Ground penetrating radar - exploratory digs. Belgium

[1st AIF]

1. Does anyone have any idea if there are any restrictions on doing Ground Penetrating Radar sweeps on private or public property in Belgium?

On another subject

2. If a body is accidentally found by a farmer or contractor as is usually the case, is the sequence of events as follows? :

• Call the police who determine whether it is WW1 and what nationality
• The police notify the embassy of the country involved or do they notify the CWGC first?
• The police excavate the remains and hand them over to the CWGC. But sometimes they let local archaeologists do the excavation. Do the CWGC ever do individual excavations?
• The CWGC then decide what course of action to do regarding the identification and burial of the remains.
• The farmer typically gets no recognition or reward from the nation concerned for giving up his time and property.

4. What is the situation if a farmer suspects the whereabouts of remains on his property and wants someone to do an exploratory dig? I can't imagine the police or CWGC would be interested in this.

Len

[Richard Osgood]

Hello Len,

can only respond from my experience in Belgium. You have much correct:

• stop work
• go to the police who will then come to visit and ensure that the remains are WW1 (not a modern crime). They would inform CWGC (who deal with VDK)
• Police would call the Army who would run the recovery. In our case they let us (NML) do the work as we had full forensic archaeology capacity
• CWGC more concerned with the reburial than the excavations and recoveries as far as I know, though they did assist us with tents to cover site
• ID of remains from a British perspective is the remit of the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (MOD) at Imjin Barracks. The Australian Army and their History Unit would work on the process for the AIF as they did with Fromelles and also the work we did at St Yvon
• I am not aware of official recognitions or awards to farmers - nor indeed of their desire for this. In my esxperience they are invited to any ceremonies at reburials

In terms of suspecting remains on land, permits for surveys (GPR) would be needed I would guess as technically they are metal detectors (we'd need one on protected sites in the UK - A 'section 42 license'). An exploratory dig would need great care and sensitivity, and permissions from the archaeological authorities. Looking for bodies is a very tricky and sensitive thing. Just think Fromelles. CWGC would not want to lead on this I am fairly sure

hope this helps

R

[green_acorn]

Len and Richard,

In the case of Australian Army personnel the function regarding the recovery of missing Australian personnel was moved away from the AAHU two or three years ago to the the office of Unrecovered War Casualties - Army. At the time the Deputy Head of AHU Mr Brian Manns headed up the new office, I haven't spoken to him for a while and am not sure if he is still there.

The best thing would be to contact the office.

Cheers,

Hendo

[nigelcave]

AS regards GPGR it to appears to have its limitations on heavily fought over battlefield sites, if experience (which of course was fully authorised by the relevant organisations) at Vimy is anything to go by. Old fashioned dowsing seemed to be far more effective.

[trajan]

AS regards GPGR it to appears to have its limitations on heavily fought over battlefield sites, if experience (which of course was fully authorised by the relevant organisations) at Vimy is anything to go by. Old fashioned dowsing seemed to be far more effective.

Can't speak for battlefields but it seems to work on Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman churches... See: RN Bailey, E Cambridge, HD Briggs, Dowsing in Church Archaeology 1988: Wimborne

[nigelcave]

The problem is, especially in an area like Vimy, with significant chalk not far below the surface, that the pulverized nature of the ground makes for unsatisfactory (in the case of Vimy, practically useless) readings. I cannot think of one subterranean feature on the Memorial site that was ID'd by the system, even when it was known what was below. This despite the use of a specialist company with all the hi-tech gear of maybe ten years ago.

[1st AIF]

Thank you guys, Richo and Hendo. All the replies are useful and interesting.

Len

[Richard Osgood]

Hendo - thanks for the update on AIF recovery processes; really useful. Peter Masters (cranfield Uni) would be a good contact RE geophysical prospection on WW1 sites - he's tried GPR, mag and resi in UK, Belgium, Poland and France for 20th C conflict sites. Think he posts on here now and again so will point him in this direction. cheers R

[green_acorn]

Richard,

No worries, Brian and his team have done some outstanding work over the years. Brian and his team, along with a veterans group who had spent many years trying to locate PTE David Fisher SASR, MIA in 1969, found him in 2008. From memory the veterans group got a big lead when a former VC/NVA soldier indicated he had buried him next to a creek/river bank. Brians offsider even had a group of mathematics students from the Australian National University determine the probable spot where Fisher landed when he fell 30m from the rope as he was being extracted by Iroquois.

The immediate search that occurred in 69 and another official investigation conducted in 84(?) failed to find him. Another wet season and he would have been washed away forever.

Brian's team were also responsible for locating, in 2009, a missing RAAF Canberra bomber aircrew that had gone missing in Vietnam in 1970.

Both these and other recoveries the UWC-A have made have often been highly complex, in the case of the Canberra having an extremely large search area.

Cheers,

Hendo

[1st AIF]

That is fantastic dedication to achieve those results in Vietnam.

I would like to hear stories of the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of GPR in practical WW1 recovery situations. Eg Nigels post about Vimy Ridge was interesting in that is was not effective.

[nigelcave]

At Vimy the intention was to check for underground workings, for anomalies (such as heavy calibre shells below the surface), etc. As I said, it did not work - I did better with a couple of metal coat-hangers!