“Iron Harvest” still unearthing lethal relics in 2017

Scouring the ground for munitions post-war — Polygon Wood, near Zonnebeke, Belgium.

Many people will fondly remember taking a metal detector to the beach to look for scrap metal or searched a field for bits of shrapnel. But for the people of Flanders, searching the land for unexploded munitions and debris from the battles of the First World War is an arduous — and often dangerous part of daily life.

The “Iron Harvest” is the annual “harvest” of war remnants including unexploded ordnance, barbed wire, and shrapnel collected by Belgian and French farmers after ploughing their fields. Although the wheat and potato fields may now look like ordinary farmland, 100 years ago the land surrounding Passchendaele Ridge was a vision of carnage and destruction as the Battle of Passchendaele unfolded.

It may seem surprising that shrapnel and unexploded mortars are still being found to this day. But across the Western Front approximately one tonne of explosives was fired for every square metre of territory of which one in three shells fired were duds — often the ground was so churned up and soft that they simply failed to explode on impact. In the area around Passchendaele alone this translates to an estimated 300 million projectiles that the British and the German forces fired at each other which failed to detonate. Most of them have still not been recovered.

Unexploded munitions on display at the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917, Zonnebeke, Belgium.

After the war, returning the battlefields to farmland was a priority. Craters and trenches had to be filled in, and munitions removed. In 1920 around 30,000 people were engaged in this work — many were civilians returning from the war, as well as Chinese labourers, French colonial troops as well as German prisoners of war. In some areas, up to five explosive devices per square metre were dug up. Locals began digging deeper in order to find spoils of war, some of which included valuable materials such as copper, earning a pretty penny for lucky famers in the austere post-war years.

The search continues today. The Belgium Military’s demining service still receives around 3,500 calls a year, collecting over 250 tonnes of munitions. This important job carries a high price — over 20 men working for the demining service (DOVO) have died clearing explosives. For people of Flanders, the memory of bloody warfare is buried not far beneath their feet.

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DefenceHQ is the official corporate news channel of the UK Ministry of Defence.

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