The Iron Harvest

[Zinjanthropos]

Interesting job these guys have. Can they get life insurance?

https://theworld.org/stories/2023-08-04/...nition-wwi

Doesn’t look like it will end anytime soon.

[C C]

... or if it might have been armed with a chemical agent, like phosgene or mustard gas.

"Most of the shells are filled with high explosive or with the toxic load,” in other words, it’s a chemical weapon, “and it's not possible to tell on the outside,” Poelmans said.

So whenever they find a shell, they approach it as a chemical weapon still hazardous to their health. Mustard gas can still cause skin blisters and burns, as well as temporary blindness. Chlorine or Phosgene can be lethal, especially if it gets inhaled.

The possibility of finding such chemical weapons in the fields of Flanders is unique to World War I battlefields — a conflict in which both sides tested new, cruel means to break a costly stalemate.

A truly special gift that WWII can't top. I hope the farmland is at least cheap, like the kind beside a river that's prone to flooding.

[Zinjanthropos]

I think of some young kid firing a shell he forgot to arm at another kid who lets out a big ‘phew!’ after it hit the ground beside him, only to explode and kill a farmer who wasn’t born yet about a hundred years later.

Talking to an American this morning at a local coffee shop and he was telling me that the USA is helping clear leftover land mines in Viet Nam and other theatres of war. Looked it up…

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-helps-to-re...1176.html#