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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Today's harvest with the diggers in Boezinghe


tammilnad

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I`ve deleted my last post, Kate and I see mcderms is retiring too. I like a man who knows when to cut his losses! Apologies to those we may have bored! Phil B

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1917 communication trench being measured by the official goverment surveyors department. From top to bottom 2.05cm. Notice the trench is very straight for quick movements to and from the front trenchline. This trench connects to the Essex trench which goes into to the Yorkshire trench. This trench is still there but a company has been built on top of it.

This photo was taken in 1998. The width of the A frame is 60 cm.

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Like the photo, do you have any drawings of the section? Or photos of it?

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Oh YES, before I forget - what happened to our Lancs. Fusilier??

Any sign of the report yet?

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[This is a question for the museum in Zonnebeke. Nothing to do with the Diggers.

Ah right you are - so who was promising to put a copy of it up on the forum? I think I may be confused. Or maybe drunk.

Do the Diggers get copies of these reports automatically? Or is it a cap in hand job? Have they got access to a decent library? Just curious - it's all too easy for volunteer based groups to get pushed out of the loop (happened to me). But I'm not bitter. No, just terribly, terribly drunk.

ANYWAY, thanks for seeing if you've any more photos etc, would love to see them

Oh you fool simon, it's another flaming thread entirely isn't it, not this one.....

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Do the Diggers get copies of these reports automatically? Or is it a cap in hand job? Have they got access to a decent library? Just curious - it's all too easy for volunteer based groups to get pushed out of the loop (happened to me). But I'm not bitter. No, just terribly, terribly drunk.

ANYWAY, thanks for seeing if you've any more photos etc, would love to see them.

We are of course informed by the cwgc and the same counts for the Volksbund.

The documentation center and any other archives is freely available to us, this is the same for any individual. I would say that we are pritty happy with the support we receive from all the authorities.

I will of course be pleased to show photo's of what we trying to acheave. But please note that my photo's are snapshots of what happenend that afternoon for all to enjoy, they are not a ducumentation report.

If you are drunk I just hope it is with one of our fine Belgian beers.

Regards, Frans

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This afternoon we continued to clear ammo from the area. The Belgian bomb squad will collect the ammo but won't clear the area. So it is left to us to make the area safe.

Top photo is we think a 15 pounder shell.

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Bottom photo a german boot appeared while looking for ammo.

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After about two hours it is decided to stop at the Boezinge site because the ground is like concrete. Now that the area we want to investigate is we think cleared of ammo we need channels to be dug to be able to get to the trenches.

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We all went to the new area for which Patrick received a licence from the archeological Dept last week. This is the spot about a couple of hundred yards from hell fire corner. We will be coming here in the coming months to try and locate anything of interest before the house building starts. To the right is a small wooded area next to the south ring of Ieper where an English dug out is which was found and uncovered by the diggers when the new road was built around 2001.

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I am stood at the bottom on the old railway bedding looking towards the south ring. Hell fire corner is 100 yards to our left.

The bottom photo show's the entrance to the dug out.

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The inside is still in fairly good condition. The corrugated sheets inside have rotted away. Before the road was built this was much deeper and the part which is under the south ring is filled in.

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This one most people will know is the one very visible from the south ring. The position of this bunker is about 75 yards from the dugout going towards Ieper.

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an interesting new site indeed, although it seems that much of the ground had allready been cleared by the contsructors...

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well, evry time I pass there I see activity, mostly large machines digging. I'm not sure what else has been done, maybe a drainage system has been put in or something. Apparently WW1-debris have allready been dug up by the constructors. We have a clipple from a large church bell in the museum depot now as well, that has been found there! But I figure that the diggers will be working on a patch of land just next to the one where the works are allready going on?

regards,

Bert

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A golden oldy. One of the first photo's of the northern entrance of the yorkshire trench dugout. Behind the entrance you can clearly see the 1917 trench. In the front scratched in the earth the 1915 trench.

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The above photo is a good example why the diggers don't start by removing the top layer. It would have been ok for the left hand side where the 1917 trench is, but if you would have done this on the right hand side of the photo where the 1915 trench is, WW1 would have been thrown out without being noticed.

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Hi Frans,

The idea of removing the top layer is to remove earth that has been disturbed, most cases by ploughing. All objects in there are out of there original context. As I understand, most of the ground in Boezinge was not ploughed very deep, so I think that any archaeologist will not bring a digging machine in to remove a meter of soil just to see the discolourment patterns. I don't see why, in other cases, this coould not be done. I think though, that removing top layer should be done very carefull on a WW1 site even if it was ploughed thoroughly, as it might still contain human remains. Out of their archaeological context, but human remains nevertheless.

There are also survey methods to find out where archaeological patterns are without even removing a bucket of earth.

regards,

Bert

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Guest Simon Bull

I have a paper on this subject in press with the IWM & UCL at the moment.

I hope you will let us all know when it is published - I, for one, would be very interested.

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I think that variety will be the spice of life with WWI sites (or a variety of Spice if you live next to an aftershave factory) - varied geology and pedology, different military contexts, different material remains. So - different techniques for different sites?

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Now for something completely differrent.

Several of these explosive devices were found in the German trenches located at the Sudspitse near Boezinge in 1998. On the photo you see the blocks of explosives which were orriginally packed in cardboard with the text LINDENHOF 1903, LIEF 3-HANAU. 1904 LIEF.13. The size of one of these blocks is 7 X 4 X 3 CM. 27 of these boxes were placed in the wooden box. In the bottom right of the photo you can see the wooden box in which the explosives were placed under the duckboards. These bombs could be detonated electrically from a safe distance.

A similar device was used by the English army but we have not found any of these.

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Forgive my obvious ignorance Frans, so, is this a booby trap type affair then( in a box under the duckboards) or are they landmines or am I misreading your post?

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