A Gentle Warning For All Our "Diggers" Out There

[DonC]

Saw this on a military blog and thought I'd share:

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htm.../20060804.aspx

Don

[Bobwirtz]

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[Roy Queen]

I remember reading about this incident in the newspaper. What happened was a well respected Civil War relic dealer/collector was attempting to deactivate a Parrott shell. The shell exploded, severely injuring the fellow. He suffered severe head, and chest injuries, and serious injuries to his hand.

The authorities had Army Ordnance people to dispose the remaining shells by destroying them, which according to the newspaper article, highly ticked off other Civil War relic collectors. If I remember correctly, the Army EOD people destroyed around 60 artillery shells.

[Jean-Loup]

When I dig, my rule is dont touch shells, and avoid touching grenades. It has worked so far. To many diggers think the explosives are their friends.

JL

[frans]

It is sadly true that still many accidents occur on the battlefields by collectors and people trying to make some pocket money.

While the article talks of around 150 million shells in the previous century the artillery shells fired in the first world war alone was 1.500 million of which 30 procent were duds.

Only last saturday we recovered a shell dump which was left by the english when they left in a rush with the german spring offensive of 1918. This certainly won't be the last one as on averedge we recover 500 kilo's of shells every week in the Ieper area of Belgium.

The pile of 4.5 inch howitzer shells recovered, they were nearly all in mint condition because they had been preserved by the blue clay. They were removed straight away by the Belgian bomb squad and destroyed in Houthulst.