View Full Version : Trip of a lifetime..the trenches !!!
My youngest daughter just recieved a letter from school this morn, as part of her history to study the first world war, trench warfare in Belgium & France & visiting the areas where the events took place ..
Im so bloody envious, lucky wee sod !!!! :greengrin
Does anyone have pics or know of internet sites that show in detail the trenches/craters etc as they are now ?
Her trip isnt until next year but it would be good if i could get some pics etc so she could get an idea of where & what she expects to see ..
Ta
hibbybob
10-05-2008, 11:10 AM
Slightly off the topic but we visited a place called Oradour Sur Glane a while back.
A few days before the end of the war the Germans wiped out the whole village and tried to hide their crime by burning the village.
The French have left the village untouched since 1945 - burned out cars still there, houses with furniture and possessions etc etc.
It was really humbling to see and well worth a visit!
It's well worth looking up on the internet to get an idea of what actually happened.
Bob.
Pretty Boy
10-05-2008, 11:15 AM
My youngest daughter just recieved a letter from school this morn, as part of her history to study the first world war, trench warfare in Belgium & France & visiting the areas where the events took place ..
Im so bloody envious, lucky wee sod !!!! :greengrin
Does anyone have pics or know of internet sites that show in detail the trenches/craters etc as they are now ?
Her trip isnt until next year but it would be good if i could get some pics etc so she could get an idea of where & what she expects to see ..
Ta
Not got any pictures to hand but most of the trenches have been re used as farmland etc but are still visible grooves in the landscape. The exceptions are at Passchendale where a fully preserved trench is kept and also at a sight which escapes my name which is actually a part of both Scotland and Canada as it was gifted to us by the French as a thank you in 1918. Here the trenches have been restored and at some points the German and Allied trenches are little more than 10 feet apart, this is also the sight where Hitler made his name as a runner and won his iron cross.
The Menin gate just outside the town of Ypres and Tynecot cemetery will also almost certainly be part of the itinerary and are well worth a visit.
Your daughter will almost certainly enjoy it and it is a very interesting, informative and moving trip that far more schoolchildren should get the chance to go on.
hibby19
10-05-2008, 12:07 PM
I did the same trip with my school in October 2006. Was a fantastic trip and very interesting.
Was good fun climbing in the old shell holes and walking in the really muddy trenches :greengrin
If i can find some pictures ill try and put them up
AllyF
10-05-2008, 12:33 PM
I had the chance to go on that trip this year with my school but decided to go on the Italian trip to Sorento instead where I can lap up the sun on the beach instead of walk around in muddy trenches all day. :greengrin
Cheers guys...:aok:..Bob that place sounds really interesting, will have a wee look at that place later....:agree:
Hibby19..would love tae see some o those pics mate..:aok:
degenerated
10-05-2008, 02:19 PM
My youngest daughter just recieved a letter from school this morn, as part of her history to study the first world war, trench warfare in Belgium & France & visiting the areas where the events took place ..
Im so bloody envious, lucky wee sod !!!! :greengrin
Does anyone have pics or know of internet sites that show in detail the trenches/craters etc as they are now ?
Her trip isnt until next year but it would be good if i could get some pics etc so she could get an idea of where & what she expects to see ..
Ta
i was there with the school for a similar trip many years back. Ypres & The Somme - pretty spooky places it has to be said :agree:
was good though as i had just turned 16 i was legally allowed tae bevvy :greengrin
i was there with the school for a similar trip many years back. Ypres & The Somme - pretty spooky places it has to be said :agree:
was good though as i had just turned 16 i was legally allowed tae bevvy :greengrinIm sure there were similar trips when i was at school but my family couldnt afford it so me & my bro missed out ...i certainly dont want my youngest missing out like i did ...:agree:
As for the bevvy ...see what i missed mum/dad !!! ...:grr:....:greengrin
Hibbychick
10-05-2008, 03:43 PM
I was on a Battlefield tour a couple of years ago and it was amazing.
