This is a much longer than usual post for Facebook, but it is worth reading nonetheless. It is an account by Mr Ian Masters of the recent trip to the World War I battlefields of Northern France. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Students from The British School of Kuwait embarked on a journey to the battlefields of Northern France to learn about conditions on the Western Front in that war and to pay our respects to the generation of young men that fought and died in this conflict that did so much to shape the world in which we live today. Arriving in Paris on the first stage of our journey, we ventured onto the metro and visited many of the breath-taking landmarks that the City boasts, such as the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and the cathedral of Notre Dame at night. Our last visit in Paris was to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc De Triomphe. A suitable location to refocus our attention towards the horrors and sacrifice of the Great War, that raged barely one hundred miles to the East of Paris a century ago. Our first battlefield destination was near the town of Verdun, a fortress city that became the focus of a major German offensive between February and November 1916. Our first stop was at Fort Douaumont, the highest point in the hills overlooking the River Meuse, and the location of the strongest fortified structure in the world by 1916. The winding road taking us up hill is the same one that many thousands of French troops also trudged up one hundred years before, and it soon became clear how heavy the fighting must have been as both sides of the road saw small cemeteries and memorials to lost units, while the ground down the wooded slopes below us was still deeply cratered everywhere you could see. From the roof of the fort we could see a panoramic view of the countryside for many miles around, beautiful in the fading autumn sunshine, but also indicating why both German and French armies had fought so hard to take this crucial vantage point in the sector. Our second day in Verdun witnessed a fabulous tour of the Citadelle. The tunnels had housed the French military headquarters, but today it is an excellent museum that sets the events of a century ago in their context. The most moving event of the day was our visit to the Ossuary near Douaumont. Unlike yesterday’s bright sunshine, the whole area was now shrouded in a thick, cold, fog adding a sinister and claustrophobic feel to an already disturbing visit. Few of us spoke as we each read through the messages left for the missing and took in the bones on display through the windows underneath the building. It was a time for private reflection, and not a few tears. The coach ride back into town was very quiet. Our final destination was the battlefields of the Somme to the North, where in July 1916 the British Army started its great push against the German line. We started our tour in the museum in the small town of Albert, where the Battle was set in context for us before heading off to the Front Line position in the village of Beaumont Hamel, an area now known as the Newfoundland Memorial Park, owned by the Canadian Government, it contains a preserved line of trenches where it is possible to interpret the events of the battle in that sector as we walk through the trenches and out into no mans land beyond. Half way across no man’s land there is a very poignant sight, the only surviving tree on the battlefield, marking the furthest point that British troops were able to advance to that day. Our last stop was at the giant memorial to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who died but have no known grave from the fighting on the Somme at Thiepval. The ridge at Thiepval was an objective for the British on the first day. Underneath the giant memorial containing the names of 72,195 missing British and South African soldiers, we laid a wreath of poppies and wrote a message from us, the students and staff of The British School of Kuwait, to the fallen of the Great War. It was a small private ceremony and the most moving part of our trip. Many of us struggled to keep back tears as we trudged back to the coach, and then back to the airport for our return flight to Kuwait. An emotional and thought provoking trip that none of us will forget.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 13:45:48 +0000
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