What Remains



The Somme battlefield 97 years on



     "How did they fight the battle with all these monuments in the way?" was an actual question that was asked at the Gettysburg National Military Park. It was gently explained that the monuments in question were in fact erected after the fighting had ceased. To many, a visit to an actual battlefield can be many things depending on one's level of interest. It can be somber and reflective, intriguing, morbid or it can be confusing. With Gettysburg, it became a tourist attraction quite literally when there were still dead soldiers carpeting the fields. Throughout the long years, as Gettysburg became a national park, the landscape changed somewhat but not dramatically. Today, there is a policy within the National Park Service to return the battlefield exactly to it's appearance as it was in July of 1863. To this end, orchards have been replanted, large areas have been clear-cut of trees and much vegetation has been cleared away. The effect has been a dramatic vision of the battlefield as the soldiers of 1863 saw it. The exception here being the paved roads and monuments, of course.

     For the battlefields of the 20th century, in particular WW1 and WW2, change in the landscape can either be dramatic or nonexistent depending on where one is. In the area around the French town of Verdun which was the scene of brutal fighting in 1916 there are still areas today known as "Zone rouge" (red zone) due to catastrophic damage to the environment which has rendered the land uninhabitable and unusable for farming and forestry due to the soil being poisoned by human remains, gas and unexploded munitions. Two of the main forts near Verdun, Ft. Vaux and Ft. Douaumont have been preserved as they were as well as the surrounding land. Although green grass now grows where only a sea of mud once existed, one can still clearly see the pockmarks of shell holes and shallow trenches. In the red zones, unexploded shells, human bones and rusted equipment litter the surface of the ground and are clearly visible even today.

     Much of the Western Front today has been erased from the land due to farming and expansion. Many of the battlefields were farmland back then and are still farms today. Farmers still regularly plow up shells, grenades and other deadly relics from the intense fighting that once raged over their land. It is estimated that one in four shells from WW1 never detonated and lie sleeping in the soil. To this end, the French Department of Mine Clearance recovers and destroys about 900 tons of rusted ordinance each year and it is estimated that this work will continue for the next twenty five years or so such is the staggering number of shells that were fired during the Great War.

     Many of the battlefields of the Second World War are in a similar state. With housing and industry expanding at an exponential rate, it's almost impossible to find what would be considered a "pristine" battlefield in this day and age. The exception here would be certain islands in the Pacific, such as Peleliu, which up until recently were largely untouched since the fighting ended. As little as ten years ago, one could still walk the trails and find rusted helmets, canteens and human remains in the numerous caves. Today, thanks to relic hunters and looters, this is no longer the case. Over on what was once the Eastern Front, many of the more obscure battlefields remain largely untouched in remote areas in Estonia and Latvia. Recently, some remarkable relics in pristine condition have been found in the numerous peat bogs that dot the area. Tanks, weapons, equipment and even human remains were found in incredible states of preservation due to the natural preservatives of the bogs.

      Despite all this, one constant remains. The land itself changes over time. The war torn landscape heals itself bit by bit. Shell holes and trenches fill in, barbed wire rusts away to dust, concrete bunkers crumble away and trees sprout up and grow thick over what was once barren and shell torn land. With very few exceptions, it's now all but impossible to stand on a battlefield and get a clear vision of what the area once looked like. Perhaps it's really for the best that way.