SYMMES TOWNSHIP — Students at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy took a step back in time Thursday when they re-enacted World War II's Battle of the Bulge on a hot, sunny field outside their middle school.

        The 200 seventh- and eighth-graders have studied the battle in their American History and World History classes. They spent the last three weeks creating tanks and airplanes from cardboard, cannons from plastic pipe and “ammunition” from paper and socks.

Seventh-graders Bryant Edwards, Annie Nicholson and Katie Mickey gather in their German tanks. (Michael Snyder photos) | ZOOM |

        Eager students dressed in camouflage clothes assembled on the battlefield, where large boxes were labeled to represent cities.

        Namur. Echternach. Bastogne.

        “Do we go over there and try to take over the place I can't pronounce?” one girl asked her teacher.

        The re-enactment was the brainchild of social studies teachers Kris Gilbert, who staged Civil War re-enactments as a hobby when he taught in Cleveland, Tenn., and Steve McCollum.

        “I love hands-on stuff,” Mr. McCollum said. “Anything we can do to bring history to life will be more memorable for kids.”

        As the battle raged, makeshift bullets, grenades and bombs flew among students, who were divided into American and German troops. The Germans' goal was to reach Brussels and Antwerp.

        Medics carried the wounded off the field on stretchers. Anyone who got hit or “died” had to spend five minutes in the “American Red Cross” tent.

        “We don't want to glorify war,” Mr. McCollum said. “That five minutes in a tent would have meant you lost your life or would have an injury that would have affected you for the rest of your life. It will help them appreciate what our troops in Afghanistan are doing right now.”

        Students flocked to the tent, illustrating how quickly casualties can mount.

Seventh-graders Christina Karam (left) and Grace Bertsch carry a wounded soldier. | ZOOM |

        “Dead again,” said Matt Chapman, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Fairfield. It was his second trip to the tent.

        Christina Karam of Symmes Township and Grace Bertsch of Montgomery, two 13-year-old seventh-graders, were medics who carried casualties from the field.

        “It's taught me a lot about what nurses went through,” Grace said. “There weren't a lot of supplies.”

        The first part of the battle was fought as it occurred, but during the second half of the re-enactment, students attempted to rewrite history and change the outcome.

        The Battle of the Bulge, won by the Allies, was a turning point in the war, Mr. McCollum reminded students. A different outcome would have meant a different world.

        Eighth-grader Laura Seelaus, 14, was assigned to the U.S. troops. She could see the parallel between the re-enactment and the actual battle.

        “It's really chaotic, and it's easy to get confused,” the Sharonville teen said. “It makes me think about how hard everybody is working to protect our country.”

        At the end of the battle, the field was littered with paper and socks.

        “Look at all the destruction you just caused,” Mr. Gilbert told the students. “In real life, for every paper that was on the field, you'd be looking at a friend who isn't coming home.”
       

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