Project Warhorse – Battlefields Trip 2018
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Project Warhorse – Battlefields Trip 2018 “An unforgettable experience…” “A roller-coaster of emotions…” “An incredible insight…” Students and staff from Hardenhuish School returned in the early hours of Good Friday following an exhausting, exhilarating and, ultimately, excellent week exploring the battlefields and cemeteries of both world wars in northern France, Belgium and The Netherlands. The culmination of Project Warhorse, a three-year Erasmus funded venture with Sintermeerten College, Heerlen, the trip saw 40 pupils and 4 staff working jointly with Dutch students and colleagues to share and develop knowledge and understanding of the impact of war, both on their locality and their nation. Beginning on day one in Ypres, students saw first-hand the terrifying conditions of first world war trenches as they got down Ludo: into the mud at Hill 62 Sanctuary Wood and entered the It was an amazing experience and I am subterranean worlds of frontline dugouts and tunnels. There was very glad I went. The monuments were then a chance for individual students to find the graves of family beautiful structures and it cannot be put members and pay their respects by laying a simple wooden cross in into words how complex and incredible remembrance. For some, they were the first in their family to visit the designs were. the grave of a great-great grandfather, uncle or family friend. From there, the group visited the excellent Passchendaele museum to gain a full understanding of how the Great War devastated this little corner of Belgium and why the British were so keen to protect the town of Ypres, before then heading further down the front line into France and to Vimy Ridge. There, the group were toured through the Canadian observation trenches by volunteers from the Veterans Affairs department and taken to the National Canadian Memorial – the largest Great War memorial in the world and visually the most stunning, with its twin white pillars stretching skyward atop the hillside. Alice: I visited my great, great uncle Dennis’ grave at Bruunsum cemetery. He was buried there during the second world war after he was killed trying to clear the area of remaining German soldiers. I am the first member of my family to visit the grave of Private Dennis Dew. I also placed a small cross with a message to my great, great uncle. It felt important to still remember him 80 years after he died because he was very well loved by his whole family and even though I didn’t know him, his sister passed away only last year and was my great grandma, who I was very close to. She would have been very proud of me. The second day began with further individual visits to graves in local cemeteries, remembering the bravery of family members. We then followed in the footsteps of those involved in the first day of the Battle of the Somme – the darkest day for the British army. Pupils were surprised to learn the battle continued for a further 140 days and were stunned by the site of the Lochnagar Crater, a colossal scar in the landscape and the result of 60,000llbs of ammonal set to explode at 07:28 on July 1st 1916 – and the site of possibly the world’s biggest explosion ‘in anger’ before the horrors of the atomic bombs of 1945. A tour of the Thiepval Woods at Ulster Tower followed, where the subject of battlefield archaeology was discussed in full by well-known historian Vic Piuk, during our visit to the frontline trenches recently excavated by the Somme Association. Visits to the preserved battlefield of Newfoundland Park brought home the reality of battle as the group were talked through the manoeuvres of the fledgling Newfoundland Regiment, decimated on that fateful day, and the 51st Highland Division who would later capture the original objective some 4 months later, at a great cost. Then it was on to visit Edward Lutyens’ famous Thiepval Memorial, featuring the names of 73,000 men whose bodies were lost in the Somme mud and never found. Here, Hardenhuish students took part in a remembrance service led by the Royal British Legion, and then set about finding the names of Wiltshire men, many from Chippenham, remembered on the 16 piers of the memorial, using the excellent research of local historian Richard Broadhead to explore their individual stories. The day finished with a moving visit to Delville Wood, where one of Becca: the Wiltshire Soldiers fell, and to Mametz Wood, where the devastating story of the Welsh Division was shared before a minute’s Meeting the Dutch students was really silence, held at the lonely Flatiron Copse cemetery, provided an exciting, they were so nice and helped us opportunity to reflect on the magnitude of what the pupils had when we needed it. I never would have experienced across the day. thought that I could meet so many good friends in the space of a few days as we all The next morning, after a visit to the Arras memorial and Faubourg share similar interests. It will be a shame to d’Amiens cemetery to explore the sacrifice made by the Flying leave them. Services, by Walter Tull – the first black infantry officer in the British Army – and by two young soldiers shot at dawn for desertion, it was This week has taken me to places I’d never time to make the trip north to Holland with our friends at imagined of going. Sintermeerten College in Heerlen for dinner and a ‘bonding’ trip to the bowling alley. The next day was spent at Sintermeerten College exploring a variety of fascinating aspects of the Great War, examining propaganda and creating modern versions, learning about the power of music both in raising morale and in protesting against war, exploring war poetry with the help of an excellent theatre company and then watching Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, featuring of course the village of Castle Combe - the original inspiration for our project. On Wednesday we joined our new friends from Sintermeerten to visit Fort Loncin, part of the defences of Liege destroyed as part of the Schlieffen Plan in August 1914, the beautiful city of Maastricht for lunch and on to Martgarten American Cemetery to understand operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge and the impact of the Second World War on The Netherlands. It was moving to see our Dutch counterparts remembering the fallen at graves their families had chosen to sponsor as part of an international movement encouraging friendship between young people of the USA and The Netherlands. We finished our tour at Dreilandenpunt, where the pupils took turns to stand in Belgium, Holland and Germany at the same time! The evening was capped by a stunning buffet provided by the parents of the Dutch pupils - and of course a bit of karaoke, where Mr Arkinstall impressed us all with his dance moves at least, if not with his singing voice! Our final day saw both schools returning to Ypres to jointly explore key sites of the first world war. After reading John McCrae’s famous poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ at Essex Farm cemetery, where it was written, the group visited ‘In Flanders Fields’ museum in Ypres (where they also took advantage of the warm welcome from the De Groot family at the best chocolate shop in town!) before moving on to pay their respects to the fallen at Tyne Cot cemetery, the largest British and Commonwealth cemetery in the world, with nearly 12,000 burials and close to 35,000 men remembered on the memorial wall; their bodies having never been identified. Hardenhuish School also laid a wreath at Langemarck German cemetery, one of the few British Schools to do so, and heard the story of the student army killed at the hands of the BEF in what became known as the ‘massacre of the innocents’. Olly: This trip really opened my mind up to how brutal the world wars were and how much they affected people. To actually be on the battlefields after hearing such stories and remembering those who gave the ultimate sacrifice was a very special experience. Words can’t describe the emotions everyone felt when walking around the vast cemeteries and looking over the fields. It is a feeling I will never forget. Just as the project had started back in 2015, it finished with both schools taking part in the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate. The ceremony has taken place every evening at 8pm since 1928 and we were honoured to be able to lay our wreaths, ours featuring the gold and green stag of Hardenhuish, in remembrance of the old boys commemorated on the school memorial, and indeed of all those who made the ultimate sacrifice between 1914-1918. Project War Horse has been a stunning success. More than 400 pupils have been involved over the past 3 years. All those taking part agree wholeheartedly that, through joint exploration of different aspects of the war, combined with the all-important site visits, not only is there a far deeper understanding of the conflict, but also an appreciation of what Europeans have in common, as well as a better understanding of British and Dutch culture respectively. It was George Santayana who said: ‘He who forgets the past is doomed to repeat it’. The joint work of Hardenhuish School and Sintermeerten College aimed to provide the next generation with some important lessons in the hope that he is not proven correct. .