During half-term 48 Year 10 History students visited the First World War battlefields of France and Belgium.
Early Friday morning the group left the KTS coach park to begin a crammed schedule of activities around the sites of where over 11 million soldiers lost their lives during the Great War.
Before boarding the ferry to France the party met their tour guide, Tom. Throughout the following few days Tom guided them through the Battlefields passing on his vast knowledge to the students. The whole group appreciated how much they learned from Tom; he gave them a true insight to what the First World War was like.
On the first day the party visited many cemeteries and sites of historical interest before even reaching their accommodation. One of the places the group visited on the first day was Essex Farm Cemetery in Belgium, which included a grave for a fifteen year old boy who died in the war. As many of the students were 15 it was easy to empathise with tragic soldier. This would be the first of many moments that opened the eyes of many students to the atrocities of war.
Essex Farm was also the site where John McCrae read his famous poem, In Flanders Fields, as tribute to his fallen friend Major John McCrae. Its lines still are as poignant as when it was written.
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
On the first day everyone also saw Ypres and the Menin Gate for the first time. Tom explained that during the war the town of Ypres was completely destroyed and was rebuilt exactly as it was before the armies arrived. Ypres is now full of medieval looking buildings all of which are actually under 100 years old.
Feeling exhausted from the long day the group eventually arrived at their accommodation, the Peace Village. After an evening of free time to relax and play sport, everyone was ready for another moving day.
On the second day the party visited the largest Commonwealth military cemetery in the world, Tyne Cot. There are nearly 12,000 soldiers buried at Tyne Cot and the names of nearly 35,000 soldiers who were never found as well. This was a particularly stirring stop off due to the sheer size of the cemetery.
The group also was able to get inside some preserved trenches from the war and visit the sight of two colossal mine craters detonated by the British during the war in an area known as Hill 60. This was as well as returning to Ypres to visit the In Flanders Fields Museum. The museum was highly commended by the students who found it particularly effective at showing both the events and the effects of the war.
Later that evening the group also listened to the famous Last Post ceremony under the Menin Gate where the names of 55,000 missing and unidentified Commonwealth soldiers were engraved. During the ceremony 3 KTS students lay a wreath in memory of the soldiers who “For your tomorrow gave their today”.
On the third and final day in the Battlefields the group travelled across the border back into France to the Somme, the sight of the worst day in British military history in which 19,240 soldiers died. Here they visited Thiepval, a memorial to the missing that includes the names of 73,000 soldiers. They also visited a memorial to the Newfoundland soldiers who fought in the Somme. Here the trenches had been preserved so the students could see the British Front Line and No-man’s Land.
The party then continued into Paris where they stayed the night, before a day in Disneyland that was only slightly dampened by the constant rain and cold weather.
The trip had opened the student’s eyes to the horror of the First World War and everyone took something away from it. It is sure to live long in the minds of the students who went.