In Flanders Fields

[NAMVET72]

Very Nice and Very Well Written,

Thank You,

[jmlutz]

That was just surreal, I don't think people today could imagine how up close and personal the fighting is in any war. Mike

[Snipersnest]

Wow, that's incredible. On the same note, the farmers in Gettysburg still come across musket balls when they turn over their fields, and some trees that are cut down still have balls imbedded in them. Thanks for sharing!

[svandamme]

we don't have trees older then 90 years around here...in fact, we have nothing older then 90 years in this area. My house was built in 1923, it was one of the earlier houses in the area. Not the earliest, but still very early.


1914 first troops arrive, thinking they will be home for X-mas


City Square , different angle in 1918



Emergency Barracks errected right after the war, by 1925 they started tearing these down to replace em with real housing



Modern day City center, the house where i grew up would be just on the left of the picture.



There is actually one of the emergency houses from those days, that survived. It has been modified over the years, but now serves as some kind of hotel/studio for rent.



http://www.thuzetje.be/EN/default.htm

Not cheap though.

[Grouse]

fantastic history.

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by m60g

Hey, you live in Ypres, that's where Paschendale was fought. I'm a big military history buff

Technically they called it the Battle of Passchendaele or the Third Battle of Ypres.
But the fighting was mostly away from Ypres, and took many months over a large area.



Boezinge is 3 miles North of Ypres, that's where the started off, the Battle of Pilkem Ridge (area where my house is) was part of the first phase (along with Battle of Messines and others),
then in the second phase they fought in the center of the front , Battle of Menin road and others, 3rd phase whwere the actual 3 Battles of Passchendale




The third Battle of Ypres was one of the first, real modern battles.
Where Airsupport, Tank support, Artillery support were coordinated for effect,
unlike the earlier parts of WW1 where it was basically a case of , everybody go over the top and run to the enemy.
Often ending up shelled by their own artillery if things weren't coordinated right.

The more modern tactics however did not mean they resulted in lesser casualties.
On the contrary, 3 months of fighting.. they estimate at least 240 000 casualties on each side.
That's 2500 men , per day
2 per second

They can't really set an exact number, they can only guestimate.. Many were buried by the shelling after they fell.

[m60g]

Do you all still find a lot of artifacts. Must get kind of scary digging and plowing with all the ordnance that was thrown each way.

[svandamme]

i'm not into digging myself, there's a group called , now get this "the diggers".
These are history buffs but they reeeally like digging.

http://www.mausershooters.org/diggers/ (part in english)

These guys usually have at least somebody around who knows a thing or two about the different types of bombs...The biggest risk is not explosions, shells are not as easy to set off, not even after 90 years in the mud.. but leaking gas shells, that's a whole different story.

Farmers same thing, they often find em while plowing, and they will simply carry em to the side of the field, and stack em up by the road.
If they can lift it, they will move it to the side of the road, if not, it's a big one and they call Dovo..

The military has a base here that has been cleaning up WW1 bombs since forever. They are called Dovo and were established after WW1 for what then was thought a couple of years worth of cleanup.. slight underestimation of the task at hand.

Dovo will patrol the country roads when it's plowing season.. Farmers don't even have to call em up, just stack the ammo by the side of the road, usually by an electric pole..
Dovo anually picks up 150 to 200 ton like this.

These guys have reputation that they will demine ordonance that deminers from other nations won't even go near. Or so i was told by an American.

Dovo has also been active in other places where cleanup is needed, Vietnam, Cambodja, Lebanon and more recently Afghanistan..

They have the biggest Controlled Demolicion Chamber world wide, for disposing (suspected) gas bombs..


regular ordonance , they will blast in open air..

couple of times a week..during summer..They got plenty left to keep going for years and years.

This is their base, the buildings are ammo stocks ,awaiting to be disposed.

http://maps.google.be/maps?q=poelkap...ewest&t=h&z=14