WW1 Trench line found with bodies near Ypres

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Guys, this news item has featured several times on British TV this rememberance week. Hopefully one of the soldiers will be positively ID'ed. At least all the lads will now get a proper military burial.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3256553.stm
Cheers, Ade.

[Sal Williams]

Interesting Ade,
Now if only I had a plane ticket and a metal detector......hmmmmmm.
Best, Sal

[PaulR]

Home again after 90 years... I hope that they all can be ID'd.

Paul

[Jean-Loup]

Hey Sal :"Now if only I had a plane ticket and a metal detector......hmmmmmm." Do you mean you would become... a grave robber!?!

Not trying to cause a big dispute here; just trying to show that its possible to want to go metal detecting without having the intension of becoming a big bad grave robber. To many people automatically seem to thing ground dug means grave dug these days...
JL

[Simon O.]

WWI battlefields are now being excavated professionally by archaeologists and licenced groups who work with the authorities and have been doing so for many years.
I believe this case was a piece of rescue archaeology prior to the building of a new road or motorway.

[David F]

What baffles me is that they are building on these areas.the people recon there could be thousands of bodies like the ones found.Surely they should all be left in peace?
The area is a mass grave and really IMHO be left alone for the profesionals to take their time and do a proper job.
David

[Don D.]

What baffles me is that they are building on these areas.the people recon there could be thousands of bodies like the ones found.Surely they should all be left in peace?
The area is a mass grave and really IMHO be left alone for the profesionals to take their time and do a proper job.
David

That's not possible nor practical. The front line stretched from the English channel to the Swiss border and the depth of the battlefield varies from 20km to 100+ km where the fighting took place. No country can afford to lose that much territory to sentimentality. The guys that fought and died there wouldn't have wanted it that way. Life goes on. At least they are taking the time to do what is right with the guys they find.

Don

[Sal Williams]

Hey Sal :"Now if only I had a plane ticket and a metal detector......hmmmmmm." Do you mean you would become... a grave robber!?!

Not trying to cause a big dispute here; just trying to show that its possible to want to go metal detecting without having the intension of becoming a big bad grave robber. To many people automatically seem to thing ground dug means grave dug these days...
JL

Hi Jean (is that correct way to say your name, or is it Jean-Loup always together?),

No, I would not want to be a grave robber, but I would love to have an Indiana Jones adventure in the period of history I'm interested in. There is a thread on a grave robber in the association forum in which this was discussed and I posted my less than conventional views, but literal grave robbing is not ok with me. On this thread I meant my comment as a joke

Best Wishes, Sal

[Peter_Suciu]

I have to agree with Don 100%. Especially since mankind has a LONG history of warfare. You couldn't build anywhere in Europe if you wanted to keep intact "original" battlefields!

It would be nice if some of it was kept intact but we can't put memorials everywhere or else the whole world becomes memorial next to memorial and that diminishes the meaning of each of them.