Do remnants of the trenches of World War I still exist in Europe? Or have they all been erased by erosion?
there are trenches and fortifications that have been preserved. there are unpreserved trenches and fortifications that you still can see remnants of as far as some tv has shown.
Less and less on the Western Front, since it’s valuable agricultural real estate (even with the unexploded ordnace still there).
Up in the Julian Alps where the Italians & Autro-Hungarians fought things have been left alone more, so there’s still tangles of barbed wire.
Don’t know about trenches, but there’s still plenty of bombs.
“The French Département du Déminage (Department of Mine Clearance) recover about 900 tons of unexploded munitions every year. Since 1945, approximately 630 French démineurs have died handling unexploded munitions. Two died handling munitions outside of Vimy, France as recently as 1998.”
An old, somewhat inconclusive, Dope thread on whether the trench systems can be seen on Google Earth.
But, yes, stretches of collapsed trenches do still exist. In general, they have either been filled in or would have largely eroding, but the French and Belgians have realised that there are bits worth preserving.
I doubt the trenches themselves could be seen from space, but the front was delineated by the two sets of opposing trenches with a couple of miles of no-man’s land inbetween them, consisting of heavily shelled terrain. That would probably be easy to spot with satellite imagery, if not the naked eye.
The coordinates from the Wikipedia article place the Hawthorn Crater here. Not much to look at.
Certainly some of the underground fortifications still exist today, albeit not in a condition that makes them suitable for a casual look around. Link to a recent investigation of such a site.
Except that, as Slithy Tove pointed out, it is valuable farmland. And it’s been about 90 years since WWI – that land has mostly been put back into farm fields by the owners of the land.
Sorry, I was thinking of the closed “could the trenches have been seen from space?” thread. I meant the front would have been easy to spot at the time.
Some of the trains derailed by T.E. Lawrence were still lying by the railroads in 1976 when the photos on this site were taken
Also, you can dive on the wrecks of the scuttled German fleet in Scappa Flow, but not the wrecks of the British ships that the Germans slipped in and torpedoed later in WWII, since they’re war graves.
Hms Caroline is the only ship from the battle of Jutland still exsisting.
They can sometimes be seen from the air as crop marks, at the right time of year.
Craters too. While every year, tractors ploughing the harvest even out the topsoil a bit more, areas that got some heavy shelling are still relatively uneven ground.
The Maginot Line is also still there, at least a part of it. While individual forts and tunnels have been squatted, raided and/or vandalized over the years ever since the French Army abandoned it for good in 1961, some of the bigger forts and tunnel sections have been put back in shape and turned into a museum by various associations.
Craters are definitely still there. As high school students we went to the battlefields and war cemetries in northern France and some of the craters are nearly 30 foot deep. We also went to a museum with a small bit of preserved trench.
Somme:
More somme:
http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/somme/images/serre/serre_frontline.jpg
http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/somme/images/serre/sheffpark1.jpg
Verdun:
http://www.jonathanolley.com/images/lores/myrepository/The%20Forbidden%20Forest/5.jpg
http://www.jonathanolley.com/images/lores/myrepository/The%20Forbidden%20Forest/34.jpg
Le Linge in the Vosges (Alsace) has a sizable trench segment still preserved - bodies were still uncovered as late as the 1970s.
I’m as empirical in my outlook as they come, but Verdun had me damn close to believing a place could be haunted. To say it’s spooky does not begin to cover it.
Although that’s of WWII vintage at least.
All over the place. Men of my generation grew up knowing many great war veterans. It occurs to me now that with all but one (I think) dead in this country they’ve all gone.
It isn’t so long then, 20 years maybe, till the 2nd world war have gone too. Anyhow were an English person to ask me this I would be astounded, but it can be understood from an American. There are huge complexes left over. It would be so ridiculous for me to try to catalogue them fairly that I’m not even going to try; I’ll just link you to a google search.
Whatever.
Try this one.
On a not unreleated note my grandfather was in the tyneside irish… I have plenty of information if anyone is interested, although he was not involved with the above afaik.