Battlefield Tour 2018

On the 5th of October, the two buses carrying Military Preparation College Learners from Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil, Bangor, Wrexham and Liverpool departed early-morning for Folkstone to board the Eurotunnel. On arrival in Calais in the late afternoon, MPCT Staff ensured a swift check-in to the Poppies Hotel Albert from which the party departed for dinner.

Learners and Staff departed by 8 a.m. on the 5th of October for the first stop, Mametz Wood and Sheffield Memorial Park. Learners were split into two groups and their itineraries arranged accordingly ensuring that all Learners would see all sites.

Mametz Wood provided the Learners with rich military historical knowledge, and features a Welsh Dragon statue commemorating an engagement of the 38th Welsh Division of the British Army during the First Battle of the Somme in France in 1916 (Pictured). 3993 welsh soldiers were killed, missing or injured. The Sheffield Memorial Park educated Learners the men of the British Army’s 31st Division who served with the Pals Battalions also in The Somme. Of the 12 battalions in the 31st Division, all but two were recruited from Yorkshire, one of these being from Durham and the other from Lancashire.