Cross Roads

  Spent two days with Edwin in August looking at the Canadian contribution of Operation Veritable on day one and Operation Plunder (Crossing of the Rhine) on day two. Firstly I... read more would state that both of these operations deserve much more time to explore fully. They were such large operations and lost behind events such as Normandy and Arnhem/Market Garden. The troop numbers were huge and I am the first to admit that I did not fully understand the magnitude of both operations.
Edwin Popkin from Battlefield Discovery is by far the best guide in Europe for these operations. His knowledge and delivery brings to life those fateful events from so many years ago. You walk the ground, witness the events and have such an understanding what these men went through to remove the evil which stood in front of them back in 1944/45. I could not recommend this company enough. If you are a small private party, like us or a large corporate entity, Edwin and his team at Battlefield Discovery should be your go to guys. We will certainly be booking again in 2023.