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Started By
Message
The First World War continues to kill
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:15 pm
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:15 pm
LINK
quote:
YPRES, Belgium — An armament from the First World War has exploded at an industrial site in the former Flanders battlegrounds, killing two construction workers and injuring two more.
Johan Lescrauwaert of the Ypres prosecutor’s office said a shell or grenade exploded near the workers. The circumstances were unclear because there was apparently no digging at the site, the usual cause of such accidents, he told VRT network.
Every year battlefields in western Belgium throw up hundreds of armaments from the war; most are destroyed without incident by Belgian army bomb squads.
In a nearby city, the army was completing the destruction of over 800 gas canisters.
The Flanders battlefields cover dozens of cities where allies clashed with German forces for most of the war.
4
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:16 pm to Jim Rockford
Damn.... Nearly 100 years old and it still exploded
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:17 pm to Jim Rockford
That's incredible.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:18 pm to Jim Rockford
I blame the Ottomans.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:18 pm to chesty
What a way to go. That's like a Twilight Zone kind of death.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:19 pm to willymeaux
quote:
Nearly 100 years old and it still exploded
Not sure if built to last...or poorly built to not detonate 100 years ago...
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:19 pm to willymeaux
quote:
Damn.... Nearly 100 years old and it still exploded
yup
they don't make em like they used to
shame about the deaths and injuries. Prayers sent.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:23 pm to hardhead
Read an article on this subject. Belgium has an explosives disposal unit that is cleaning up Ypres and surrounding battle field in preparation for the WWI centennial festivities. Crazy all the stuff these guys find.
Iron Harvest Unit Article
Iron Harvest Unit Article
This post was edited on 3/21/14 at 2:25 pm
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:24 pm to Jim Rockford
I believe it's actually quite common for French farmers to find unexploded munitions in their fields every year. Seems like I also recall a story not long ago about an entire German dugout, still occupied by the soldiers buried there during the war. I'll see if I can find it.
ETA: Here's the story....
German soldiers preserved in World War I shelter discovered after nearly 100 years
ETA: Here's the story....
German soldiers preserved in World War I shelter discovered after nearly 100 years
This post was edited on 3/21/14 at 2:31 pm
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:26 pm to hardhead
damn proximity mines were a bitch in goldeneye
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:27 pm to mkibod1
quote:
cleaning up Ypres
This area was literally a swampy quagmire where the land took on a consistency of thick soup. It was very common for artillery rounds to just bury up in the mush and never detonate. Here's come examples of what it looked like around Ypres....
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:28 pm to AUin02
quote:
Not sure if built to last...or poorly built to not detonate 100 years ago...
Explosives are very stable and have long shelf-lives. Out of the thousands of tons of artillery and grenades used there is going to be a certain percentage of duds or shells that landed in a soft patch of earth that cushioned the detonator enough to keep it from tripping.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 2:33 pm to Darth_Vader
I can't imagine how miserable it was to be a conscript in WWI.
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