First World War battlefield in Verdun still a danger

ITV REPORT ^ | 7 August 2018 at 5:50pm | ITV News Europe Editor James Mates

[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.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“Danger UXB”— one of the greatest tv series ever! You watch the young men meet their rapid demise, see the cat and mouse between the German bomb and fuse designers and the UXB experts, and watch how jaded and old the UXB survivors get very quickly. Highly recommended!

The shocking thing is 1/6 of WW I shells were duds. I had no idea it was that high.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Speaking of Ypres, have you watched the movie “The Wipers Times” (2013)? Great movie!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I just ran 20 million over six years...that is over 9,000 a day. My God.

[9422WMR]

My great uncle was killed at the battle of St. Mihel, 9/1918.
Too bad the archives were destroyed in the warehouse fire in the early 70’s in St Louis.

[virgil]

No, I haven’t seen that movie. I just now looked at a synopsis of it. I’ll make a point to watch it sometime. Thanks.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I really enjoyed it...I think you will too.

[yarddog]

Something which makes one realize just how many families were destroyed is that U.S. Casualties are relatively light for all of our wars since WWI. Yet in my parent’s high school class of maybe 16, one was killed in WWII.

My high school class of around 160 still had one killed in Viet Nam plus I had a first cousin killed. There were four of us who hung out together in High School. One of the 4 was wounded in Viet Nam.

Among my father’s photos, many taken just after the war is one of Berlin High School. It is just a pile of rubble.

[PAR35]

Thanks, interesting.

[PAR35]

The shocking thing is 1/6 of WW I shells were duds. I had no idea it was that high.

Not necessarily duds. The churned up mud was so soupy and deep that the impact force was sometimes not hard enough to cause a detonation.

[Mister Da]

I visited the Verdun memorial & battlefield in 1970, 52+ years after the battle.

On the bus I could smell the mustard. Locals were given 6 month vacations elsewhere because of the mustard. Signs were posted on the road warning people/cars to avoid leaving the road because of the un-exploded ordinance.

The memorial housed the remains of thousands of unidentified soldiers killed in the battle. I could see through a small window thousands of skulls in one room. Other rooms held legs, arms, & torsos. It was morbid.

I remember seeing a row of bayonets protruding from the ground. This was a squad of soldiers who were buried alive by a nearby shell explosion.

A big problem in clearing the ordinance is that the land is essentially wild, with trees & bushes hindering the effort.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks robowombat.

On December 19, 1944, Eisenhower, Tedder, Bradley, Devers, Patton, Bedell Smith, and a handful of key SHAEF staff officers converged on Verdun, the scene of the bloodiest battle in history in 1916. Before departing for Verdun, Patton briefed his staff and two of his corps commanders at Third Army headquarters in Nancy, explaining that Third Army would be called on to come to the relief of First Army; how and where would be decided at Verdun.

December 16, 1944: Ardennes Offensive Begins, An "Abysmal Failure of Allied Intelligence" by Carlo D'Este

[marktwain]

WWI was one of the greatest disasters in Western Civilization.

It was the latent cause of WWII. It destroyed the order of civilization and the respect for the rule of law.

So much that is wrong with the west had its genesis in the aftermath of WWI.

[Dogbert41]

I’ve never been, but one day I’d like to pay my respects!

[minnesota_bound]

Many dead are still there as they were left where they were and covered by the dirt flung up by other shells.
Photos at the time show a moonscape of mud.

[minnesota_bound]

#6 He would have survived if not for all those other exploding 88mm shells.... (support your local sheriff ref)

[crz]

Where the heck was it that a forest started on fire and the unexploded shells started going off?

I believe it was from WW1 shells.

[M1903A1]

Before it became a casualty of World War II, the chapel of the French officers’ academy at St. Cyr had memorial plaques for each year’s graduating class that had subsequently died in service.

The plaque for 1914 simply read “The Class of 1914”.

[M1903A1]

Not that I’ve heard...though they did maintain the Allied cemeteries from the previous war.

[SunkenCiv]

on Pinterest, expended artillery casings?

http://i.pinimg.com/736x/a4/fe/62/a4fe62e187fa1201dc2f0040dbd03740—hospital-jobs-verdun.jpg

[Darksheare]

Trollposter JohnGalt insisted that this isn’t true.
He also insisted that “old” chemical weapons weren’t dangerous.
The old WWI battlefields, now farm fields, often turn up chemical weapons that injure farmers.
“Iron harvest” they call it.
Yes, I’m poking a dead body.
And his echo burkeman1