Students tour the battlefield (From Gazette Series)

Students tour the battlefield

ON Monday, October 25, 50 Rednock School students departed for a First World War battlefields tour.

We arrived at Rednock at 5am and shortly after this we set off for our for the Eurotunnel, arriving in France at around 11am.

On the first day we visited four sites - the Loos Memorial and Dud Corner Cemetery, Vimy Ridge, Neuville St Vaast and Memorial Notre Dame.

All of the sites that we visited on this day were to do with the battle of Arras.

The first sites were just a hint of what was to shock us at other sites in the days to come.

On the Tuesday we visited nine sites, which needed an early start.

The main sites that we went to were Sanctuary Wood; Tyne Cot Cemetery; and the Menin Gate and Last Post Ceremony.

The last site was extremely touching as the Ypres fire brigade played the Last Post in remembrance of the soldiers that died at that battle.

We visited eight more sites on Wednesday, which included Ulster Tower, Deville Wood and Newfoundland Memorial Park.

Deville Wood struck all of us as on entering the woodland there was no sound of life, which struck us as peculiar and somewhat scary.

These sites were all dedicated to the victims of the battle of Somme.

On the last day we had to get up especially early in order for us to get free time in Bruges. We only visited two sites that day, which were Lone Tree Cemetery and Spanbroekmolen Pool of Peace.

We then had the nine-hour journey home.

We would like to say a special thank you to Miss Olds, Mrs Latham, Mr Hagan, Mr Wallace, Mr Caplin and Miss Peverly.

Without whom our most memorable tour would not have been possible.