Yorkshire Trench

[AOK4]

Hello,

I was at Yorkshire Trench yesterday and saw it shows already signs of decay. The sandbags, cemented afterwards, where already decaying and the dry concrete mixture was already falling out.

Sandbags were even during WW1 a very unstable form of making defensive lines. That's why even then they used a mixture of sand and cement in the bags so they quickly turned into concrete after some rain. I myself saw that sandbags are worthless after a few weeks because the bags quickly decay when we were digging at Beecham dugout.

So, I suggest that something should be done at Yorkshire Trench quickly. I suggest using the same kind of sandbags as in the 'Boyau de la Mort' at Diksmuide.

The Germans had during WW1 better (longer lasting) methods of reinforcing trench walls: they mostly used mats of woven twigs.

Jan

[Aurel Sercu]

Jan,

Yesterday we were at Yorkshire Trench too. (After finding remains of 3 soldiers nearby.) And yes, we saw that some sandbags were decaying (or had been deliberately damaged). I counted a dozen or so. Which, of a total of 5000 is not a bad score if I may say so. Besides, we knew that some sandbags had a weak spot, and we had already considered applying some minor repairs before winter.

Aurel Sercu

[AOK4]

Aurel,

I'm glad you're on the case.

We saw a police car in the area and some movement when visiting Yorkshire Trench but we decided to let you and they do their work without us interfering...

Jan

[Aurel Sercu]

That's right, Jan, there was a police car, with regard to the exhumations of the remains of 3 soldiers. They were very fragmentary, one of them very close to the surface, and so almost pulverized. they may have been scattered after the impact of shelling, and / or dumped in a shallow shellhole. They were found near International Trench (a military operation took place there in July 1915 ; between summer 1915 and summer 1917 this area became no man's land, so that the many dozens of remains lying there were scattered by the shelling).

Two were German, one was British. Apart from a few buttons, an aniline pencil, buckles, boots, rifle ammunition, a pipe, ... there were no other relevant material finds. So : no identification, not even the unit.

Aurel Sercu

[Peter Beckett]

Aurel,

was that the bodies you told us (myself and Tom) about when we visited there on Tue 22 July?

Also have included a photo I took on that day for others to share.

Peter

[Aurel Sercu]

Was that the bodies you told us (myself and Tom) about when we visited there on Tue 22 July?

Peter,

Yes, one of them.

About 5 weeks ago we had indeed located what appeared at the time the fragmentary remains of one soldier. But not being able then to continue the exhumation (lack of time) and our contact person with the police not being able to come right away (late afternoon), we had covered the few bones (two thighbones) and decided to ask for the police to be present at a later date. Which happened last Saturday. It was then that we found that just one foot away from that (British) soldier there were the remains of another soldier (German).

Earlier that afternoon, in the lowest part of International Trench, other German remains had been unearthed.

Aurel