Army Weekend in Belgium (WW1 Battlefield Study) | British Army

*** FILMED MARCH 2022 ***

Time for another battlefield study tour, this time focusing on the First World War in Ypres, Belgium. We had a great weekend learning about the battles fought in and around Ypres and how we could take lessons away from them to help us in war fighting now. Hope you enjoy this video about the trip…

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Foreign hey guys and welcome back to a new YouTube video so this is quite an interesting weekend I’m going to share with you because we are going to Belgium and we are doing another Battlefield study tour this time it’s only over the weekend as it is in Belgium and it is

World War one it’s gonna be pretty exciting I didn’t really have much knowledge on the particular things we’re going to be looking at in this battlefield study so it’s definitely going to be a very insightful trip so yeah I’m really looking forward to it so right now I’ve just packed I’m about to

Leave I’ve got to go to the unit so we can get picked up and get driven down to the tunnel crossing and then go to France we’re driving as well it’s not flying we’re driving from basically London all the way to Belgium so it’s gonna be a long day on this first day

But uh yeah tomorrow I’m actually in Belgium I’m sure we’re gonna do some interesting stuff Thank you I just started in Belgium currently 1 30 in the morning I’m gonna get up to go for a run tomorrow sleep is not on the agenda clearly basically going to bed so we’ll see you tomorrow Thank you Back from our morning run I’ll show the stats here basically we just went for a tour around like the town that we’re at it’s actually really nice and like sweating so much um it felt really cold when we first went out and then I was like okay it got hot so breakfast

And yeah done with the itinerary for today so we had a continental style breakfast before getting on the road and heading to one of the First Commonwealth wargrave commissioned cemeteries of the trip when you entered into the cemetery there were metal posts lining the street and on each one there were notches which

Represented how many lives were lost that day which really set the tone before you entered there were over 10 000 burials in this Cemetery which made it the second largest one in Belgium thank you The second stop was to Messina’s Ridge which hosted a week-long battle in the war which was won by the British it was a really key position because it overlooked the town and allowed the British to launch an attack towards passchendale later on in the war this was then a short walk away from

Huge crater and the museum that was there there was plenty to see in the museum but one of the key things was these scenes showing kit and weaponry of the time which was really interesting to compare the kit we have now with what they used then and also to tangibly see

The era which we were looking at foreign thing of Interest was the cat Badges and regiments display which was interesting to see how they had Amalgamated over time to turn the British army into what it is now so once we looked at Museum we headed to the trenches they had a British trench

And a German style trench and you can see the differences between each one the German style trenches had a lot of wicker wearing contrast the British trenches used a lot of corrugated iron and it really allowed you to put yourselves in the shoes of the soldiers

In World War one as you walk through the trenches and to be able to visualize and understand how the battles were fought then Once we’ve looked around the trenches we went to Vancouver Corner which is a Canadian war memorial after this we went to Hill 60. Hill 60 had tactical significance as it gave the Germans good views into the British lines two of the highlights of Hill 60 are the huge crater that was

Blown by mines which is 30 foot deep and the German pillbox After Hill 60 we headed back into the town of Eep grabbed something to eat and had a general look around we headed to this chocolate shop to get some souvenirs and they had such variety of chocolates there honestly we were literal kids in a candy store and after

This we went to go and check out meningate meningate is a memorial to the missing for the British and Cornwall soldiers who were killed and whose graves are still unknown they have a last post ceremony every evening at 8pm where Bugler’s closed the road off and

Everyone gathers round and you can lay a wreath this ceremony has been happening for almost 100 years with the exception during World War II German occupation as we were laying a wreath that evening we wanted to go and check out meningate and have a look around before the crowds got there So it’s Sunday morning now this is our last day here in Belgium packed up ready to go it’s about 7 40 in the morning just had breakfast last night basically we had dinner then we did the last post and then we all kind of went out into like the town here

Had a drink and then we’re going to be leaving shortly to go do the last few stops on this tour before heading home because obviously it takes about I think six seven hours or something it’s going to be to drive them all the way back to Calais get the the tunnel crossing and

Then all the way back to London and then I’ve also timed it quite well because whilst we’re here um in Belgium they’re doing like a cycling race so the last day or so that we’ve been here there’s just been like so many professional cyclists or people that look professional just sort of

Riding around in like big gaggles so it’s been quite cool to see that but today is like the day of the race so I think in about half an hour an hour it’s gonna like amp up the level of and then of psychos that we’re going to see uh

Which is quite cool to to have that whilst we’re here so yeah other than that we’ll be leaving shortly I’m also just sort of admiring this view from um from our window what a stunning location the fact that this is our room and we literally look out at the men in

Gate like that’s mad Yeah the weather on our last day took a bit of a turn so as you can see there was a lot of fog the first place we went to was a cemetery for the New Zealand efforts before moving on to the Irish peace Park which is a war memorial for

The soldiers of Ireland I really liked looking around this Memorial as I personally have Irish heritage and I really like that the tower itself is made up of stones imported from Ireland and with the design Sun can light up the interior on the 11th day of the 11th month at 11

O’clock there’s also Bonkers of which were a short walk away from the Irish peace Park which we had a look at after visiting the Irish peace Park we went to look at a German Cemetery which really highlighted the differences between how the Germans bury their dead and how we as Commonwealth buried ours

The German sanitary had a very dark Gothic feel to it there was a mass grave of over 24 000 soldiers there and in contrast a lot of the Commonwealth wargraves resembled more of a garden and had a lot of a lighter feel we certainly saw this difference as

After we visited the German Cemetery we had lunch on the way to tynkot which is the largest Commonwealth wargrave cemetery in the world Foreign Cop was the last stop on our tour before making our way back to London It’s back from Belgium back in London at the moment I wanted to hop on and I guess explain the benefits and summarize the trip generally and explain what I got out of it so before I went on this weekend I had such limited knowledge of World War One especially

In Belgium and it was a real I guess eye-opening learning experience to to learn about the particular battles that happened and what we studied about you had to see the kit and see the land and see what happened I think their obvious benefits of going on a battlefield study

Tour you know learning about the particular battles and and just having a deeper knowledge of the history but I think I also took out of it is the fact that it was really nice to go away with a group of people across the Battalion people that I wouldn’t necessarily hang

Out with people that aren’t in my company and to be able to bond with them get to know them was a really really great experience I feel like I’ve made connections within the Battalion that I wouldn’t necessarily have made without going on that trip so I think I’m really

Appreciative of that as well as the history that I’ve gained if you ever get an opportunity to go on a battlefield study tour I definitely recommend that you go I think the initial reception for some people to only hit a battlefield study tall words is what sounds a bit

Boring but you learn so much and they’re not boring they’re quite fun actually and you get to know so many different people it’s definitely nice going I’ve gone on a few now and I’ve Loved everyone that I’ve gone on I think they’ve been really really great so I

Definitely recommend you go on one if you can so I hope you like this video I guess documenting the process of this particular Battlefield 3 tour from the first world war and I hope you find it interesting I’ll see you guys in the next video I will see you guys next time bye