Unexploded Munitions
It has been estimated that, for every square metre of territory on the front from the coast to the Swiss border, a tonne of explosives fell. One shell in every four (some sources say one in every three) did not detonate. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial Site is notable for supposedly having one unexploded munition for every square metre.
Given the swamp-like conditions of trench warfare in the period, the 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.
Read more about this topic: Iron Harvest
Famous quotes containing the word munitions:
“Many of our houses, both public and private, with their almost innumerable apartments, their huge halls and their cellars for the storage of wines and other munitions of peace, appear to me extravagantly large for their inhabitants. They are so vast and magnificent that the latter seem to be only vermin which infest them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)