Wednesday 28 June 2017

Battlefields by Bike Day 2

Today we visited Tyne Cot, the largest war cemetery ever built and found two names of latymerians that were commemorated there. We visited a German pill box and found a piece of german shrapnel: we knew it was german because it was iron not lead and were able to work this out because it repelled a magnet. As we cycled on we saw a live artillery round that had been left in a telephone mast by local farmers, for the bomb squad to come and defuse.

We also visited sanctuary wood, which was a small hill where the British had dug a support line that had been preserved ever since the war. We were able to explore tunnels leading from it to a small crater which would have been where the two trenches met. There was also a museum attached where we were able to compare German mortars to British mortars, the British mortars was duly intact so we got to see it's 'toffee apple' shape. 

Overall we cycled roughly 30 miles, and thankfully the weather stayed sunny! 


                                      Hearing the story of Jack Hunter, who was eventually found
many years after being lost. 

Trench warfare

Comparing German and British shrapnel 

Mile number 24!

Holding on for dear life!

Cycling in the sun. 

Walking through the 11,900 graves at Tyne Cot.