100 yrs later, living with the remains of a catastrophic war

[The Annoyed Man]

I found this while perusing a post in the Firearm Blog.

There are still areas of France corresponding to the trench lines at Verdun and other areas that are so thoroughly contaminated with chemicals, unexploded gas and conventional munitions, and human and animal remains that they have been more or less permanently forbidden to entry. Entire villages were condemned and emptied and the people relocated while their towns were left to disintegrate over time. The surrounding areas, originally adding up to around 1,200 square Km have been gradually cleaned up and restored to use and habitation, but the "Zones Rouges", corresponding to an area of roughly 100 Km square, are so bad that it is estimated that finding and disposing of the unexploded ordnance alone will take 300-700 years; while in those same areas, the toxic levels of arsenic, chlorine, lead, and other poisons in the soil and water will take 10,000 years to drop to levels low enough for safe human habitation and land use. And in a somewhat frightening twist, the worst contamination wasn't even found until 2004, in an area that was routinely used by hunters all that time.

Even now, nearly a century later, French and Belgian farmers routinely uncover unexploded ordnance, and there are even designated roadside dumping spots where the farmers can drop off munitions they've uncovered, for pickup by the "Department du Deminage" (De-Mining Department). Every year, even today, farmers occasionally get injured and their tractors destroyed after plowing into unseen live ordnance lying buried just underneath the topsoil.

The rest of the article here: http://www.messynessychic.com/2015/05/2 ... ed-by-war/.

Fascinating stuff.

[Abraham]

Terrifying stuff too.

[ShootDontTalk]

Interesting. I visited the photographers website too. He has a few more pictures. My grandfather was over there. He lived through several mustard gas attacks. With patience, you can see some of the areas using Google Earth.

If you like such articles, you might like this one:

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Click on the link about halfway down the page to see Elena revisits Chernobyl. Eerie stuff. The site won't be completely safe for 48,000 years. Fascinating to take a Google Earth visit there.

[The Annoyed Man]

I am half-French and hold dual citizenship, and I've lived and vacationed there. My mother was born and raised in what was at the time French North Africa, and she survived the German occupation, and being reduced to eating pets and rodents as her city was bombed and seller by retreating Germans on on side, and advancing Allies on the other. It changed her for life in a fairly sad way. She has had a very good life post-war, but even today, as a very wealthy woman living in fairly luxurious retirement, she can never have enough money to feel secure.

It goes without saying that the death and destruction visited upon Europe in WW2 was devastating and unprecedented; but as an environmental catastrophe of war, nothing touches WW1 — not even the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which today are quite livable.

[ShootDontTalk]

Speaking of Google Earth and eerie places to visit: go to 37 10 48 N and 116 2 43 W. Fly around the area and note all the circular markings in the desert and the craters. Figure out what they are?

Sorry, didn't mean to draw this off topic. I enjoy looking at the Pacific islands from WWII with Google Earth. Amazing what you can see with a little research.

Hint: really big bombs.

TAM I know you've thought of this, but get her to sit down and recount everything she remembers for a recording. I did that with my father and donated a copy to the CAF Museum. So thankful your mother survived a terrible experience.

[ShootDontTalk]

Since history is such a forgotten and twisted study in today's schools, maybe we need a sticky with links to interesting historical places to visit using the Internet?

[baldeagle]

This is the sort of thing that should make world leaders think long and hard about getting into wars. I know they are sometimes unavoidable, due to the fallen nature of man, but the consequences can be devastating for a very long time.

[jimlongley]

My grandfather was a Lt. Col. in charge of bringing in water and hauling out sewage during WWI and had no tales of the war, but after the war he stayed on for quite a while, a couple of his assignments were as CO of a group taking schooling in England, as Engineeing Officer in charge of US troop assigned to finding and removing unexploded ordnance, other stuff. He said the work got to be so "routine" that the soldiers who were doing the work got sloppy and got hurt. He told my father that the worst thing was writing a letter to the family of a soldier who had survived the war only to be killed when someone else got careless.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

During WWII the British mined their beaches, expecting a German attack.
After the war ended it was time to remove all these mines. Many British soldiers
were killed during the removal process of the now-rusty mines.

Speaking of unexploded items, a Rhode Island fishing company had a 55 gallon drum
in their building that was full of unexploded small arms ammo, hand grenades, and artillery
shells. That is because when US ships were returning from Europe they used to dump all these
items overboard while approaching the US mainland. Fishing trawlers scoop up these shells
continually. The fishing company was put on notice that they had to call the US military to get rid
of these shells instead of keeping them in an old barrel.

SIA