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!
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>"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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