The sheer quantity of unexploded ordnance in parts of Europe creates  a 
sort of indifference. I remember the shock of seeing for the first time 
piles of unexploded shells left by the roadside in Belgium by farmers 
for the bomb disposal people to collect and take to be stockpiled. They 
now seem to have bins - not that they would help if one exploded. When 
new pastures are ploughed the tractors are followed by collectors of 
militaria. Not a safe hobby though. I think about 20 French farmers died 
one year alone in the 70s from exploding old shells and they kept the 
figures secret after that. My wife used to run a military museum and I 
remember her noting in a Belgium museum that we were treading on 
gunpowder leaking from live ordnance and that if this was the UK the 
authorities would evacuate everyone for miles around and blow all the 
stuff up on the nearest army firing range.
Military archaeologists may be interested in the web site in English as 
well as Dutch of the Association for World War Archaeology - the 
Belgians are at last bringing  in professional  archaeologists to work 
alongside the amateurs on WWI archaeology after much controversy in the 
international press. http://www.a-w-a.be/



paul courtney
leicester
Uk


geoff carver wrote:

>yeah, but you guys don't come to clean it up in holes out here in europe: the local boys do that!
>
>"Tim Thompson" <[log in to unmask]> schrieb:
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>>This is why the Department of Defense remains liable for for its "unexploded
>>ordnance" with no time or location limit.
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