14th&15th June 2008
At 6’o’clock on the morning of the 14th of June a coach full of bleary-eyed, tired Habs boys in year 9 and 10 gathered in the coach park awaiting their visit to the World War I battlefields. The boys were marshalled by the enthusiastic staff team consisting of Mr. Clark, Dr Sloan, Mr. Simm, Dr St John and Dr Wigley.
We eventually made it to Dover and after a relaxing ferry trip we arrived in Calais and caught our first glimpse of France. However, we had no time to soak up the French ambiance and we were whisked straight to our first destination, Vimy Ridge. The battle field has been recreated and the trenches themselves have been rebuilt since the war so tourists like us are allowed to pretend they were in a battle. The battle itself was between the Canadian Corps and the German Army in April 1917. It was when the Canadians successfully attacked the German positions on the ridge and took the high ground after many casualties.
After we had finished looking around, Mr. Clark shoved us back onto the coach to our next site the World War I museum in Peronne where we voluntarily filled out worksheets and a learned great deal about the build up to the war and the fighting over the four years. We could only stay at the museum for a short while before we were transported to our final destination of the day, Amiens. Our hotel was also in the city and we were given time to explore the city and get some food whilst the teachers had a drink or four.
We woke early the next morning, well most of us did except for Nabil Freeman and Tom Ough whose alarm clock “didn’t work”, and it was because of this delay we arrived at our next destination half an hour late. The next port of call was the Newfoundland Memorial at Beaumont Hamel. This was the site of huge casualties suffered by the Newfoundland regiment on the first day of the Somme.
We wandered around the gravestones and the battlefield, which has been preserved, shocked by the huge loss of life. Our next site was the Ulster Tower. Dr Sloan told us about the significance of the memorial both in France and in Ireland. The Tower was built to honour the soldiers from Ulster and Northern Ireland who fought so well and so bravely in the Somme; in fact, the soldiers fought too bravely, became isolated and could not retreat, so they suffered many losses.
After our visit to the Tower we moved on to the famous Thiepval Memorial and Museum. This huge structure was dedicated to the 73,000 missing from the Battle of the Somme; of that vast number 8 were old Habs boys and Dr Wigley laid a wreath and said a few words of remembrance of the dead. We were completely taken aback by this colossal loss of life.
After a busy morning of memorials and coach trips we were quickly becoming very hungry and we headed to lunch. Our meal was at an old dressing station from WWI where we split and half went to see the station while the other half gratefully munched on their lunch. It was during this munching that Raphael Levy, a ‘big-boned’ boy, broke a bench, he achieved this by simply sitting on it and under the weight the bench collapsed. A hurried apology and exit followed as we left in fits of laughter to our next destination.
“La Grande Mine” is a huge crater where on the opening day of the Somme, a huge mine was exploded. It was heard in London apparently and decimated the German positions on the 1st of July 1916 when the mine was let off. We had to move on due to our ridiculously tight schedule and so we went to Fricourt. This is the German cemetery for the Somme; it is very bleak and is not very well looked after. We were told that the Red Baron, the fighter ace, was buried here; we eagerly set out to find his grave only ten minutes later to be told that his grave has been moved.
Our last site before the long journey home was the South African memorial which was in Delville Wood, where the South African soldiers fought bravely and suffered heavy casualties against the Germans in difficult fighting in the wood. The memorial was built during the Apartheid era when the South Africans were under a lot of pressure and lacked any popularity, so they built the museum and memorial to show that they should be treated better as they fought bravely for the British in Delville Wood. Like the Ulster Tower, it is a good example of how history is often used for political purposes.
After this final memorial we then began our never-ending home journey which ended only a couple of hours later than we were expected, thanks to the vigilance of the security men who see every traveler as a potential terrorist. The trip could not have taken place if it were not for the heroic role the teachers played in managing to look after us for two days without going mad. Thank you very much!
James Colenutt, 9M1
