Battlefield Debris

Nearly 100 years after the end of WW1 there is an awful lot of ordnance and general battlefield debris still turning up every time the fields are ploughed, bullets, inexploded shells, grenades, motars, the occasional rifle, pistol, bayonet and general equipment the photographs that follow are some of what we came across on our most recent trip.

In the first photograph the two shells are still live, in the second photograph the middle of the three shells (all of which are live) is a gas shell, photograph three is whats left of a stokes mortar (the bit in the photograph is the explosive bit), all the bullets in the fourth photograph were "live" when we found them , we de-tipped them all, and the corderite in the british rounds burnt off, the same with the gun powder in the german bullets, photograph five is a egg grenade and photograph six a pineapple grenade both of the grenades are live.


All the shells were left where they were found placed there by the farmers concerned, who would have informed the French Army who will eventually come round to collect them (which can take some time!!).