Mustard gas blisters and a daily risk of death: Bravery of soldiers still clearing the 'iron harvest' of World War I shells from beneath Flanders' fields
Via WiscoDave
Belgian DOVO army squad collects and destroys mines and shells still active after a century
Fields littered with tens of thousands of unexploded shells, some with deadly chemical weapons like mustard gas
Work to clear as many mines as possible for events marking 100th anniversary of World War I next year
In 2012 160 tonnes of munitions unearthed from under Ypres, including bullets, stick grenades, naval gun shellsThe Duke of Edinburgh will represent
the Queen and his country on Armistice Day tomorrow at what will signal
the beginning of a year of extraordinary remembrance and commemoration
ahead of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War One.
He
will be in Ypres in Belgium - 'Wipers' to the legions of men who
suffered and died in the cauldron of the infamous salient - as thousands
of families across Britain prepare for pilgrimages next year to the
battlefields where their ancestors held the line against the Germans
determined to expel them.
The
guns fell silent long ago. But the tranquil beet, wheat and potato
fields of Flanders still harbour the whizz-bangs, toffee apples, moaning
minnies, Jack Joneses and a terrible plethora of other devices given
jocular names by the troops who suffered grievously under their
downfall.
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