Today (Wednesday 22^nd 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 7^th 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