I visited some WW1 trenches

Press Packer Susannah had a hands-on history lesson when she visited World War 1 trenches on a recent school trip.

Find out more about how life in the past was bought to life for her...

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"The trip lasted three days. We went by coach and ferry over to Calais, in France where we started the tour.

We went to lots of different places to do with World War 1.

These included sites of graves of men who died in the war, memorial statues and the Menin Gates where thousands of missing soldiers' names are written on the walls.

Then we went to Belgium as this is where most of the famous battles in WW1 took place, such the battle of the Somme.

History expert

I learnt lots of things as we were accompanied by a war history expert who knew lots about World War 1.

One of the most interesting things was the story of the Unknown Soldier which is about the only World War 1 casualty to be buried in England.

A World War One trench in Belgium

Standing by the trenches felt really strange. I had read about the trenches in history books and seen lots of pictures of them, but when you actually see them you realise the sheer scale of them.

As I stood on top of trenches and shell holes I could really imagine the battles and soldiers running wildly around the battlefields.

Dugouts

I also went inside an old World War 1 dugout where soldiers had lived and slept when they weren't in the trenches.

It was basically a big, dark tunnel, and it was really muddy - I can't believe people actually had lived in dugouts like this for months at a time!

My favourite part of the trip was going to the town of Ypres in Belgium where Passchendaele took place.

Susannah visited the Menin Gates memorial

It is the home to the world famous Menin Gates memorial.

Whilst we were there we witnessed a daily ceremony called The Last Post where a song is played on a bugle whilst people place poppy wreaths and messages by a small memorial.

This trip taught me more about what it must have been like for soldiers in the war and what it must be like for the family they left behind.

It really brought home to me the scale of the war and amount of casualties and missing in World War 1."

Susannah, 13, Stoke-on-Trent

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