Visiting the Western Front
Published 1 year, 11 months ago in My life.Had a great trip in January to visit the precise spot (to the metre ) where my grandfather was temporarily buried by a shell explosion in what was no mans land in July 1917 near the Messines Ridge. It was amazing to stand in this peaceful green field early in the morning with frost all around me thinking that this terrible mayhem had gone on at this location. My grandfather was lucky because he managed to get out of the shell hole in which he was buried. But his Captain and an orderly who were with him at the time were both killed. The experience was heightened in a sense by my son discovering an unexploded shell sitting at a collection point nearby.Great experience.Very moving.
The photo is looking down the line of a communication trench in no mans land looking towards the German front line (approximately where the trees are)
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wow amazing, my grandad went to the 2nd war but i never met him… supposedly he “came back different”>.. and died young/not soon after getting back.. must have been eery standing there… and what did your son find ?
My son discovered an unexploded shell. They are constantly finding unexploded ordnance on a weekly basis because there were millions of shells and bullets fired in that locality over the 3 to 4 years of fighting there. Apparently over 40% of all ordnance failed to detonate after firing.They have what they term “iron harvest” collection points all over the area where people leave unexploded items for the Belgian Army to regularly take away and destroy. Where my son discovered the shell was at one of these collection points.