History GCSE Battlefield Trip

 At the crack of dawn on Thursday 3rd November 2011 44 GCSE year 9 and 10 History students left the Harefield Academy to visit the World War One battlefields in Ypres for three days.  The trip was packed full of lots of different experiences of warfare. The tour was based around the Ypres Salient for two days, an area of intense fighting during the war.  We visited Langemarck Cemetery - for the German soldiers who fell in World War One followed by Essex farm cemetery where John McCrae wrote the poem in Flanders fields.   We also visited the Menin Gate, the memorial to all those who were lost in Ypres during World War One and whose bodies were never found.   We attended the Last Post Ceremony, which is held there every night, and Jade Tufano ( Year 10) , Courtney Stone (year 9 ) and Gregor  Zych (Year 12)  laid a wreath from The Harefield Academy in memory of all those who died in World War One.  We also visited some trenches at Sanctuary Wood and the Bayenwald trenches and walked through them to get an idea of what day to day life must have been like for the soldiers.

 

 

On the second day we travelled down to the Somme region, the location of one of the war's most bloody battles. There students were able to appreciate the scale of the slaughter at such sites as the Thiepval Memorial, Newfoundland and Beaumont Hammel.   Our guide Jack gave us a great insight into all aspects of war, from tunnelling through to trench warfare and the movement of enemy lines.
 
 
 
We ended the trip with a very popular visit to a chocolate shop. The students were brilliant throughout the whole trip and got a huge amount out of the opportunity to visit such a poignant and important place in our History.
 
 
 
Thanks to all the staff and students for making the trip so successful.