We visited the cemeteries, Passchendaele , MaCraes Dressing Station and Hill 60 before attending the Menin Gate ceremony which was very emotional.
A few photos from the trip.
The trenches...
Hibbychick
10-05-2008, 03:48 PM
Passchendaele Museum...
Hibbychick
10-05-2008, 04:01 PM
Menin Gate...
Hibbychick
10-05-2008, 04:08 PM
Another couple of the trenches..
Hibbychick
10-05-2008, 04:20 PM
Hill 60 and John MaCrae's 'Flanders Fields'...
I was on a Battlefield tour a couple of years ago and it was amazing.
We visited the cemeteries, Passchendaele , MaCraes Dressing Station and Hill 60 before attending the Menin Gate ceremony which was very emotional.
A few photos from the trip.
The trenches...
Passchendaele Museum...
Menin Gate...
Another couple of the trenches..
Hill 60 and John MaCrae's 'Flanders Fields'...Excellent pics, thank you HC.....my daughter will love those ...:agree:
Edinburghlass
10-05-2008, 08:11 PM
Excellent photos - my great grandfather died in WWI and I'd love to be able to visit his battleground with my grandfather while he's still healthy enough to do it.
GhostofBolivar
11-05-2008, 05:15 AM
Slightly off the topic but we visited a place called Oradour Sur Glane a while back.
A few days before the end of the war the Germans wiped out the whole village and tried to hide their crime by burning the village.
The French have left the village untouched since 1945 - burned out cars still there, houses with furniture and possessions etc etc.
It was really humbling to see and well worth a visit!
It's well worth looking up on the internet to get an idea of what actually happened.
Bob.
That's not exactly right. The massacre took place on the 10th June 1944.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane
hibbybob
11-05-2008, 09:18 AM
That's not exactly right. The massacre took place on the 10th June 1944.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane
I stand corrected - it was a few days before the Germans vacated that area of France!
If anybody has the opportunity to visit Oradour they should go!
s.a.m
11-05-2008, 09:46 AM
I've visited Oradour several times and, as you say, it's haunting. The banality of everyday life, left exactly as it was, brings things home in a way that more dramatic sites can fail to do.
We first visited about 15 years ago and at the time you just parked on the grass verge outside the village and walked in through the gate. It had simply been preserved, undeveloped. Now you enter through a visitor centre, and walk through a tunnel into the village, and it has more of the feel of a museum about it. Understandable, but it somehow seems to lessen the impact - before it really felt like a very ordinary village, where an atrocity had taken place. (I'm not making much sense here...) Still extremely shocking, however, and well worth a visit.
As a side note, when we visited a few years back, we were staying in a cottage about 10 miles away. The owners had been children when the massacre took place, and family friends had been killed. Our elderly neighbour had been in her 30's at the time. I said that I had noticed a lot of German tourists in the area, and wondered how people in their position felt about them. They said that, while everyone knew that it had nothing to do with the modern-day Germans, (and nobody would be anything other than polite to them, and people respected that lots of Germans wanted to visit, to understand), a lot of people found it very painful.
Del Boy
11-05-2008, 05:22 PM
went on a Battlefields trip before and it was absolutely amazing. If anyone has the chane to go, you should do it. Didnt know what to rexpect before I went, but can honestly say it probably had a bigger impact on my outlook on life than anything else to this point.
Was only for 3 or 4 days but its an incredible experience. Put's the petty things in life that we moan about every day into perspective.
Nothing I've done before or since compares to that, would love to go back again at some point.
GhostofBolivar
12-05-2008, 04:42 AM
Not got any pictures to hand but most of the trenches have been re used as farmland etc but are still visible grooves in the landscape. The exceptions are at Passchendale where a fully preserved trench is kept and also at a sight which escapes my name which is actually a part of both Scotland and Canada as it was gifted to us by the French as a thank you in 1918. Here the trenches have been restored and at some points the German and Allied trenches are little more than 10 feet apart, this is also the sight where Hitler made his name as a runner and won his iron cross.
