I didn't anticipate on taking any photographs today, but I can't resist a good cityscape at night.
I didn't anticipate on taking any photographs today, but I can't resist a good cityscape at night.
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Our second day on Flanders Fields, we began our day at Lijssenthoek Cemetery which was on the site of an old field hospital. Nearly 10,000 casualties rest here which lie in near-chronological order. We had two presentations here by Morgan and Claudia. Next was Vlamertinghe New Cemetery for my very special presentation and one by Paul Else, who recently learned of a great uncle who rests there. The tour stopped at Messines for lunch, followed by the Ireland Peace Park. We finished our amazing battlefield tour at Toronto Ave in Ploegsteert Wood with Will's presentation of Captain Piggott. I am very proud of the group's engagement in the history, and they have coped amazingly well with the density and intensity of the subject matter dealt with. The penultimate battlefield day. Today we explored the preserved battlefield of Hill 60, then onto Polygon Wood. This morning we heard moving presentations from Renee, Jack and Benn. We had a museum stop before visiting the world's largest Commonwealth War Cemetery, holding 12,000 dead, of which 8,000 are known unto God. Here we had presentations from Jono, Leanne, Tony and Wood. Lachlan finished our day of presentations at the Menin Gate. The evening was spent with last minute Belgian chocolate shopping and dinner beneath the four hundred year old Vauban ramparts at Ypres. Very briefly, we visited Fromelles (Pheasant's Wood Cemetery, Cobbers, VC Corner) and Ypres for the first time. We saw presentations from Fletch and Donnells. Great (and busy) day. We had some free time before the Menin Gate ceremony, in which our school was involved. It was a very proud moment to see three Holy Spirit students lay a wreath in remembrance of the sacrifice of all Allied soldiers from WWI. Today was full of moving presentations and the battlefields of 1918. It was by far our biggest day. We began at Dernancourt Communal Extension and the rail bridge, followed by: - Daours Cemetery - Villers Bretonneaux - The Australian Memorial - Le Hamel - Heath Cemetery - The Historial de la Grande Guerre at Perrone - The 2nd Division Memorial and Mont St Quentin It was a full 10 hour day, and everybody coped really well with the dense and often intense constant stream of information. Today was a very special day. The soldier, Walter Wright Stanger, we have been following was commemorated in a moving ceremony run by the students. I was very proud of the way they conducted themselves and the service. Walter Wright Stanger served at Gallipoli with the 11th Bn, and on the Western Front with the 48th. He died in his battalion's last action. We visited the field of his death, and his final resting place. The rest of the day was a break from military history, shopping in the local city of Amiens. Poor internet prevented any images last night, but uploads are progressing well tonight! Yesterday we covered the Somme battlefields of 1917. including Bullecourt and Vimy Ridge. We had freezing temperatures and torrential rain to begin the day, and unfortunately it cut our time short at the railway cutting at Bullecourt. The students went underground into the chalk tunnels of the Canadian sector. We had three planned presentations today by Bella, Sharon and Lucy as well as an impromptu appraisal of the life and works of Wilfred Owen by Fletch. The visit to Owen's grave was very special, especially to the English teachers who have taught him year after year for the HSC. The cows came over to listen to the reading of Dulce, and one unfortunately missed it, and he came charging over (pictured below). Another very busy, yet amazing day today. We began at Warlencourt Cemetery for a very detailed introduction into the process of identifying and burying the dead by our historian Pete. Then began our tour of 1916, starting at Pozieres. Australian ran up a total of 23,000 casualties here in a matter of months. No other battlefield on Earth is more densely sown with our dead. We stood on the "high ground" on the ridge, a pimple in the landscape upon which the ruins of an old windmill stands. Other highlights from the day include Thiepval Memorial, Beaumont-Hamel, the beginning of presentations (of which we heard about Frederick Septimus Kelly from me, Raymond Cecil Heaton from Rhiannon, Claude Castleton from Brodie and a very moving performance from Jenna, Liv and Lucy), finishing with the Gibraltar Blockhouse and the First Division Memorial. The Battle of Verdun, Fort Douaumont, the Douaumont Ossuary and the lost village of Fleury. Today we opened our battlefield experience at the Great French battle of Verdun. No Australians fought here, but this conflict was instrumental in the planning of the Battle of the Somme. Overall, the battle of the Verdun lasted for nearly 10 months, the longest of the Great War and cost France 379,000 casualties, of which 169,000 died. The German cost was equally as staggering, 339,000 casualties and 143,000 dead. Germany's intentions were never to break through here, they were content to sit back and kill Frenchman, in fact to bleed France white. It just didn't turn out that way. Up to 60 million shells were fired during the 10 months, that's 2.3 every second. Remains of unknown soldiers are found constantly, their remains are kept in a local monument and ossuary. The cemetery has in excess of 16,000 known French graves, and countless bits of soldiers from both sides stored beneath the monument (pictured below). Parisian Sightseeing. We covered a lot of ground in our first two days: The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, Sacre Cour and Les Invalides (amongst others). The students were wonderfully engaged throughout the entire orientation period, and we mostly have escaped any severe jetlag. |
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