This year 39 students and 4 staff (Andy Sutcliffe, Head of History, Helen Bays, Matt Docking and Emma Stockill)  went on our annual 4 day tour of the battlefields cemeteries and memorials of First World War.  This is for GCSE History students in years 10 and 11. Aims are to enhance students understanding of Britain’s role in the First World War.  We visit the sites to gain a better appreciation of the conditions in which the First World War was fought and to increase students’ understanding and appreciation of the experiences of ordinary soldiers.  

We stay in Ypres in Belgium which was the centre of bitter fighting for four years in the First World War.  We also travel down to France and study the sites which tell the story of first day of the Battle of the Somme where the British army suffered the most casualties on any on single day in their history.

We also pay a visit to Vimy Ridge where the Canadians made one of the most successful attacks of the whole war.   

The town of Ypres itself was totally destroyed in the First World War and was sympathetically rebuilt after the war identically to how it looked before.  We are able to compare what it looks like today with examine pictures from the War and compare them to how it looked before 1914 and after it had been rebuilt and what it looks like today    

In Ypres our visits included

Brandhoek New Military Cemetery – Ypres 

Contains the grave of the only only man to win VC twice in first world war Noel Chavesse. Doctor – first VC tended wounded men on the Somme saving at least 20 lives on 9/10 August 1916 Mortally wounded on 2 August 1917 Ypres died on 4 August

Essex Farm Cemetery

Whilst stationed at Essex Farm, in May 1915 which then was an advanced dressing station John Mcrae was moved to write the famous poem "In Flanders Fields". This was after one of his friends, Alexis Helmer, was killed and buried. Seeing the poppies blow around the graves. Poem published for the first time in Punch in December that year, and come to signify sacrifice .  We visit concrete structures used as Advanced Dressing Station during the War.  When McCrae served here in 1915,  timber construction was most probably used, although this site was the same one where McCrae would have worked. Also contains graves of a 16 year old Private Strudwick  and another VC winner  Thomas Barrett

Langemarck

One of few German cemeteries. We compare how German war dead were treated compared to British and commonwealth.  During the 1930s approximately 10,000 soldiers were brought here from 18 German burial sites around the region of Langemarck and the total number of burials in the cemetery reached about 14,000. About 3,000 of the graves were those of the Student Volunteers who died in the battle of Langemark in October and November 1914 and as a result of this the cemetery became known as the Student Cemetery - Der Studentenfriedhof. Eight soldiers were buried in each plot and they are marked by a flat stone inscribed with their names, where known.   The remains of 24,917 unidentified German soldiers are interred in the Kameraden Grab – a 'Comrades Grave'. The total number of soldiers buried or commemorated in Langemark stands at 44,234.

Tyne Cot Cemetery

Resting place of 11,954 soldiers of the Commonwealth Forces. It is the largest Commonwealth military cemetery in the world. The dates of death of the soldiers buried at Tyne Cot cemetery cover a period of four years, from October 1914 to September 1918 inclusive.  Of the 11,954 burials cemetery, 8,367 are unidentified British or Commonwealth servicemen. This is about 70% of the total Also 35,000 soldiers who have no known grave who died from August 1917 to the end of the war 

"The Tyne Cot Cemetery was totally shocking as it was Britain's largest, with thousands of graves. I was not expecting there to be that many names on the graves and on the wall as casualties of war. I really liked the Sanctuary Wood with its long tunnels, which were very cramped and dark. I think it must have been really difficult to see, and can't help but think of the soldiers falling over one another in the trenches. They were the only realistic and original trenches we could explore."
Oliver Tucker

Menin Gate

 As just about every man who served in the area would have passed through this gate it seemed a fitting place to site the proposed memorial to the missing.   Completed in July 1927 Ran out of space when reached 55,000 British men killed between start of war and 15th August 1917 here remaining 35,000 names at Tyne Cot All Australians Canadians and South Africans here.
The last post is played here every night and at 8.00 ( and has been since 1929 (apart from a short break in the second world war from 1940-1944)  We took part on the ceremony when we visited and laid a wreath in memory of all those who died in the First World War

