NORTHERN IRELAND CADETS HEAD TO THE SOMME

0530hrs on Sunday 20th March saw 41 cadets and 8 CFAVs and their guide assemble at Belfast City Airport to start Ex SOMME 100 a battlefield study tour to the Somme and Ypres areas organised by ACFA NI. En Route we visited Etaples Military Cemetery, the largest CWGC in France, and by 1700hrs via Gatwick and the Channel Tunnel we were in our accommodation in Albert, France.

Over the next 24 hrs we visited many important historical sites in the Somme area including: the Lochnagar Crater, the Tank Corp Memorial and The Windmill at Pozières, the Dickens Memorial, the Devonshire Trench, the Sunken Road and the Thiepval Memorial. Wreath laying ceremonies and a short remembrance service were conducted at the Ulster Tower and Guillemont both were enriched by the piping of Karen McAleese.

On Tuesday morning we moved to the Ypres area to hear of the battle of Messines where the 36th Ulster Division and the 16th Irish Division fought side by side. We also visited the Pool of Peace at Spanbroekmolen Tyne Cot cemetery and Langmark Cemetery and the Round Tower at the Island of Ireland Peace Park in Messines.

In the evening we paraded inside the Menin Gate where wreaths were laid by Cdt Sgt Sean McDaid and Lt Cdr Leslie King on behalf of the cadets and CFAVs respectively. The highlight of the ceremony was Cdt Pipe Major Karen McAleese of 1 (NI) Bn playing a lament. 

During the trip detours were made so that four of the cadet party were able to visit the graves of their relatives where Padre Jack Moore officiated at brief acts of remembrance. 

(Pictured below is Cadet Corporal Hollie Croft from Clonaver Detachment ACF at the grave of her relative Corporal Robert Albert Croft of 5th Battalion Tank Corps in Hangard Communal Cemetery Extension France.  She is being presented with a copy of the message sent to relatives of the dead soldiers from the King, by Colonel Dave McCleery OBE, Chairman ACFA NI.)

Ex SOMME 100 included cadets and adults from the ACF, CCF, SCC and ATC. Our thanks go to our main sponsors RFCA NI, ACFA and CCFA. Without their financial support this trip would not have been possible.

Finally out thanks and gratitude to Col Derek Smyth OBE, out guide, whose breadth and depth of knowledge astounded us all.