Iron harvest
The iron harvest (
Unexploded munitions
During World War I, an estimated one tonne of explosives was fired for every square metre of territory on the Western front. As many as one in every four shells fired did not detonate.[2] In the Ypres Salient, an estimated 300 million projectiles that the British and the German forces fired at each other during World War I were duds, and most of them have not been recovered.[citation needed] According to its website, DOVO, the demining unit of the Belgian armed forces, defused more than 200 tons of ammunition in 2019. [3]
Unexploded weapons—in the form of shells, bullets, and grenades—buried themselves on impact or were otherwise quickly swallowed in the mud. As time passes, construction work, field ploughing, and natural processes bring the rusting shells to the surface. Most of the iron harvest is found during the spring planting and autumn ploughing, as the regions of northern France and Flanders are rich agricultural areas.[4] Farmers collect the munitions and place them along the boundaries of fields or other collection points for authorities.[4]
Dangers
Despite their age, unexploded munitions remain very dangerous. The French Département du Déminage (Department of Mine Clearance) recovers about 900 tons of unexploded munitions every year. Since 1946, approximately 630 French ordnance disposal workers have died handling unexploded munitions.
Disposal
In Belgium, munitions and wartime iron harvested by farmers are carefully placed around field edges or in gaps in telegraph poles, where they are regularly collected by the Belgian army for disposal by controlled explosion at a specialist center in Poelkapelle. The depot was built after ocean dumping of shells stopped in 1980. Once extracted by the army, any gas chemicals are burned and destroyed at high temperatures at specialized facilities and the explosives detonated.[10]
See also
- Bomb Harvest
- Zone Rouge
References
- ^ Canada, Anciens Combattants (July 30, 2020). "100 ans plus tard : la construction au Mémorial de Vimy - Anciens Combattants Canada". www.veterans.gc.ca.
- ^ "Legacies of the Great War". BBC News. 3 November 1998. Retrieved 1 November 2005.
- ^ "Onze missie in Belgie: DOVO" (in Dutch). Dienst voor Opruiming en Vernietiging van Ontploffingstuigen (DOVO). Archived from the original on 2021-06-24. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
- ^ ISBN 9780813741161.
- ^ Russell, David O. (December 2004). "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Humankind". The Atlantic. Retrieved 1 November 2005.
Brief overview of the book Aftermath: The Remnants of War, by Donovan Webster (1996).
- ^ "World War I In Photos: A Century Later"
- ^ "WW1 bombs still a serious danger"
- ^ Albright, Richard (2011). Cleanup of Chemical and Explosive Munitions: Location, Identification and Environmental Remediation. Oxford: William Andrew. p. 120.
- ^ "Serious injuries caused by an unexploded mustard gas projectile found in Belgium"
- ^ EOD’s & UXO
Further reading
- Webster, D Aftermath: The Remnants of War Vintage Books 1999. ISBN 0-679-75153-X
External links
- Rob Ruggenberg, The Abomination of Houthulst
- Rob Ruggenberg, Death Waits Patiently on a Belgian Beach
- Photo of the iron harvest
- Another photo of the iron harvest