So many bones, what to do with them all?
Posted on 08/07/2018 4:43:59 PM PDT by robowombat
First World War battlefield in Verdun still a danger with thousands of exploded shells 100 years on
Nearly 100 years since the end of the First World War and there are still areas of France unsafe to be visited because of unexploded shells.
Some 300,000 soldiers were killed in the Battle of Verdun between France and Germany from February to December 1916.
During the onslaught, around six million shells - including many containing mustard gas - were fired by the opposing sides. One million of those failed to explode. Dozens of unexploded shells are unearthed every day.
At the end of The Great War, France bought the battlefield land from villagers and designated it a "red zone", and since then it has been inaccessible to the public.
For years, bomb disposal experts have slowly been removing the ordinances, finding dozens of shells a day, but experts fear the work may yet require another century to be completed.
The Battle of Verdun cost 300,000 lives. The land on which Verdun was fought was originally agricultural land, fields upon fields.
But except for shell removal squads, nobody has set foot there since the war's end, and the area now resembles a forest.
Pierre Moreno, one of the bomb experts, told ITV News he thinks it will take years to clear the land.
"There are still tonnes and tonnes," he said.
"There will be decades, centuries, of work for us, because the ammunition is buried and every year it is rising naturally to the surface."
Experts believe it may take another 100 years to clear the forest. This year alone, some 500 tonnes of shells have been removed from the ground, and are currently being stored until they are disposed of by way of controlled explosion.
Experts fear that the land make never be able to be used again - certainly not for agricultural purposes.
While those who died in the Battle of Verdun are remembered 100 years on, the legacy it inflicted upon the land on which it was fought continues to be felt too.
So many bones, what to do with them all?
There’s a lot of disparaging of French courage on this site, but if you read anything about WWI - crazy brave!
The chapel there is amazing.
Someone here on FR mentioned that the Russians averaged losing 5000 men a day for the entire war in WWII.
I didn’t believe it until I ran the numbers. It was true!
The battle plan for Verdun was to bleed the Allies...but it turned into an accelerating quagmire for both sides.
Well said. The French army was also the rear guard so the British could retreat to then evacuate from Dunkirk.
I read that there are at least a couple of unexploded ‘mines’ containing many tons of explosives that have not yet been found. Their locations were lost decades ago.
USSR military dead 8,668,000 to 11,400,000
USSR civilian dead due to war 4,500,000 to 10,000,000
USSR civilian dead due to famine and disease 8,000,000 to 9,000,000
Total USSR dead in WW2 20,000,000 to 27,000,000
Russian dead in WW 1 was still high but nothing like WW2
2,840,000 to
3,394,369
“I believe that had something to do with his being so careful in WWII.”
Getting shot will do that to a person.
L
Thank you!
Historically the French soldier is excellent!
Unfortunately in modern times they’re usually betrayed by their political leadership. The French Army was often given inferior equipment, indifferent support and put into impossible situations (Thinking Dien Bin Phu!).
Then there were the hundreds (perhaps thousands - no one cared about the civilians) of casualties from US mustard gas in World War II.
My Great Uncle was gassed in WWI.
He was very popular with the girls as he had a pension and this was a poor area.
Farmer’s plows have been known to hit and set off unexploded ordnance resulting in horrific injuries and/or death.
The Great War, overall, killed nearly 10,000 men a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, for over four years.
More than a few bones. Almost every week French farmers, bring boxes of bones found in their fields to Fort Douaumont at Verdun. Here a French Army pathologist determines if the bones are human. If they are, the bones are turned over to a French Army Chaplain. He takes the bones to the Ossuary. There the bones are placed among the bones of, by some estimates, 130,000 men. This has been going on since the ossuary was dedicated in 1937.
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