Stuff I dug up when building our house

[orbitup]

This thread is going to give any TXARGUY thread a run for it's money!

 

[F350-6]

Thank you for sharing your photos. This is the kind of perspective we don't have over here so we love it when we get to see things from a point of view such as yours.

 

[beachcomber]

Sorry if my answers are coming slow. Running a business during the day, a two year old and a 3 month old during the night takes up most of my time.

Here are more pictures:



I have some more. But I need to find the hard disk where they are stored. I'm withholding the pictures showing the entire bodies for now.

*Edit*: I found out the pics of the bodies were uploaded. I'm not able to remove them. I changed my mind when writing the post, so I 'm sorry if I offend anyone. That was not what I meant to do.

The pics are low in resolution. They were taken in 2002 with the best available tech I could buy then. Which was pretty bad.

There used to be a website of the archaeologists who did the research. I'll try to find it and translate it, it contained a lot of good info.

A bit of context:

Between 1914 and 1918 the western part of Belgium, called the "Westhoek" (western corner), was the theater of some of the fiercest battles of WW1.

If you're interested, read here: Battle of Passchendaele - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The tactics both fractions used were fairly simple: just throw everything you got in a frontal attack against the enemy. Besides having no result at all, it cost the lives of millions of enlisted men.
At some point the Germans used something called "elastic defense". They dug multiple lines of trenches at different depths of the front. When the allies attacked, they retreated one line at the time, inflicting heavy artillery and machine gun fire upon the advancing Allied attackers. At some point, the attack loses momentum and the Allies get stuck in no man's land, without any cover. That's when the German counter-attack, driving the attack back to the Allied trenches and even further, until they get stuck.
And that's how it went on for almost five years.
Between 2000 and 2003 we built a house in what used to be the no man's land, a stretch of land about 3km wide that armies had to cross to attack the other side. More than 1,5 million men died in that sector of the front. Estimates are that about 10% of the corpses were never retreated, left behind when the opposing force took over the area, buried by the millions of artillery shells that were fired day after day.
Which means that even today, remains, bombs, weaponry, dug outs, trenches, ... are found whenever there's a dig for some reason.

I found a lot of guns, rusted and rotten after a century in the mud. Neighbors found a munitions cache in their backyard, filled with gas grenades. We have a specialised army group (DOVO) that is responsible for all munition that is found. At this moment, they have stockpiled about 600 tons of artillery shells that still need to be dismantled. Some are in such a bad shape, that they never will be deactivated, they are stored indefinitely.

I also found an "abris", a sandsack and concrete structure where sodiers (mostly officers) had their quarters on the frontline. In and around it I found this: (links because I can no longer add pictures)

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AP1BjBVVV3rFLdc&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AM7662skvsY0frM&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AJxn82UVo4tK3Ao&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg

This is a rifle type gun. You can still see the slug in the receiver, it has been fired. Probably the last thing the soldier carrying it has done before dying.

I also found some swords. These are officer swords, probably both Allied and German. I suppose they were looted from the opposing side.

I haven't been able to determine which side owned the dug out. It was very well built, which makes me think it was German. They intended to stay and built formidable defenses, whereas the Allied were keen on ousting the Germans as quickly as possible and didn't invest that much into defensive systems. But then again, that's theory.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AJAamOmFmU-IXXc&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AAQOQ2x8dLPhAcM&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!APFcUfbQrQj4XiU&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!APFcUfbQrQj4XiU&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg

I was able to clean the swords quite well. These were officer swords, so made to last. Instead of usin just Iron, more noble metals were used, like nickel, which of course preserves much better.

I also found some really interesting pieces, like this bayonet.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!ADjpS6psJCcVnUE&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg

This is a German bayonet. But it's French.
Let me explain:

Germany and France have fought many, many wars among themselves. Parts of France and Germany have switched hands multiple times, according to who won the last war.

In 1870 the fought this one:
Franco-Prussian War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Germans won.
They also looted much of the French weapon stocks. Of wich about 50.000 French bayonets. Like this one above.
At the beginning of WW1, the re-purposed those bayonets for use on their own rifles. Or how French soldiers got killed by there own weaponry...

That's it for now. Sorry for the TL&DR post!

 

[Jakashh]

oh no, i read every word of it.

 

[Couyon]

Thanks for sharing. Amazing part of history in your backyard.

 

[Brains]

Amazing stuff, such a wonderful thing to be able to experience and preserve some amazing pieces of history literally right in your back yard. It has be quite humbling to think of those men fighting on the very ground you're walking on, it's humbling for me and I'm half the world away. Can't thank you enough for taking the time to share with us.

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

Amazing, thanks for posting

 

[Byrd666]

Thank you for taking the time to post this with the history and explanations. It really gives those of us that have studied or researched this a more in depth, personal glimpse into a major global event.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

How VERY cool, thank you!

 

[Younggun]

Awesome pics, thanks for posting!

 

[General Zod]

Amazing. The sabers are in incredible shape, as is the bayonet!

And don't worry about offending with the pics of the soldiers themselves. They, and their equipment and surroundings, are an amazing slice of history and you showed that they were finally given proper burial afterward.

 

[TX69]

Amazing. The sabers are in incredible shape, as is the bayonet!

And don't worry about offending with the pics of the soldiers themselves. They, and their equipment and surroundings, are an amazing slice of history and you showed that they were finally given proper burial afterward.

Very impressed by the quality of the preservation of the blades. Would have thought that a 100 years underground would have rusted to dust.

 

[jrbfishn]

Very cool. I will follow ghe links tonight, can't get to them.
I think most of the people here are more concerned with the proper military honors than the sight. Same things on cable most night so the digs should not be anything new.


Sent by a idjit coffeeholic

 

[Chupacabra Hunter]

Appreciate your posts....

 

[London]

Looks like one of them died trying to clear a failure to extract. Another looks like he was buried in a traditional hands held in prayer pose, undisturbed all these decades. Maybe the other one was, too, but was disturbed by the shifting Earth. Another died with his boots on like a true soldier.

At ease. Rest in peace.