Simviation Forums

Hi all,

Whilst travelling around Northern France, you see daily reminders of the suffering & horror that was experienced by many.

One of the things that serves as a constant reminder to many farmers in this area is referred to as the Iron Harvest. This is when all sorts of 'leftovers', such as shell cases, bullets & even 'live' munitions are trawled to the surface, usually as farmers are ploughing fields.

This is a 'live' shell, although it is probably a dud, people are advised to leave them 'well alone'. We found this one just at the edge of a field - we didn't kick it.........:


Another example is this grenade we spotted at the side of a farm track:


Opened on 31 July 1932 by the Prince of Wales, the Thiepval memorial was and remains the largest British war memorial in the world.  The memorial contains the names of 73,357 British and South African men who have no known grave and who fell on the Somme between July 1916 and 20 March 1918:


The 'products' of one man's 'iron harvest' - these are empty shell casings. They are just stacked up in the garden of a farm house next to the road:


Just two of the many, many military cemetries that can be found in Europe. The foreground headstones are British & the Crosses in the background are French:


Lest We Forget:


Cheers,

TSC.

Very interesting series. This is one place I keep intending to see for myself.

Fascinating set, thanks for that - and I thought there were just graves and poppies.....
...sad, and just a few years later we were at it again.

Fascinating, if a little depressing. I'm reminded of how my grandfather never had much to say about his year marching through France as an 18-yr-old "doughboy": like the quiet of those places, his silence said a great deal.

Great series TSC, I thought I'd save my comments for the last thread.

Really moving and interesting shots, it's a place I must take the kids at some point. It's easy to think of the WWI battlefields as some 'other' place, removed from the day-to-day world. It's shocking and awe inspiring to see how visible and recognisable they are, yet to imagine what a different place it must have been in 1916.

The everlasting memorial for those who gave us our free Europe... overwhelming when you think of it... Respect...

The everlasting memorial for those who gave us our free Europe... overwhelming when you think of it... Respect...

...and a shame that despite the huge sacrifice from 1914 to 1918, it was all happening again in just a tad over 20 years...