Last month I put together the itinerary for my annual school trip to the Somme and Ypres in May and the uptake by the students has been great as I've now got 77 of them coming along as well as 10 other staff to help herd them about As well as the 'usual' locations (if they can be called that) of Ypres, Passchedaele, Tyne Cot Cemetery, Menin Gate, Lochnagar, Albert, etc I've also included Cappy (the first tank VS tank battle) and the site of the Red Barons crash at Morlancourt Ridge.
I'll be making a workbook explaining what happened on that day and the various claims made by those that reckon they shot him down including maps of the flight paths of May, Brown and Von Richthofen, locations of the AA guns, post mortem details of the bullet wounds etc and will be getting the coach to park on the opposite side of the road from the crash site (hopefully near the chimney) but am wondering if anyone can tell me just how much the students will be able to see and figure out what happened? Will the ridge be clearly visible from our parking site? Is it easy to try to picture what happened etc?
I want the students to get the most out of this and sort of undertake a 'crime scene' investigation using printouts of photos etc I supply when we're there. I've also been gathering and reading several books on the subject to help me make the workbook including the Red Barons Last Flight, The Red Baron - the life and death of an ace, Airfields and Airmen of the Somme so I can get fully up to speed with the subject, but could really do with an idea of how much they can actually interact with the location when we're there.
Any help would really be appreciated!
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