The Menin gate just outside the town of Ypres and Tynecot cemetery will also almost certainly be part of the itinerary and are well worth a visit.
Your daughter will almost certainly enjoy it and it is a very interesting, informative and moving trip that far more schoolchildren should get the chance to go on.
Dunno about us, but Canada was granted the Vimy Ridge Memorial Park in perpetuity. That's in amazing condition and the memorial itself is astonishingly beautiful.
The ground the Newfoundlanders attacked over on the first day of the Somme is pretty well preserved as well.
GhostofBolivar
12-05-2008, 04:57 AM
I did this trip when I was in 4th year. Well worth it and I hope your daughter enjoys it.
Dunno how bookish she is, but there are a few books that'd give her a good grounding in what to expect. You can find any number within half an hour in Waterstones or on Amazon; but beyond the well known books about WW1 is a Canadian novel called Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. I read it recently and thought it was excellent.
I did this trip when I was in 4th year. Well worth it and I hope your daughter enjoys it.
Dunno how bookish she is, but there are a few books that'd give her a good grounding in what to expect. You can find any number within half an hour in Waterstones or on Amazon; but beyond the well known books about WW1 is a Canadian novel called Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. I read it recently and thought it was excellent.Yeah she is a good book reader & loves her history (particularly old Edinburgh) she has read bits about various wars throughout her schooling ..i have a book "The Somme" which is a fantastic read, this includes letters from soldiers of the many diff regiments from over the world writing to their loved ones before they "went over"..really hits home what those lads went through..
My daughter was fascinated by those pics by Hibbychick & the very haunting before & after pics of Oradour ...
Cheers folks..
Liam_Hibs
12-05-2008, 03:05 PM
I am going on this trip with my school in June, I will try and get some pics for you.:agree:
matty_f
13-05-2008, 12:00 AM
i was there with the school for a similar trip many years back. Ypres & The Somme - pretty spooky places it has to be said :agree:
was good though as i had just turned 16 i was legally allowed tae bevvy :greengrin
Same here. Had a great time on my school trip (Porty!) round the Somme and Ypres. Fascinating places, very haunting. I didn't really take too much of it in at the time sadly, so maybe it's somewhere I'll go again and visit properly.
Some wee radges threw a big fish at us in Ypres, dunno what that was all about!
degenerated
13-05-2008, 10:25 AM
Same here. Had a great time on my school trip (Porty!) round the Somme and Ypres. Fascinating places, very haunting. I didn't really take too much of it in at the time sadly, so maybe it's somewhere I'll go again and visit properly.
Some wee radges threw a big fish at us in Ypres, dunno what that was all about!
just a fish, your lucky, i got cs gassed by some hooligans at a shopping centre near brugges when i was there. :grr:
like you i didnt appreciate it as much at the time as i would now but it was a great trip. from memory scotland were playing belgium at the time we were there and got a right horsing, nico claesen (sp) scored a hatrick. so it must have been a fair while back now :agree:
Hibs Class
14-05-2008, 10:07 PM
My youngest daughter just recieved a letter from school this morn, as part of her history to study the first world war, trench warfare in Belgium & France & visiting the areas where the events took place ..
Im so bloody envious, lucky wee sod !!!! :greengrin
Does anyone have pics or know of internet sites that show in detail the trenches/craters etc as they are now ?
Her trip isnt until next year but it would be good if i could get some pics etc so she could get an idea of where & what she expects to see ..