"I think it's really ironic that somewhere so beautiful had had such horrors taking place within it. I think that the Menin Gate is really good way to commemorate their deaths, as so many people see it. I think the Cloth Hall is beautiful, and reminds me of medieval times. However laying the wreath was amazing! I love it, and I was able to pay my respects to my great - great Uncle, and my Nan is very happy".
Laura Povey

Sanctuary Wood (Hill 62)

Contains the best preserved section of trenches of any site in France or Belgium to give the students a real feeling for what it would have been like for soldiers in the First World War

The Somme

Devonshire Cemetery 

Here we tell the story of the Devonshires and the First day of the battle of the Somme.  This is a small cemetery established in a front line trench from where the soldiers attacked on the 1 July.   Despite  Captain Martin producing a contoured model in plasticine' warning of the location of a machine-gun post  the deeply-dug German fortifications had survived the artillery bombardment and much of their wire was still uncut, resulting in fearful slaughter for the British troops going 'over the top'.  They suffered heavy casualties 158 of them are buried in this cemetery with the epithet  “The Devonshires held this trench. The Devonshires hold it still ”  Captain Duncan Martin is buried here in Devonshire Cemetery

Newfoundland  Park

This park, located near Beaumont Hamel, is one of only a few sites on the Western Front where the ground remains largely untouched from when the First World War ended. We are able to walk the battlefield to better understand the events of the first day of the battle of the Somme  
The area has been maintained because of the significance to Newfoundland; the Newfoundland Regiment, which was part of the 88th Infantry Brigade within the 29th Division, attacked here on the 1st of July 1916, and suffered appalling losses. After the War, Newfoundland purchased this land in 1921, and first it and then the Canadian government (after 1949) have maintained it since as a memorial. It was officially opened in 1925, by Earl Haig. In 1997 it was designated a Canadian National Histgoric Site. The statue of the Caribou was chosen for the Memorial, as it was the symbol of the Newfoundland Regiment
Newfoundland Regiment attacked as part of the second wave, at 9.15 a.m. Within half an hour they had suffered terrible losses, with more than 90% becoming casualties.  
The advance here was actually downhill - unlike in many other places on the 1st of July 1916 - but there was no cover, and the advancing troops were met by machine-gun fire. About half-way across No Mans Land is the Danger Tree - a preserved tree, thought to be original, which probably marks about the limit of any Newfoundler's advance that day.

Vimy Ridge

The attack at Vimy Ridge which was undertaken by the Canadian Corps (of the First Army) on Easter Monday, the 9th of April, 1917, is often seen as the first unequivocal success gained by the British (in this case Canadian) forces during the course of trench warfare.
We visit reconstructed trenches, underground tunnels used by Canadians and the Canadian memorial to the missing 

Lochnager Crater

At 7.28am,on 1 July   a mine was blown that overshadowed the seven large and eleven small mines by both its size and achievement.. It had obliterated between 300 and 400 feet of the German dug-outs, all said to have been full of German troops. It was the largest man made explosion at the time and the story goes it could be heard in London.  The sight has been bought by an Englishman  Richard Dunning when it emerged that it was in danger of being filled in,  because he wanted to preserve it see it safe for future generations.

The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing

The Thiepval Memorial is the largest of the Memorials to the Missing of Britain and South Africa in the First World War.    The Memorial is a massive arched structure, with large laurel wreaths carved on top of the pillars and towards the top of the memorial. At the time of the unveiling in 1932 there were 73,357 names were commemorated here; the slight decrease to todays number (72,116) represents the identification of bodies since then resulting in soldiers no longer being 'missing'. Some additional names have however also been added .  Here some students were able to pay their respects to relatives including Claire Stafford who found the name of her Great Great Uncle Edward Corley who died on 23 02 1917.  His brother Archibald Corley also had no known grave and he was commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Ypres. We were also able to visit there the following day to allow Claire to have her photograph and write an inscription in the visitors book.    
Behind the Memorial is a joint British - French Cemetery, intended to symbolise the losses both suffered.

"Thiepval Memorial is covered in names of "missing - presumed dead" and has approximately 72,000 names carved into its walls. Behind the memorial there is another small cemetery. The atmosphere when visiting was amazingly peaceful. Some emotions we felt as a group simply cannot be put into words as all we could think of was the amazing heroes who gave their lives for us and future generations to come."
James Hope