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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Old news report on clearing the battlefields from 1970


ServiceRumDiluted

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This came up on my recommended on YT, its pretty interesting stuff from 1970 about the ad hoc scrap trade in France.  Its in French but the footage is pretty self explanatory. I should warn you that it contains footage of cutting up a gun carriage that some viewers might find distressing....

 

 

https://youtu.be/3kSmIh9iIfg

Edited by ServiceRumDiluted
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Ingeneous way of removing the copper drive bands.

 

Mike.

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Fascinating - as they say, "don't try this at home". I first visited the battlefields in 1969 and there was a lot of scrap lying around including a few gun carriages. More shell craters to be seen then too along with very clear evidence of trench lines in some places.

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On my first trip eastward from Sedan (wot where the grandparents-in-law lived) towards  Verdun in 1980 , we stopped at some fort on the Maginot Line-and there were excavations going on in front of it. Large amounts of exploded small arms ammunition- so Grandpop and I picked up some cases and some heads as well (They were Hotchkiss from where French infantry had screened the fort in 1940) Grandpop-always a handyman suggested tapping some of the heads back in the cases to make it look like an unused round.  He had just secured a case in a vice and was gently tapping the head back into the case when my father-in-law turned up-and advised us to stop. Grandpop asked why and was told (My father-in-law was much more proficient with weapons,a Marine officer in the Algerian War) that the little blue dot on the side of the bullet indicated it was an explosive head and if Grandpop continued tapping, then all might not be well....

    I seem to remember that several French or Belgian civilians are killed each year in ordnance accidents- though the idiots taking drivebands off shells seem to have diminished (or splatted themselves).  The old teachings of the British Army instructors (of the Spike Milligan NCO type) got it right when emphasising  what was "naughty" vis a vis weapons and munitions. 

    A question that I do not know the answer to- perhaps a more Francophile colleague may- How does all this ordnance, tunnels, unexpended ammonal,etc reflect itself in the French property market?  Are there similar checks for,say,subsidence where there old tunnels?  Or is it just glossed over-eg 40 tons of ammonal underground= "potential for extensive garden landscaping", etc

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Love the fags hanging out of so many mouths!

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1 hour ago, Robin Garrett said:

Love the fags hanging out of so many mouths!

 

   It would be typical of the French attitude to administration to insist on notices nowadays- "Defense de Fumer" while still allowing the bashing of live retrieved shells with lump hammers. Its called "Health and Safety" :wub:

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