I may have published this Blog Posting before but I can’t find it in my records so I have expanded it and pecked it out again.
13 years ago we visited a World War One cemetery in Flanders Field in Belgium. We were being shown around by a guide when we noticed that one grave stood out from the rest because it was covered with Flowers and Decorative Ribbons.
We ask the guide about the decorations and she explained (in bullet point format)...
Ø This grave was so highly decorated because it was a new grave (in a cemetery for a war that ended 90 years ago)...
>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 the First World War, 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. In the Ypres Salient, an estimated 300 million projectiles that the British and the German 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, ranging from bullets to 15-inch (38 cm) naval gun shells, were unearthed from the areas around Ypres.
>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. Farmers collect the munitions and place them along the boundaries of fields or other collection points for authorities.
Ø Human bodies are still uncovered also.
Ø Whenever a body is recovered it is buried with a Full Formal Burial Ceremony.
Ø The people from the nearby towns show up in significant quantities.
Ø Many arrive with flowers in hand.
The flowers and decorative ribbons are the result of the homage paid to an unknown soldier who died a long time ago who was highly honored when he was recently buried in his new grave.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
