Cdt Wo Zach Faja (OA) was amongst cadets from Dulwich College and Alleyn’s School who embarked on a 50-mile trek across the First World War Western Front to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of war
O ur journey began early at 5am: we were on our way to Dover to catch our ferry to our first destination, which was Ypres, Belgium. Upon arrival, we went to the Flanders Field Museum and then headed to Tynecote Cemetery, which is the largest WWI cemetery for British Service Personnel. To round off the day we headed to the Menin Gate where would take part in the last post ceremony, which occurs every evening at 8pm to honour the fallen. With the ceremony over, we headed to our first campsite, keen on getting a good night’s rest so that we would be ready for the next day of hiking. Our first real day of hiking would be a long one as we would be walking 22 miles from Hill 60 all the way to Pheasant Wood, both locations at which Australians were posted at during the war. Now feeling thoroughly exhausted, we bedded down in preparation for the next day, when we would be hiking our shorter leg of just ten miles. Having risen early yet again, we continued our hike from just outside Pheasant Wood and would be travelling to a location just short of the town of Lens. We covered our ten miles seemingly quickly as we were walking at a brisk pace and soon found ourselves in Lens. This middle night would be one of relative luxury, as instead of finding ourselves in a tent we would be resting in a hotel, which made a welcome change. This was all done in preparation for the next day, which would be our longest hike, measuring around 24 miles. Our incentive for completing this leg was a barbeque that would be hosted by our campsite when we arrived. Before we started our walk, we had a guided tour of Vimy Ridge and the underground tunnels. As we advanced through the French countryside, we were staggered by the sheer number of cemeteries and made it our mission to stop at each one to pay our respects. We marched slowly on and we began to realise how hard the troops must have found doing the same walk 100 years previous while laden with military kit. At long last, we finally arrived at our campsite. Our final day’s walk, measuring a mere eight miles, was not a long one, but it would turn out to be rather tough. As we knew this was the final real day of walking, we pushed hard to reach the end. We soon found ourselves at the overwhelming Thiepval Memorial, which is dedicated to those 72,194 men who were lost during the Battle of the Somme. This was our penultimate stop and we had a few hours to pay our respects there. Then our final leg was underway as we progressed to the end point and, before we knew it, we saw the glint of a white minibus by the Lochnagar Crater. This crater was our endpoint and at 300ft wide and 70ft deep, it really was an awesome sight and a suitable point at which to end. At the crater, we were loaded onto the minibuses and shipped back to Calais and finally to Dulwich. We finished the trip with new insights into the First World War and its human cost; we also felt a great sense of achievement having hiked the same route that many would have 100 years ago. I wish to thank the staff of Dulwich College, but especially our SSI, whose planning ensured the success of this trek.
with great care, which resulted in a perfectly executed First Aid task. After the team task, each member took part in an individual examination that consisted of one casualty suffering from anaphylactic shock and another a broken jaw. All the team members were praised for their professional treatment and attitude in the test. Straight after that, the first aiders rushed to the changing room. We had only 30 minutes left before the most important part of the competition, Drill, took place. We quickly changed into our pristinely pressed uniform and parade shoes; the shine of our shoes captured everyone’s attention in the hanger and we seemed to be the only team that spent inordinate amounts of time on them. We carefully checked each other’s kit to make sure it was flawless before we march, onto the drill ground. The atmosphere was tense, once again, as everyone gathered around the drill square to watch us. Marching on with pride, we were determined to show off how good we were. We halted in front of the Drill Inspectors, who then inspected our uniform. We then moved on to static drill, which we had spent weeks and weeks refining – another perfectly carried out sequence. Before we moved on to marching drills, the examiner pointed out that Jack McHaffie’s shoelaces were undone. We were incredibly impressed by how he remained calm, even in such a high- pressure situation. We then carried on and continue to excel in every single drill movement. By the time we finished the drill, we knew we had done very well and in his comments the examiner noted that he was very impressed by our high standards, praising us for putting in so much effort.
After Drill, we had to move quickly on to our last event, the Command Task. This was a very different test from the rest: rather than being marked on the efforts of the team and the completion of the task overall, marks were awarded for the leader’s effective use of functional approaches to leadership and briefings. The task given to Ben Schlossman consisted of constructing a model of a new microwave antenna for the RAF Telephone Communications System, to scale. The sheer number of limitations meant that the task was very complex. However, Schlossman remained his calm and briefed the team, splitting it into groups, which were each assigned different tasks and roles, which highly improved the effectiveness of everyone. Up to this point, we had completed all our events and we were waiting patiently for the results. After a short while, we were marched onto the drill square and we were ready to receive the results of the 2015 Air Squadron Trophy National Finals. Winners of individual events were announced and Dulwich College won the First Aid and Drill competition, as well as coming second in RAF Knowledge, third in Aircraft Recognition, and second in the Command Task. Although we had won the two most prestigious events in the competition, our scores were not high enough in the others. As a result, we finished second overall. Although it was unfortunate that we were not able to bring back the Air Squadron Trophy, we secured two places in two separate national level competitions. We will represent the whole of CCF (RAF) across the UK to compete in the Joint Services First Aid competition and the Air Cadet Organisation Drill Competition later in the year. We were also invited to the Air Squadron Day in June, which was a prestigious occasion for us to celebrate our success in the competition. We were all very pleased by the dedication and effort everyone had put in, which brought the team to such great success. We would also like to thank SSI Swalwell, 2Lt Faja and Capt Aretz for all their support throughout the planning and execution of the training. ‘The examiner pointed out that Jack McHaffie’s shoelaces were undone. We were incredibly impressed by how he remained calm’
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