In Flanders fields, the largest ever WWI excavation

In Flanders fields, dozens of men are digging trenches. From dawn to sunset, they force their shovels through the soil, even when the temperature plunges below freezing. When it rains, their clothes cling to their bodies. They were told it would be over by Christmas; now, they are not so sure.

Simon Verdegem exposing the floorboards of a French trench 
[Credit: David Rose]

This is Belgium, 2014, and the men are archaeologists, not soldiers – but in one regard their experiences are not so far removed from those of their forebears a century ago. The foes of the Great War have long been reconciled, but the weather is as harsh as ever.

“The cold is not the problem, it’s the rain,” says Simon Verdegem, one of the 30 archaeologists excavating land touched by only a plough for decades. “By the end of the day, our shoes are full of mud and we can’t walk straight because we slip all the time. And, this time, nobody’s firing at us.”

Verdegem’s great uncle fought on these fields 100 years ago. Now the 31-year-old is learning a little of the conditions he had to endure. “The first thing I do when I get home is take a shower and hang my clothes up by the fire. But they didn’t have the chance. They had to stay in a water-filled trench. I know how we feel after a day out here in the rain – we’re just miserable – and I can’t imagine it.”

All these years later, Belgium’s war wounds have still to heal. In the years following the Armistice 96 years ago today, vast mounds of earth were shovelled into the trenches. In the great cemeteries of Belgium, the row upon row of Portland stone stood as testament to the sacrifice of the men; the authorities were less keen to remember the inglorious squalor to which each side subjected the other.

If only that were so easy. For decades now, Flanders farmers have turned up a deadly harvest of unexploded bombs, shells and grenades. They all know the bomb squad’s phone number, and some have reinforced their tractors against explosion.

The pipeline stretches across18 miles of the WW1 frontline 
[Credit: David Rose]

Yet archaeologists rarely get the chance to mine this rich seam of history. Under European Union regulations, they can only excavate these fields when there is an external threat to the artefacts buried beneath, such as a housing development.

Which is why Verdegem is so excited by this latest dig, the largest-ever excavation of First World War battlefields. Next year, Fluxys, a Belgian energy company, will lay a new £120 million gas pipeline across the country, snaking through 18 miles of land that formed the frontline for four years, as both sides inched from Ypres to Passchendaele then back to Ypres – each time, shuffling just far enough to bury their dead.

So now the fields that were once carved up between warring neighbours will be dug up again, this time to unite the same countries, as gas flows from Dunkirk to Germany or, via an existing pipeline from Zeebrugge, to Britain.

Before the pipeline can be laid, archaeologists must sweep its entire length to unearth anything of historical value, presenting a unique opportunity to uncover the past. They have been at work since July and were scheduled to finish by next month, but have found so much that they are likely to continue digging next year.

To mark Remembrance Sunday, they gave The Telegraph an exclusive tour of their finds so far. Six miles outside Ypres, among a flat expanse of maize fields, an impromptu car park has formed outside a row of portable offices. By an adjoining stone bunker, once built for French troops, the archaeologists have laid out their latest haul: a Lee-Enfield rifle, a shovel, two French bayonets and a pike from a German pith helmet.

But before any digging, the bomb disposal teams must do their work. Sweeping the surface with magnetometers, they pinpoint munitions and then dig them up by hand, to be collected each day by the Belgian Army. So far, they have found 4,000 munitions: bullets, artillery shells and bombs dropped by planes or balloons.

When we visit, they have just unearthed a 15.5cm German shell. It is fused and still dangerous, and lies untouched beside their digger’s metal shunt.

“Not a day goes by when we don’t find something,” says David Moutter, a 49-year-old originally from Newcastle. “A few weeks ago, we discovered 16 German grenades in one small hole. We handle the bombs like babies.”

Moutter has always been fascinated by the war: his great uncle, Abraham Acton, was awarded the Victoria Cross a hundred years ago next month for rescuing a wounded soldier who had lain exposed to the enemy’s trenches for more than two days. Later that day, he rescued another wounded man. While he carried them both to safety, he was under fire for an hour.

Once the bombs are removed, the archaeology can begin. First, the team studies trench maps and aerial photos to locate areas where they might expect to make finds before digging sample trenches. If they unearth anything interesting, they open up the surrounding area for excavation.

Recovered shells and munitions [Credit: Christopher Furlong/
Getty Images]

In the trenches, they first dig up the topsoil with a mechanical digger before using a trowel for fine work. Every day, they find new artefacts: buttons, badges, uniforms, boots, empty bottles, trench art and, of course, hundreds of weapons.

At one firing post, they discovered a children’s chair – used by a German soldier to rest as he sat for hours aiming at the enemy lines, but small enough that his head would still be protected by the earthworks above.

On the day we visit, they are slowly scraping away at a trench, used variously by French and Belgian soldiers. They expose the original wooden floorboards, which have been buried in the soil for at least 90 years. “We’re walking on the same wood where those soldiers fought,” says Verdegem, painstakingly sweeping dirt away with his trowel. “It’s the closest you can get to that to that history, and to those men.”

They number every find and take a picture before bagging it up. They are hoping the Belgian government will donate the finds to a museum and form a new collection that would offer a remarkable insight into life on the frontline.

“We thought we knew everything about the war, but we still find things that surprise us,” says Sam de Decker, an archaeologist with the Flemish heritage agency. The dig, he says, has illuminated the true chaos of the Battle of Passchendaele, turning up impromptu firing posts that were often abandoned after only a day or two.

He was also surprised to discover well-preserved Roman remains just 10 metres in front of the German lines, indicating that the British artillery barrage was remarkably accurate.

Verdegem agrees that “even the smallest difference [with historical accounts] can be exciting”. The dig has shown that by 1917 the trench system was largely ineffective because the ground had been so weakened by three years of fighting. So soldiers were forced to improvise by connecting shell holes to one another.

“We found a shoe with a foot but nothing else,” he goes on. “Most touching is every time we find a soldier.”

They have found four so far – the latest, last week, was a French soldier found exactly a hundred years after he died, in the first Battle of Ypres. Archaeologists hope they might be able to identify the remains from the soldier’s uniform.

Some might think this exhumation a little distasteful, but it allows the men to be given a ceremonial burial: a dignified ceremony after a hasty end. Anthropologists may even test their DNA to trace their descendants and fly them over. “I always think that’s one more who gets a decent grave,” says Verdegem, “one less man left missing.”

Author: Tom Rowley | Source: The Telegraph [November 09, 2014]