Ta
I've been to the Western Front twice, and both visits were very memorable. (I liked Hibby Chick's pic of Hill 60 as a great uncle of mine died there in 1915 and it's not as well known a feature as other battle sites). Attached site is excellent with a combination of then and now pics, along with info about each site. For a good example of craters look at the Lochnagar crater at La Boiselle on the Somme, although the pics don't show just how massive this crater is. Site also has lots of info on cemeteries and memorials - Menin Gate in Ypres and Thiepval on the Somme are both huge and hugely moving, and the Tyne Cot cemetery at Passchendaele is the largest Commonwealth War cemetery in the world I think, (it's certainly the largest on the Western Front).
http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/index.html
If going it makes sense to do a little reading beforehand, and if there's a family connection it can be referenced on the Commonwealth War Graves website (www.cwgc.org (http://www.cwgc.org)) whch will show cemetery / memorial and position of grave / inscription.
Mikey_1875
15-05-2008, 07:27 PM
Good trip definetly worth it. Menin gate is very moving with the ceremony at night. Also some of the big graves are interesting to see and the craters etc. The german graveyard (Friekorp?) is also very interesting.
I've been to the Western Front twice, and both visits were very memorable. (I liked Hibby Chick's pic of Hill 60 as a great uncle of mine died there in 1915 and it's not as well known a feature as other battle sites). Attached site is excellent with a combination of then and now pics, along with info about each site. For a good example of craters look at the Lochnagar crater at La Boiselle on the Somme, although the pics don't show just how massive this crater is. Site also has lots of info on cemeteries and memorials - Menin Gate in Ypres and Thiepval on the Somme are both huge and hugely moving, and the Tyne Cot cemetery at Passchendaele is the largest Commonwealth War cemetery in the world I think, (it's certainly the largest on the Western Front).
http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/index.html
If going it makes sense to do a little reading beforehand, and if there's a family connection it can be referenced on the Commonwealth War Graves website (www.cwgc.org (http://www.cwgc.org)) whch will show cemetery / memorial and position of grave / inscription.
Good trip definetly worth it. Menin gate is very moving with the ceremony at night. Also some of the big graves are interesting to see and the craters etc. The german graveyard (Friekorp?) is also very interesting.Excellent stuff ..cheers guys ...:aok:
PC Stamp
20-05-2008, 01:15 PM
Kenny, if your daughter is a reader and wants to get a picture of what the battlefield was like from a local perspective then Jack Alexander's book about McCrae's Battalion is a fantastic read.
There's a myth that suggests it is a book solely about the involvement of the Hearts first team and their contribution.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Kenny, if your daughter is a reader and wants to get a picture of what the battlefield was like from a local perspective then Jack Alexander's book about McCrae's Battalion is a fantastic read.
There's a myth that suggests it is a book solely about the involvement of the Hearts first team and their contribution.
Nothing could be further from the truth.Thanks Cliff ...will keep that book in mind mate, was actually thinking of buying it myself :agree:
Sean1875
20-05-2008, 01:33 PM
Didnt take History myself, but a few mates that went on the trip said that it was Excellent! :thumbsup:
Jack Alexander
27-05-2008, 08:22 PM
Thanks for the kind words! The principal plaque on the memorial cairn at Contalmaison specifically mentions Hearts and Hibs (along with Falkirk
and Raith). No one from the Lothians should visit the Somme without taking time to visit our site.
The official 1 July pilgrimage leaves Edinburgh on 29 June. This year looks like being the first without a Hibs representative. I'm still trying to rectify that, but at the moment I don't have anyone.
Volunteers who might be interested in joining us to lay the official Hibernian wreath are welcome to contact me.
GhostofBolivar
28-05-2008, 05:23 AM
Yeah she is a good book reader & loves her history (particularly old Edinburgh) she has read bits about various wars throughout her schooling ..i have a book "The Somme" which is a fantastic read, this includes letters from soldiers of the many diff regiments from over the world writing to their loved ones before they "went over"..really hits home what those lads went through..
My daughter was fascinated by those pics by Hibbychick & the very haunting before & after pics of Oradour ...
Cheers folks..
That Peter Hart's book? He's a top quality writer. His book on Jutland's phenomenal.
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