Digging up Ypres battlefields

J

Jeff Simmons

Active member
Archaeologists have been working on excavating WWI trenches in the Ypres sector (known as "Wipers" in soldier slang.) I recently saw a television program on this, and subsequently read an article about it in an old copy of Archaeology Magazine that I came across. As the water table in the Ypres salient was about 18 inches below the surface, those excavating the sites don't have to dig too deep without running into old trenches. Primarily they are finding weaponry and human remains in the process -- not surprising, as there are more than 100,000 unmarked graves in the area.

The reason for the sudden drive to excavate is because there are plans to build a highway through the Ypres/Messines battlefields. Is this land sacred? Should it be off-limits, as France has done with Verdun? I believe if you can't excavate for a highway without running into the remains of fallen soldiers, you shouldn't be allowed to do it. Just my opinion...
 
The WW1 trenches covered hundreds of miles right across Europe, now the whole area can not become some form of national shrine with out causing hardship to any one living any where near these places. Now I can name at least a dozen members of my family circle that died out there so I do have an interest in what is going on.
 
In the US, the discoveryof native artifacts and remains, though ancient often interfere with road and other construction.

I have a great uncle whose remains are somewhere in France.

Remains are just that. The spirit is long gone and in fact it is harmful to all involved to get emotional over bones.
I believe they should be respected and can be excavated and reburied for roads and necessary improvements.

Europe must be nearly knee deep in artifacts and remains from all ages.
 
Yeah I am not sure there is anywhere in Europe that hasn't been a battlefield some time in the last 3000 years if they were to make them all monuments the entire continent would be a mausoleum.

I tend to think they should give archeologists enough time to excavate the areas and recover what can be recovered and then get on with the motorway.
 
In America

I never considered the fact that there are limitless "lost" battlefields across Europe, probably because I'm an American. Our military history only dates back about 250 years, whereas Europe has seen military action for thousands of years.

I guess the reason I find building a highway through the Ypres salient is because the battles there (and along the Messines Ridge) are my one area of expertise. I spent nearly two decades researching Ypres in order to write a historically-accurate novel, "Wipers: A Soldier's Tale From the Great War." (It's available on Amazon, if you're interested). The least they can do is let the archeologists do an extensive survey, and put the human remains in proper burial sites.

Oh, and one other thing; there's still one enormous unexploded mine on the southeast end of the Messines Ridge. No one knows the exact location. I would certainly hate to be the bulldozer operator who discovers it!
 
There are as number of unexploded mines all over the place many have been found and the detonators have been removed to allow the explosive to rot away. The British experts have been digging tunnels to check into all these old workings and it has been interesting just what they have found.
 
While digging a couple of years back on the Western front they found a mass grave containing hundreds of British and Australian Soldiers. Today they opened a new military Cemetery close to were they found and many of these soldiers have been identified and now lay in a marked grave should be there for countless years. So the digging can have a positive side to it as well.
 
buried remains

LeEnfield...Yes, the excavations can definitely have a positive outcome. About the mass grave that you mentioned: It was common in the Ypres salient (and probably in a lot of other places) that a dead soldier's identification disc was taken, then the body thrown into a large pit or shell crater with dozens of other dead soldiers. The mass grave would be covered over with dirt. Then, to make it appear that every man got a proper burial, rows of crosses would be erected in the vicinity. I can't fathom how many men were interred in this fashion, but I'm sure the number is staggering.
 
Jeff

They found enough Australian and British Soldiers to fill a new military cemetery , the first one built in 50 years just for the Battlefield dead
 
Menin Gate

LeEnfield:

The Menin Gate, which Allied soldiers passed through on their way out into the salient, has been etched for years with the names of more than 50,000 men who walked through and were never heard from again. Those 50,000 men -- and an untold number of Germans -- still lay out in the salient somewhere. It is certain that more mass graves will be uncovered in the coming years.
 
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