French WW I battlefields and effects 100 years later

[BluePig]

In the book, there is one story of a French farmer using 12" shells that were launched from a battleship as fence post to keep his cattle in.
Apparently, there must have been some sort of bombardment from battleships in the Channel that hit that area and had not gone off.
The farmer insisted that they they were the only thing that the cattle could not knock over easily.
The demineurs finally pitched in and bought him new post in exchange for the shells.

The really scary thought is the amount of chemical shells used.
Hitting a mustard gas shell or something worse would not make for a good day.

The Russian front is even worse than France.
The amount of artifacts there is mind blowing.
Do a search for relics dug up there and see some of the videos of tanks and armament found in the bogs.
Digging up whole tanks with the crews still in them.

 

[Hillbilly]

Great article. Thanks for sharing.

 

[indy1919a4]

Just another of 10s of 1000s of reminders of the 1st World War.. The Largest crater in the Western front, the Lochnagagar Mine crater

Lochnagar Crater - The Official Site


And not to get to confident in those things just happening over there, We have one also, near Petersburg Virginia


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Crater

 

[jstory]

Very interesting article, thanks for posting.

 

[actaeon277]

While it's not nearly as vast, or dangerous, there are isolated areas at Kingsbury in Porter County.
Used to test ammo and artillery there if I remember right.

 

[trucker777]

It would be neat to live somewhere with the potential for relic hunting. Slightly dangerous I know, but so what. There are 100's of videos up on YouTube of fellas doing just that, finding all sorts of neat stuff.

 

[trucker777]

While it's not nearly as vast, or dangerous, there are isolated areas at Kingsbury in Porter County.
Used to test ammo and artillery there if I remember right.

Yep, but actually its in LaPorte county. Kingsbury is fun to explore. Went out there a few summers ago with MTN and did just that. We never went past the off limits areas though- off limits because areas may contain hidden/ unexploded and live ordnance. Any relics that may have been there were picked long ago so no relics unfortunately. It's a thrill to walk in the surreal apocalyptic landscape of decaying bunkers from another time and place...

 

[actaeon277]

Yep, Kingsbury is fun to explore. Went out there a few summers ago with MTN and did just that. We never went past the off limits areas though- off limits because areas may contain hidden/ unexploded and live ordnance. Any relics that may have been there were picked long ago so no relics unfortunately.

hidden/ unexploded and live ordnance is what France is dealing with.

 

[trucker777]

In the book, there is one story of a French farmer using 12" shells that were launched from a battleship as fence post to keep his cattle in.
Apparently, there must have been some sort of bombardment from battleships in the Channel that hit that area and had not gone off.
The farmer insisted that they they were the only thing that the cattle could not knock over easily.
The demineurs finally pitched in and bought him new post in exchange for the shells.

The really scary thought is the amount of chemical shells used.
Hitting a mustard gas shell or something worse would not make for a good day.

The Russian front is even worse than France.
The amount of artifacts there is mind blowing.
Do a search for relics dug up there and see some of the videos of tanks and armament found in the bogs.
Digging up whole tanks with the crews still in them.

...tanks with crews still in them. creepy

 

[trucker777]

hidden/ unexploded and live ordnance is what France is dealing with.

Yes I know, I'm just trying to point out that despite the danger there in France and also in other battle sites around the world that it would certainly be a thrill to be able to go relic hunting in some of those areas. There are some who actually do get to explore/dig these sites and you can see their videos up on youtube. As to Kingsbury- theres no point in exploring a closed test firing range. Nothing to see there, just move along unless you have a death wish and/or like upsetting DNR people. (I don't recommend).

 

[actaeon277]

Yes I know, I'm just trying to point out that despite the danger there in France and also in other battle sites around the world that it would certainly be a thrill to be able to go relic hunting in some of those areas. There are some who actually do get to explore/dig these sites and you can see their videos up on youtube. As to Kingsbury- theres no point in exploring a closed test firing range. Nothing to see there, just move along unless you have a death wish and/or like upsetting DNR people. (I don't recommend).

Both sound good.

 

[trucker777]

O_o

 

[BluePig]

In Vietnam, they are digging up all the old US bases for scrap metal.
They are selling the scrap back to China because the purity of the metal is much better than the typical scrap metal found.
Better purity means less energy and time to reprocess.