Ypres-Ieper WW1 Battlefield, 1914-1918, Belgium. Unexploded WW1 Shells at Two Mine Craters, Kruisstraat, Flanders, Belgium. February 2014
Ypres-Ieper WW1 Battlefield, 1914-1918, Belgium. Unexploded WW1 Shells at Two Mine Craters, Kruisstraat, Flanders, Belgium. February 2014
The Iron Harvest. Unexploded WW1 ordnance waiting to be collected by Belgian Bomb disposal team from Belgian Army in Mine Crater country to the south of Ypres. Hundreds of shells are unearthed each year on the battlefields of Flanders and across northern France.
Caption information below from Wikipedia:
The iron harvest is the annual "harvest" of unexploded ordnance, barbed wire, shrapnel, bullets and congruent trench supports collected by Belgian and French farmers after ploughing their fields. The harvest generally applies to the material from World War I, which is still found in large quantities across the former Western Front.
During World War I an estimated one tonne of explosives was fired for every square metre of territory on the Western front. As many as one in every three shells fired did not detonate.[3] In the Ypres Salient, an estimated 300 million projectiles that the British and the Germans forces fired at each other during World War I were duds, and most of them have not been recovered] In 2013, 160 tonnes of munitions, from bullets to 15 inch naval gun shells, were unearthed from the areas around Ypres.[4]
Unexploded weapons - in the form of shells, bullets and grenades - buried themselves on impact or were otherwise quickly swallowed in the mud. As time passes, construction work, field ploughing and natural processes bring the rusting shells to the surface. Most of the iron harvest is found during the spring planting and autumn ploughing as the region of northern France and Flanders are rich agricultural areas.[5] Farmers will collect the munitions and place them along the boundaries of fields or other collection points for authorities.
Despite the condition of the shells, they remain very dangerous. The French Département du Déminage (Department of Mine Clearance) recovers about 900 tons of unexploded muni
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- 1914 - 2014 The 100th Anniversary of the start of WW1
![Ypres-Ieper WW1 Battlefield, 1914-1918, Belgium. Unexploded WW1 Shells at Two Mine Craters, Kruisstraat, Flanders, Belgium. February 2014<br />
The Iron Harvest. Unexploded WW1 ordnance waiting to be collected by Belgian Bomb disposal team from Belgian Army in Mine Crater country to the south of Ypres. Hundreds of shells are unearthed each year on the battlefields of Flanders and across northern France.<br />
<br />
Caption information below from Wikipedia:<br />
The iron harvest is the annual "harvest" of unexploded ordnance, barbed wire, shrapnel, bullets and congruent trench supports collected by Belgian and French farmers after ploughing their fields. The harvest generally applies to the material from World War I, which is still found in large quantities across the former Western Front.<br />
<br />
During World War I an estimated one tonne of explosives was fired for every square metre of territory on the Western front. As many as one in every three shells fired did not detonate.[3] In the Ypres Salient, an estimated 300 million projectiles that the British and the Germans forces fired at each other during World War I were duds, and most of them have not been recovered] In 2013, 160 tonnes of munitions, from bullets to 15 inch naval gun shells, were unearthed from the areas around Ypres.[4]<br />
<br />
Unexploded weapons - in the form of shells, bullets and grenades - buried themselves on impact or were otherwise quickly swallowed in the mud. As time passes, construction work, field ploughing and natural processes bring the rusting shells to the surface. Most of the iron harvest is found during the spring planting and autumn ploughing as the region of northern France and Flanders are rich agricultural areas.[5] Farmers will collect the munitions and place them along the boundaries of fields or other collection points for authorities.<br />
<br />
Despite the condition of the shells, they remain very dangerous. The French Département du Déminage (Department of Mine Clearance) recovers about 900 tons of unexploded muni](https://m.psecn.photoshelter.com/img-get2/I00003ozkkjIgnUA/fit=1000x750/Ypres-The-Iron-Harvest-8022BW.jpg)
