Mike Peters

Biography

Mike Peters was an Army Air Corps Officer who has been leading battlefield tours for more than twenty years. He joined the Army in 1980 at the age of 16 as a Junior Leader and progressed through a busy career to become a Regimental Sergeant Major. He was commissioned from the ranks in the year 2000. Mike's final job was as a Major working as a staff officer in the Attack Helicopter Force. Mike has extensive operational experience in Northern Ireland, Macedonia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq where he served during both Gulf wars. He has recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan. This experience and knowledge of tactics, give him a soldier's eye for ground and the implications of terrain on the weapon systems of your chosen period. He has a passion for military history which he combines with his own military experiences when working as a battlefield guide. He strives to place his audience on the field of battle with enough insight to understand the realities of battle, while helping them to imagine what the soldiers of the day saw and felt. This focus allows the listener to look at the battle from the inside out; this is of course every battlefield guides aim. The campaigns of Wellington are Mike's favorite subject area although he is equally at home working with groups on the battlefields of the Great War. Most recently he has begun to specialize in leading Australian and New Zealand groups over the ANZAC battlefields of Flanders. Intimate knowledge of modern Air Assault operations also enables Mike to focus on the detail of the parachute and glider operations of World War Two. He regularly leads tours visiting the Landing Zones of Sicily, Normandy, Arnhem and the Rhine crossing. Mike enjoys touring with school groups or adults and is regularly to be found on the continent working for Anglia Tours or leading battlefield studies with military groups. He regularly contributes articles to military journals and magazines. Mike is also a published author – he wrote 'Glider Pilots at Arnhem' – a book on the exploits of The Glider Pilot Regiment during Operation Market Garden. He has also worked as a presenter with Battlefield History TV, being involved in films on Pegasus Bridge, The Glider Pilot Regiment, Operation Market Garden and the Waterloo campaign. His latest book is on the British Airborne landings on Sicily. Mike was awarded his guild badge by the late Richard Holmes in November 2005 and was Vice Chairman of the guild from 2010-2011. Mike was appointed Guild Chairman in late 2011.