[Milsurplus] ( OT ) Defuzing the Past

[Wammes]

David Stinson schreef op 22-2-2015 om 1:42:
> A few years back, NPR (IIRC) did a documentary on huge areas of land 
> in France off limits due to hundreds
> of thousands of unexploded shells and mines from *WWI*.
> French teams have been working for decades to clear
> these explosives and they lose people every year.
> French farmers turn-up shells in their fields
> and place then by the side of the road for collection. 

I know that area. I've been exploring some of the battlefields of WWI, 
over the last thirty years. And it is true that every spring and fall, 
when ploughing and harvesting, ordnance is found, both in France and 
Belgium. They call it the iron harvest. But to my knowledge there is no 
such thing as large areas being off limits. There are areas, called 
together "the red zone", where farming is not allowed. However, forest 
industry and tourism is allowed.
Both Belgian and French teams work on removing and processing these 
remnants of the Great War and indeed, people die doing this dangerous 
work. But not on a yearly basis.

Wammes Witkop


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