We arrived at school at 5:30, ready for the long drive ahead. On the way we picked up our guides.
Our first stop was at Lijssenthoek Cemetery. We were given a quick reminder of the situation in Europe before 1914 and we read a poem called Perhaps by Vera Brittain before we explored ourselves. This was our first cemetery and we were amazed by how many soldiers were buried here.
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| Lijssenthoek Cemetery |
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Next we visited Sanctuary Wood, where we walked around in real trenches. They were dirty and did not smell pleasant. The condition of this trench in peacetime was only a fraction as terrible as it would have been in the war. Our guides talked to us about trench warfare and 'Soldier Slang'.
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| Exploring trenches at Sanctuary Wood |
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We then visited Essex Farm, where we saw the grave of a 15 year old. This was a very sad moment, as we couldn't quite come to terms with the fact that a boy only a year older than us had fought on this very spot. We saw the hospital in which John McCrae, the author of In Flanders Fields, had worked.
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We went to the Flanders Fields Museum before buying some Belgian chocolate and eating dinner. Later we attended a last post ceremony in Ypres at the Menin Gate, where four girls from the school placed a poppy wreath to commemorate the sacrifices of the First World War and of all subsequent wars. From here we went on to our hotel for a good night's sleep!
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| The last post ceremony at the Menin Gate |
The next day we visited the Somme. Our guides showed us an unexploded German shell before stopping at a small cemetery on the hill. The soldiers were buried where they fell, and it made us realise how the soldiers had hardly made it past their front line. We stopped at the Accrington Pals Memorial where we sung I'll Make a Man of You and our guides explained the events of 1st July 1916. As we walked back, the wind picked up and suddenly it was very cold - this was only a mild November day. Down the road was the bunker where Wilfred Owen fought, and whose poem The Sentry was based on his experiences here.
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After lunch we stopped at Newfoundland Park, where there is a statue of a moose, a memorial to the Newfoundland Regiment. We were shown how far a machine gun could fire (over 3km!).
Our last stop was the Thiepval Memorial, commemorating the missing from the Battle of the Somme. We were told some shocking facts, including that if the all missing from the battle were to march in rows of three past you, it would take 11 hours. We had some time to explore before we headed home.
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| Thiepval Memorial |
The trip was really enjoyable and we learnt so much from it. It was great to see the places that our History and English teachers had been talking about in class and we are very thankful to all the teachers who took us. We had a fantastic time!
By Naemi Melvin, Yr 9