Posted on: 22/03/2024
Posted on: May 19th 2023
Year 8 Trip To Ypres
“Year 8 took a trip to Ypres, Belgium to see First World War cemeteries, a museum and rebuilt trenches on 19 May. We learned all about the Ypres Salient - which was an area with British trenches surrounded by the Germans on three sides and was a very dangerous place to fight in World War One. As a result, there are around 170 cemeteries around the Salient.
We visited the British Essex Farm and Tyne Cot cemeteries - named after places soldiers would remember from England - and learnt that, even if unidentified, all soldiers that fought for the allies had an individual grave. However, for the Germans, all unidentified men were buried in mass graves (like Langemark cemetery) with the names of the missing carved onto a large slab of stone. Adolf Hitler visited this cemetery during World War Two, as he refused to see “The Great War” as a loss, but as a betrayal of the political class against the soldiers.
Lastly, in Sanctuary Wood museum we saw personal kit, weapons and other interesting artefacts from the First World War, and then wandered through the rebuilt trenches outside - seeing first-hand what it was like to be in a trench and the conditions soldiers faced daily.”
Report written by Lucy (8CS)
