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World War One was supposed to be over by Christmas 1914.  But, it became on of the deadliest and most destructive wars the world has ever seen. 

When people talk about war, we often hear about the battles … and the numbers.  For example, around sixty millions soldiers served in World War One, and around nine million of them died. 

Nobody knows how many served or died - the scale of was was just so massive.  But what matters is that behind every one of those numbers was a person. 

On Sunday 1st June 2025, 38 Senior students formed together as 4th Beeslack Pals Battalion, and were joined by Kat Brogan from Mercat International, to the Battlefields of Belgium and France to here and see some of those stories.

Reading this article nobody will truly understand what out students eexperience - unless you have been their yourself.  In this article we've shared some of our Pals reflections of the experience. 

In Messine Church we heard about the Peace Bells that make up the carillon at the top of the church.

The bells showed me how all countries are united and come together when in need to help one another.  We all share the same blood at the end of the day. 

We visited Sanctuary Wood and heard about life in the trenches. 

I can’t imagine what it would be like to see all your friends and comrades suffering and maybe evening dying beside you. 

The conditions in the trenches were horrible it would have made the weight of war even worse. 

Hearing the stories of the conditions gave me a new view of the trenches. 

At Newfoundland Park we followed in the footsteps of the 1st Royal Newfoundland Regiment.  Kat’s storytelling was incredible and brought the events 1st July 1916 to life.  

I couldn't picture the soldiers walking across the land and how scared they must have been.  I felt a sort of connection to the land and how devastating this was. 

It was also here that our Pals stepped into their first War Cemetery.

The cemetery was heartbreaking as there were so many young nameless men in there. 

Hearing how the soldiers died was heartbreaking and then seeing the graves made it all more real. 

Thiepval is one of the most impressive and moving memorials on the Western front.  It commemorates the names of 72 000 British soldiers who have no known grave - the ‘missing’ of the Somme. 

Everyone knows that a lot of people died in the war.  But standing among the names of 70 000 soldiers who just disappeared from the Earth.  It will change how I view the war forever. 

I felt sympathy for the soldiers family as they has hoped that their relative would one day come home and were not dead.  These families never got closure. 

Today I properly realised that although all soldiers dying is a tragedy, it was an absolutely heartbreaking and life changing to those who knew and love them. 

 We visited Dartmoor Cemetery and Essex Farm Cemetery.  These are just two of the hundred of War Cemeteries that are Belgium & France.  In each cemetery we were introduced to a number of soldiers. 

One of these was John Sweeney was a Private in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.  He served in Gallipoli, and as a result suffered from ‘war nerves’ … now know to be PTSD.  He was deployed to the Somme and then went AWOL.  He was arrested, and sentenced ‘to suffer death by being shot’

I felt that it was insane to kill people for just being scared to go and die within a war in a foreign field and for Joe this was overhauled the world away from his home in Australia. 

Poelcappelle cemetery sits just outside the town of Ypres.  When the bodies were collected after the war and they were to be buried, the soldiers couldn't always be identified for a number of reasons, so for unidentified soldiers these words are seen on their grave “A soldier of the great war … Known unto god.” 

There are over 7000 soldiers buried at Poelcappelle, over 90% are unidentified. 

We stood by a grave and did what no one had ever done to these soldiers before ... visited them.  We gave them an identity, a name, a backstory, a personality.  We will never truly know who these soldiers are but by giving them that identity we have something to remember them by.

One of the most powerful places we visited was Langemarck Cemetery - one of only four German cemeteries in Belgium from World War 1.

I felt sorry for the German buried there, as there was 

45 000 German soldiers there and it was extremely small. 

The massive grave with 25 000 Germans inde left me speechless and shaken. 

Learning more about how Germans felt about the war gave me a different understanding to what they were like.  They were just following ordered.

Knowing there was so many bodies was very surreal. 

Its sad that they weren’t given lots of space to bury their people simply because they lost. 

To end our Battlefields Experience we participated in the Menin Gate Last Post Ceremony and held our own Private Ceremony. 

It was just us and the soldiers. 

Standing in the pouring rain, just thinking about how many died! Who? Why? Where? 

Emotional as we all remember what the soldiers gave up to allow everyone to live the life they do today. 

At our Private Ceremony we left behind our message as 4th Beeslack Pals …

Whether know to man or God, 

Your sacrifice unites us in remembrance.

May you rest in eternal peace, 

and may war never touch these fields again. 

The Battlefields Experience is a life-defining experience.  When leaving on the Sunday our Pals knew they’d see cemeteries, trenches and memorials - but they didn’t truly understand what they’d see. 

On returning on the Friday they understand why remembrance matters so much and why we should all live our lives to the fullest.  

This will never cease to be the most valuable experience of my life.  I feel so honoured to be part of it and make a different however small. 

Our generation is living, gaining new experience because of what these soldiers have done. 

I have received something no money could every buy.  Something I can’t hold. Something no man or weapon could kill.  Memories. And I will treasure them forever.