Battlefields Trip

Year 9 Historians extended their learning on the Battlefields of the First World War around the Ypres salient.

After a 2am start to take the ferry to Calais, pupils arrived at the Pool of Peace, learning about how tunnels were built under no-man’s-land and filled with explosives, timed to go off just before the soldiers went over the top to try to destroy the German trenches. The site of this explosion has never been filled in and has become a beautiful pond filled with nature. The next stop was Sanctuary Wood to experience the trenches with leftover shells and barbed wire alongside exhibitions of the uniforms of the various soldiers from France,  Britain and Germany as well as Canada, India and North Africa.

Venturing into the countryside, they visited French, German and British cemeteries, noting the large number of nameless tombstones of soldiers who were not able to be identified. Some of the youngest soldiers – who had volunteered, fought and died for their country – were just 14. At almost every site, the group read poetry introduced by Mr Larochelle, who put the poems in context.

Arriving in central Ypres, the girls went to the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate where the names of all those who died in the battles of Ypres, but were never recovered, are recorded. Movingly, Eloise and Anna, who had both lost relatives on the Western Front, had the honour of laying a wreath during the ceremony, and represented the school with dignity and poise.

The next morning, the group visited the Yorkshire Trench to see a dressing station behind the lines before arriving at the Passchendaele Museum where the trenches have been rebuilt, complete with toilets, kitchens, medical facilities and bunk beds. Returning to Ypres, the girls visited more of the old city before stopping off at a chocolate shop before the return to South Hampstead to reflect on an intense and hugely interesting trip.