World War One from Far Above

Just a few days now until I give a talk on my experiences digging the World War One battlefield site at Hill 80 in the Ypres Salient.  The talk has been scheduled to be as close as possible to the exact moment that the guns fell silent, which really should be known by all to have been: "The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month".  To the extent that Western Civilization thoroughly wrecked itself this may indeed have been the proverbial "Eleventh Hour" to stop the madness.

Two views of the Hill 80 excavation site which is outlined.

Here is how things stood in 1916.  Things had been bashed about for 18 months but you can still see a few traces of buildings, and the saw tooth patterns of the German trench systems are stark.

And here is January of 1918.  A lunar landscape improved only by some new roads on the left and the upper portion of the photo.  These were British roads, they had captured the area in 1917 after setting off a series of mines under the German lines in an explosion loud enough to, by legend, be heard in London.

By the way, adjacent to the southern edge of the site there was a village in 1914.  It has been scourged from the face of the earth.

Of course the story did not end here.  The site changed hands twice more.  Once when the Germans launched their last ditch Spring Offensive in 1918 and again late in the war.  By then both sides were exhausted and the final time that this shell torn patch of Hell on earth got new owners it was without many additions to the ranks of the dead.  The German retreat and the Allied pursuit were in general paced to avoid excessive bloodshed. (Although a few American generals gained lasting opprobrium by launching attacks almost up to the moment of the Armistice).