Daily Diary of the 2023 Battlefields Trip
Our Year 11 pupils have been on a thought-provoking trip to visit battlefields in Belgium and Ypres – including Hill 60, a tactically significant small hill on the edge of the Ypres that is now a memorial site. Pupils also visit Langemark and Zonnebehke, located at the centre of the Third Battle of Ypres/Battle of Passchendaele.
A highlight of the trip is that pupils learn about the Old Sedberghians that lost their lives in WWI and visit their graves to pay their respects.
We will remember them.
Day 1: Friday
After landing in Brussels we went straight to the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing and then on to Messines Peace Village.
Day 2: Saturday
Our full itinerary started with a visit to Newfoundland Memorial Park of Beaumont-Hamel, where the largely undisturbed trench lines evoke a vivid impression of the courage, resilience and self-sacrifice of the men who fought there during the Battle of the Somme.
From there we went on to the Serre and Queens Cemetery, Lochnagar Mine Crater Memorial and Thiepval Memorial and Visitors Centre.
Day 3: Sunday
We began the day with a visit to the WW1 battle area known as Hill 60 – so named on British military maps because the contoured height of the ground was marked at 60 metres above sea level. The Memorial Site also has the remains of several concrete bunkers and craters from the 1915/16 and 1917 battles. From there we went on to Essex Farm where 1,200 WW1 servicemen are buried or commemorated. Of these burials 103 are not identified.
We stopped briefly at the Langemark German Cemetery on our way to Tyne Cot Cemetery & Memorial to the Missing. Tyne Cot Tyne Cot is the resting place of 11,962 soldiers of the Commonwealth Forces and is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world in terms of burials. Next we had a tour of Flanders Field Museum. Our day finished with the Last Post Ceremony which takes place every evening at the Menin Gate – one of the main roads out of Ypres towards the Front Line.
Day 4: Monday
Travelling back to Sedbergh…
