Catalpa Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 the digger digging the hole for the fosse has uncovered a cache of rifle ammunition. It hasn't been fired and is possibly still live. It's date-stamped 1943.Who should be the lucky recipients of this? Gendarmerie? Marie? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 Phone the Gendarmerie to come and take it away. At least you havn't found grenades. My brother lived in Arras for four years and was always finding grenades from the wars buried in his garden, luckily they had "worn out" but were still taken away by the gendarmes and recorded. You start worrying when you find bodies!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 The 'Iron Harvest' on the Somme - you will see large piles of shells and other ordnance in the corners of fields. And they still find bodies (a few dozen a year) - but then for that matter they still turn up in the Bocage from time to time.As Val says rifle bullets aren't too dangerous (provided you don't put them in a fire or hit them) but shells are. The cordite inside will probably still be active and the cartridge will have become brittle with age by now. Two years ago an expert at Vimy Ridge was killed when he tried to open one, and WW1 gas shells are still lethal (killing some Belgian children 2 years ago). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punch Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 Be careful !http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3998606Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catalpa Posted January 14, 2005 Author Share Posted January 14, 2005 Great, thanks - the Gendarmerie it is, then. Apparently there's a really cute Gendarme at Barenton... I wonder if my French is up to requesting him... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcazar Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 Friend of mine lives near Lille. He has an amusing story of the ordnance crew who regularly tour the area collecting the iron harvest for disposal.Apparently, they came upon a Merc full of German tourists about to load a larger howitzer shell into the car boot for a souvenir. When told they could not do so, the Germans apparently became annoyed, so the local gendarmerie was contacted. They, in turn, invited said Germans to witness the shell being disposed of, in a local quarry, where many are so dealt with.One of the German women fainted when it went off!Dunno if it's true or not, but I'd be very wary of owt like that. Alcazar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikes Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 A couple of years ago we found a First World War artillery shell - we believe it was a poison gas one - in the attic of our farmhouse in the Correze. We notified the gendarmes and naively thought they would be out to see us pdq. In fact it was only after a couple of reminders that it was eventually sorted over a year later. Apparently the people who deal with these things are very busy and have to come from Bordeaux, so would only come when there were enough bombs in the area to make the trip worthwhile!Luckily we had moved it out of the way before we realised how dangerous it was. Doubly lucky - it didn't explode when we moved it.More of the story of La Bombe at http://www.lemayne.net/ if you're interested.Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catalpa Posted January 15, 2005 Author Share Posted January 15, 2005 apparently there's a procedure in place whereby the Gendarmerie, Mairie or whoever notify the local inspecteur des mines - or similar. Then they come and collect the stuff. The cartridges are now carefully stored well away from us till someone arrives. No cute Barenton gendarme then. I suspect we'll encounter a similar sense of urgency to Mikes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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