Trip to the Gordon Highlanders Museum

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Today our class went on an interesting trip to the Gordon Highlanders Museum. As you know our topic is World War 2. When we got there we watch short film about wold war 2 then we were split into 3 groups. Our leader was called Elsbeth. In our group was Morgan, Ewan S, Stevie, Jasmine, Olivia, Lennon, Katy, Fadimana, Sophie and Me (Finlay).

The first station that I went to was about lots of things through the times starting from the 1700’s. We saw a brilliant picture about the man who started The Gordon highlanders. Soon we moved on to a model building, moreover we saw men in the houses and a completely trashed street. Next we saw lots of medals each one with a different meaning.

Then for the next fifteen minutes we had a break therefore I had Crisps and looked at a few of the models. (WW1 trenches)

On to our next station, Elsbeth gave us some post cards and letters, with the information that there was we had to find a mystery soldier, I enjoyed this part of the trip because it was exciting and interesting to find knew facts about a person who fought in World War 2 for the Gordons. We came back through the corridor to a place which was loved by Lennon. It was a room of guns. There were big guns to small guns, even pistols, beside all the machinery there was loads of drawers full of medals. The man said in the whole of the museum there is round about 10 to 15,000 medals. We went back upstairs for our next station which was going to be …

Our final station was the clothes and who wore them. Ewan was the volunteer to put the clothes on; this was really fun to see. Elsbeth showed us the things the men needed to wear and some things that they needed to take when abroad , she showed us some more guns (they were quite heavy). We wore the clothes, I took the uniform and the boots.

Finally I would just like to say that it was a fantastic trip and that I would come back again.

Thanks Finlay

 

 

Gordon Highlanders Museum

imageimageFirstly we got on a bus and the driver didn’t know where to go so he got us a little lost. Our class went on a trip to the Gordon Highlanders Museum on Wednesday 22nd of June for are topic WW2.We were spilt into 3 different groups and there was 3 different stations. Every group had a leader.Group1 had Elsbeth, Group2 had Lewis which was the group we were in and Group3 had Gordon. Now I am going to tell you about each station and what we did at it.

In our first station we had to find who the mystery soldier was by using details from WW2. Some of the things we had to find out were: his name, rank which is his position in the army, his army number, where he fought, his date of birth etc. This was my favourite by far, I really enjoyed it.

In our second station we looked at some WW2 clothes and weapons. In our group Callum and Abi tried on some WW2 clothing. Callum tried on some clothes that you would wear on a colder because if you wore it on a warm day you would get very sweaty. Abi tried on something that you could wear on a warm day. The rest of us only got to try on war hats and hold guns like a rifle and a Sten machine gun but we also held a mills bomb and the nickname for it was the pineapple bomb. This was Daisy’s favourite because you got to hold guns and bombs and it was interesting.

In our final station we saw a model of a little village that had be bombed by Canadians they call it the battle of Goch. Goch is a massive battle that happened in February 1945. We had to describe what we thought it would feel like if we were one of the people there. We described what he saw, heard, and felt. After that we looked at another battle which was called Thomashof. There was one man who got a DSO his name was Major George Morrison. He got his DSO for encouraging the people who he fought with because so many of them wanted to go home and missing home. Major George Morrison got 7 medals for his bravery. He thought the people he fought with should get his DSO but they said that he should have it instead because he was the one who encouraged them to keep fighting.

Overall the trip was very good and we learnt a lot of things.

By Elise, Daisy and Mairi

Wednesday 22nd June 2016 – Trip to the Gordon Highlanders Museum

image imageToday (Wednesday 22nd June) we went on a trip to the Gordon Highlanders Museum. We got there by bus. Once the bus had arrived, we all entered the Museum, which looked like a Tudor building or was a Tudor building.   When we got in, we went to the “Major Robert Luff Room”, and saw a film about Gordon Highlanders in World War II. It included some veteran Gordon Highlanders talking about their experiences in the war. The film consisted of clips from World War II, whilst a narrator explained what was happening. I learnt a lot from the film and it was interesting to hear what the experience was like from Gordon Highlanders who were there.

We were then split up into 3 groups. We each had our own guide who took us round three workstations. Me and Alex were in different groups, so we both had different guides. Mine was Lewis and his was Gordon. We were given small booklets where we had to write down some of the facts we learnt. The first workstation my group went to was the “Mystery Soldier” station, where, using documents/letters filled out/belonging to the soldier. To get to this station, we struggled to keep up with our guide, racing about endless corridors and rooms. When we finally got to the right place, he told us about some of the displays in the room we were in. The room we were in was the Special Displays room where every year they had a different display, exhibiting things that happened 100 years ago. For example,  this year is 2016, so they are displaying an exhibit on 1916. And next year, it would be 1917, then 1918, then 1919 and so on. We had to find things like their regiment (Gordon Highlanders 7th Battalion), army number (2871513) and their name (Hugh Grey). We all had fun looking through the old letters and forms trying to juice information from them.

Then, we went back to the Major Robert Luff Room and had our break-time. During this time I also had a look at some of the displays in the Robert Luff room. They were interesting things, like old-looking clothes, guns and a model of the trenches. There was even a hidden Dalek in the trenches!

Our next workstation was the clothing and equipment station. Some members from our group had the opportunity to wear some of the clothing. Some of the clothing was then passed round so we could try them on. Then Lewis and Gordon  passed some World War 2 guns around. We could pull the trigger on the guns, although they were deactivated so they just made a clicking sound. We thoroughly enjoyed this experience – although the jackets were extremely itchy!

Our third workstation was the battles station. In this station we learnt about the Battle of Goch  and the Battle of Thomashof. We also looked at some medals, and were able to draw our favourite one. We also did an activity where we looked at a model displayed in the museum, which was of soldiers battling in a small village, and imagined what one of the soldiers were thinking, feeling and hearing. For example, if there was and German soldier climbing up some stairs, he might be feeling scared and hearing gunshots.

We also learnt some interesting facts about these two battles, including where and when the battles took place, and who lead the battle (Major George Morrison, who earned a DSO for his work and bravery).

We, yet again, went back to the Major Robert Luff room and the guides talked about events in Aberdeen celebrating World War II and I. We then left the Museum and went back our bus, where some of the boys near the back of the bus started singing “Wheels on the Bus”.

Then we went back to school and had lunch. Overall it was a great trip, and me and Alex learnt a lot about Gordon Highlanders in the World Wars.

By Espen and Alex T