Weekend in France

[White Room]

Just done a weekend on a war walk on the first world war, the somme, Ypres and pashendale in France. Not everybodys cup of tea but there is a few things that we discovered while walking on farmers fields which have recently been turned over for planting crop and what the farmers find on a regular basis.

This is what we discovered

2 unexploded hand grenades (rusty and glogged with earth but recogniizable
Numeros live and empty rounds (broke the bullet head off from the casing, removed powder and it burnt as fast as it did all them years ago)
And the farmers find unexploded shells, 18 pounders and larger, place them on the side of the road for the French bomb disposal to destroy which we saw plenty of.

A eye opener for any visitor to these battlefields in history

 

[Rob Z]

Even more staggering than the amount of ordnance that continues to show up is the number of soliders that were MIA and remain unfound, unidentified. From what I have read, hundreds of thousands of soldiers were just lost in the battlefields. It is truly horrific and incomprehensible.

I've done a lot of reading about WW1; one of my favorite authors is John Keegan.

 

[White Room]

Your right Rob, What the troops did was bury the dead then shelling would accur and the guys that were laid to rest were then obliterated all over the battle field. One guy did find some bone, really did'nt want to think about it.

Opened my eyes to a war that I did'nt really know a lot about.

 

[Uheat]

I went over there years ago on a school trip and i can still remember now some of the tunnels and trenches still there and the massive cemetaries that we visited. Great to find out about it but like above, mindblowing to think how many died.

 

[White Room]

From what I was told at the weekend, when the last veteran dies there will be a state funeral for him. As one of the old guys was to have said "I hope it's me I love a good party"

 

[doug boardley]

am I right in saying that 60,000 british soldiers were killed on the first day of the Somme?

 

[toffo]

my grandfather fought in the somme at age seventeen 50.000 men were killed in the first day.makes u wonder how anyone survived at all what a waste of life.guess the majority of brits would have someone who fought in this war as u where bereted at the time if u where an objector

 

[White Room]

Killed,injured and missing

 

[Fred]

A freimd of mine is an ex-marine, I met him in the Met Police. He goes out to these areas a few times a year and helps clear the fields when farmers plough their fields.

They reckon it will be tens of years before it is safe.

I am a keen metal detectorer, so is my ex-marine mate. Thats why you can't metal detect in Eastern France............in case you blow yourself up............:yikes:

 

[Rob Z]

From what I have read, the first day of the Somme, the UK lost about 20,000 KIA and almost 40,000 wounded, captured and missing.

 

[doug boardley]

I must have read it as casualties and assumed that it meant killed then, awful waste of youth

 

[theyomper]

Have been researching the family history. One of my Grandfather's brothers went off to the 1st WW and nothing was heard from or of him again. I have recently found out he died in the Somme in 1916, found out which cemetary and the plot that is allocated to him.
War is bad at the best of times, I know I've been in one, but the losses incurred in the 1st WW can never been comprehendable.

 

[peterhouse]

was it a organized trip whitebeam? or just went urself?

 

[White Room]

It was a organised trip mate, the company do war walks all over the world. A mate had been pestering me for a while then decided to give it a try, never seen so many monuments or will ever see so many in any country