WW2 History School Trips, UK

Crack the Code at Bletchley Park

Visit the top secret centre of Allied code-breaking during the WW2 and the birthplace of modern technology where students explore the mansion, museums and famous huts which housed the dedicated code breakers who cracked Enigma and other ciphers. Hear the tales of spies and strategic deception and the major events of WW2 from an enthusiastic learning guide. Highlights include the rare Enigma Machine Abwehr G312, seeing the world’s first modern computer, Colossus, in action and learning about Alan Turing, the father of computing and AI.

© Andrew Curtis and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Direct the Battle of Britain from an underground operations room, London

The underground operations room, where the Battle of Britain was controlled, has been preserved just as Churchill saw it in 1940. Since then, the secret bunker has featured in many films about WW2 and is now the centrepiece of a modern interactive museum where students will hear personal accounts of homeland defence, from the spotters on land, the fighter pilots in the air and the women working in the bunker to plot and chart the RAF’s progress

© Herman V. Wall, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

See where US troops prepared for D-Day, North Devon

Troops were stationed in Devon to prepare for the D-Day landings. The coastline between Northam Burrows and Woolacombe closely resembled the Normandy beaches making it a perfect practice ground to rehearse the beach invasions. Students can uncover the legacy of the US Army activities during World War II including practise pillboxes, replica landing craft made of concrete and blast walls scarred with bullet holes hidden among the dunes.

© Herman V. Wall, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The secret tragedy behind Devon's D-Day training beaches, South Devon

Exercise Tiger was a large scale training operation where US troops rehearsed their amphibious landings on Slapton Sands in readiness for the D-day landings on Utah Beach. But the exercise ended in disaster with the tragic loss of 749 American servicemen and almost delaying the D-day landing operation. Your students will visit the memorial and hear the story of Exercise Tiger which was under the strictest secrecy at the time and hardly reported afterwards.

© https://www.flickr.com/photos/tedandjen/

Explore a WW2 underground city - Ramsgate Tunnels, Kent

Take your students step back in time to unlock the story of a hidden underground city which was home to thousands of Ramsgate citizens during WW2. After the town’s devastation by aerial bombing in 1940, over 300 families took up residence in the tunnels living permanently in the underground city. In addition to guided tours of the tunnels, school groups can visit the museum to see displays showing the town’s part in WW2, through the construction and use of the Tunnels, to their eventual closure, dereliction and re-opening as well as a collection of Home Front memorabilia.

© Dimitris Vetsikas

Holocaust Exhibition & Learning Centre, Huddersfield

The Centre uses stories to help students understand the world and Through Our Eyes is an interactive, multi-media exhibition about 16 young people who survived Nazi persecution across Europe in the 1930s and came to the north of England as refugees and survivors. The Centre also offers interactive learning sessions where students engage with objects, images and documents to help understand Holocaust themes as well as powerful survivor talks for school groups,

© Dimitris Vetsikas

National Holocaust Centre & Museum, Nottinghamshire

Beth Shalom, also named the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, is a well thought out and sensitive Holocaust museum and memorial. Using fascinating artefacts and interactive displays, your students will learn about the Holocaust through the story of a young Jewish boy living in Berlin under the Nazi regime. Set in tranquil grounds, the thought-provoking museum provides specialist educational programmes for both primary and secondary school students.