Mat McLachlan History Cruises
Mat McLachlan
Historian, Founder & Director
Mat McLachlan is a battlefield historian who translates what you read in history books into what you can see on the ground. That philosophy drives everything he does — books, podcasts, documentaries and tours.
Mat’s passion for military history began at a young age, learning that his great-uncle James McLachlan was killed serving with Bomber Command in 1943, and that other relatives fell on the Western Front. This sparked a lifelong quest to uncover the stories of the individuals who shaped the world we live in, and to connect with history by standing where it happened.
A journalist by profession, Mat spent 15 years as a writer and magazine editor before turning his passion for history into a full-time career. He has authored acclaimed battlefield guidebooks and gripping non-fiction war history, and is a recognised authority on the battlefields of the Western Front, Gallipoli, Normandy, the Pacific, Vietnam and beyond.
Mat is an experienced battlefield presenter and historical advisor. Screen credits include Sky History (Greatest Escapes of WWII), Discovery Networks International (Tony Robinson’s World War I), National Geographic, the History Channel and ABC Australia.
Mat produces four podcast series — Living History, BattleWalks, Thin Red Lines (co-hosted with historian Peter Hart) and Pete and Gary’s Military History.
He writes regular history columns for online and print publications.
Mat has appeared on Dan Snow’s History Hit and at the We Have Ways WW2 Festival, and regularly appears as a history expert in international media around key history topics and anniversaries. He produces documentaries walking the great battlefields of the world — the D-Day beaches of Normandy, the Somme, the Ypres Salient, Gallipoli, Waterloo, Vietnam and more — as well as behind-the-scenes episodes at institutions including the Guards Museum and the National Army Museum in London and the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. He is a historical consultant on books, documentaries and television productions.
Since 2007, Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours has led more than 20,000 travellers to the battlefields of Europe, Southeast Asia and beyond. Whether walking the D-Day beaches, tracing trenches in the Ypres Salient or cruising the Mekong Delta, Mat brings the history to life.
“History isn’t found in textbooks alone. It lives in the trenches of the Western Front, in the pillboxes on the D-Day beaches, on the bridge at Arnhem, in the jungle tracks of the Mekong Delta. You have to stand on that ground to truly understand what happened there.”
