In
2004, school pupils from Queensbury in Bradford went on a special
visit to Normandy to remember those that lost their lives on
D-Day. As Remembrance Day drew near they told us us what they'd
seen and thought - 60 years on.
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POPPIES
Scarlet
poppies grow naturally in conditions of disturbed earth.
The significance of the poppy as a lasting memorial symbol
to the fallen was realised by the Canadian surgeon John McCrae
in his poem In Flanders Fields.
The poppy quickly became a lasting memorial to those who died
in the First World War and later conflicts.
One
pupil standing on the beach recalls what it must have been like:
"The sea was like blood". Another pupil says it reminded
him of a film he saw: "It was like Saving Private Ryan."
Before they went to Normandy the school pupils' expectations of
what they would see didn't match the reality. One pupil says: "I
thought on the beach there would be loads of boats that were neat
and preserved but there weren't."
Mulberry
Harbours in Normandy.
Instead
when they got to Normandy they saw "big concrete blocks all
organised in a line" and "tank-type" objects that
they could look into.
The
schoolchildren were shocked with just how many people died in the
D-Day landings and how young the soldiers were. When they walked
around the American cemetery one pupil called it "depressing"
and another said there was a "bad atmosphere".
The scale of the memorial struck all the pupils from Queensbury
school. As well as the 10,000 headstones, there is a list of 1,500
names on a big monument at the top of the graveyard in Arromanches.
One pupil saw a time capsule, filled with newspapers and other artefacts
about D-Day, which is planned to be dug up in 2044.
The pupils noticed the German cemetery was different to that of
the Americans. One says: "It was all dark". Another says:
"They were buried differently - they put two to a grave because
they thought they might be lonely." One other pupil adds: "The
families and the French people still respect it. Most didn't want
to be in the war. It wasn't their choice."
Memorial
in Arromanches
The
message outside the German graveyard: 'War graves are a great communicator
of peace', hit home with the young students. One says: "It's
quite sad that so many people have to die before they realise how
bad it is." One other pupil has a bleak outlook for future
generations though: "No matter how many people die there are
still going to be wars."
The Queensbury school pupils had a museum tour and were surprised
with what they learnt. One school pupil says: "They had special
roads across the water for all the jeeps. It took two years to plan
but was built in two days." Another pupil says: "They
had balloons in the sky that planes would fly into and crash."
The visit to Normandy has opened the eyes of the children from Bradford.
They only knew about D-Day from what they were taught in school
and saw on TV but they say that earlier this year being on the beaches
and seeing the acres of graves has educated them more than any text
book or documentary.
Â鶹Éç Bradford and West Yorkshire
National Museum of Photography,
Film and Television,
Bradford
BD1 1NQ
(+44) 01274 841051 bradford@bbc.co.uk westyorkshire@bbc.co.uk
