Orion magazine had a short and yet staggering piece last month on the unexploded shells in France leftover from the Battle of Verdun - the WWI Battle of Verdun. Here's a bit:
British, French, American, and German armies fired approximately 720 million shells and mortar bombs on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918. Military experts estimate that as many as one in five rounds of ammunition fired by either side failed to explode. As a direct result of land contamination by unexploded ordinance, 16 million acres of France were cordoned o= at the end of 1918, including the 2 million acres around Verdun. Known as the Zone Rouge, they remain forbidden territory to this day. The Département du Déminage was created after the end of the Second World War to find, remove, and destroy shells and bombs from both wars. This activity has cost the department 630 démineurs to date, all killed while clearing unexploded munitions. At the current rate of clearance it is a conservative estimate that the Département du Déminage will still be finding these weapons nine hundred years from now.
The brave men who clear these shells (the "demineurs") have a job largely overlooked by the public - certainly by those outside of France who likely have no clue that the First World War is still so much with us. I strongly urge you to read this piece, it will only take a few minutes and the ending is one of the more eloquent and shocking things I have read in a long time. It quite took my breath away.
May 21
2009
12:01 AM
Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable! Most people are totally unaware (like I was) that there is so much UXB material still in French rouge zones that no-one is allowed in.
Why has there never been any TV programmes on this subject?!
Totally agree with you. Breath-taking!