WW1 BATTLEFIELDS TOUR FOR LOCAL CADETS

The past came powerfully and poignantly to life for teenagers from Northern Ireland recently as they made a pilgrimage to the World War 1 battlefields of Belgium and France. 

A hundred years after the guns fell silent, the local Cadets learned about the unprecedented loss of life in ‘the war to end all wars’.  Accompanied by expert guides, the Cadets toured museums and cemeteries and explored the trench and tunnel systems where so many fought and died, and discovered that many of those who sacrificed their lives were themselves little more than teenagers.

It was an emotional, and occasionally overwhelming, experience for the young visitors, as well as an opportunity to deepen their understanding, as Colonel David McCleery OBE from Army Cadet Force Association Northern Ireland explained.  He said, “Our Cadets learn about World War 1 at school, but nothing quite prepares you for the impact of visiting the region. Our young people were deeply moved by everything they saw and learned during their visit and, in particular, none of us will ever forget the sad sight of landscapes filled with row upon row of carefully-tended military graves. 

“The ‘Great War’ was one of the deadliest conflicts in human history, with 17 million deaths and 20 million wounded.  It is hard to comprehend that scale of devastation, but the Battlefield Tour helped our young people to recognise that there are real people behind those statistics and real stories of fear and courage, survival and sacrifice.

“The Cadet movement is well known for providing its members with fun-filled outdoor adventure, sociability and sport, but there is also a more serious side to what we do, as this tour demonstrates.  The Battlefield Tour was an enriching and maturing experience for our Cadets and I believe they have returned with memories which will stay with them for ever.”

The Cadets visited the Dickens Cross, Ginchy, erected in memory of Major Cedric Charles Dickens, grandson of the famous author.  Major Dickens was killed leading his men into battle near Bouleaux Wood in 1916 and was buried where he fell.  The Dickens family visited the spot after the war and bought the land where ‘Ceddy’ was buried, creating a small memorial garden with a large oak cross as centrepiece.

Pictured paying their respects are, from left, Cadet Lance Corporal Jack Bingham (15), Cadet Lance Corporal Jordan Tucker (16), Cadet Corporal Jani Larmour (15) and Cadet Sergeant Matthew Currie (17).

Lurgan College student, 15-year-old Ben Downey, is pictured at the Newfoundland Memorial Park on the Somme battlefield, close to Beaumont Hamel, paying his personal respects to the fallen. The site is named after the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and is a memorial to all the Newfoundlanders who fought in the First World War, most particularly those who have no known grave.

17-year-olds Lewis Allison and Taylor Devlin are pictured at the Pozieres Memorial which bears the names of 14,657 British and South African soldiers of the Fifth and Fourth British Armies missing or killed in action from March to August 1918 during World War I.

17-year-old Cadet Colour Sergeant Chloe Davison is pictured at the Lochnagar mine crater on the 1916 Somme battlefields in France,  the largest man-made mine crater created in the First World War on the Western Front. It was laid by the British Army’s 179th Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers underneath a German strongpoint called ‘Schwaben Höhe’. The mine was exploded two minutes before 07.30 am Zero Hour at the launch of the British offensive against the German lines on the morning of 1st July 1916.

For Tammie, a student at Our Lady of Lourdes High School, the visit provided the opportunity to pay personal respects at the grave of her Great Great Great Uncle, Rifleman Samuel Gray and to uncover family stories about his war experiences.

She learned about a high-spirited, well-liked and musical young man.  Home on leave from the front, his brother took him to the train station to bid farewell and wish him luck, but Samuel calmly told him he would never see Ballymoney again.  Sadly, that was the case.  The story handed down through the family over the years is that when Samuel and his comrades heard that the Germans were falling back he gleefully jumped up  and started drumming on a small tin box he’d found in the trenches … and was instantly killed by a German sniper