#zone rouge

[fearwasalwaysanoption]

Based off the poem "Spring" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

[montrealmagique]

Pas magique pantoute. Mercredi minuit.

[nothingexistsnever]

Hors série

[tiend]

mando fireworks

It’s the farmlands that are dangerous. Not the sand plains outside the domes of Sundari. Most people use plough-droids, and keep spares stashed in a barn. In case it hits many other stray bits of ordnance and goes up in a hail of mass-produced shrapnel. They call it reaping the beskar harvest.

‘course, if you’re lucky, the UXO might not explode and take out your plough. Not then, anyway; you can’t leave it in the field. So you drag it off - couple of disposable B1s will do it nicely, the second-hand market is huge - and dump it all in an old quarry.

Next time there’s a celebration, or maybe just a good batch of tihaar - people get together, build a wooden platform over the top of the UXO, and stack more wood on top of that for a bonfire. A potluck dinner, a cordon for the children, and as the platform burns, red hot embers fall through to the explosives underneath, until, eventually, they go up, flares and bunker busters, HIEAP rounds, tracer, and flechettes, bursts and ricochets and the shockwaves rolling through - 

That’s a Mando firework show.

[thisdayinwwi]

France's Forbidden 'Red Zone' or 'Zone Rouge'

A swath of the country so devastated by WWI it is still too dangerous to go there.

[earthstory]

Battle Scars: Remnant of Verdun

In 1916, the Western Front near Verdun was decimated by some of the bloodiest fighting between the French and the Germans during World War I. For 303 days, the two sides launched approximately 40 million artillery shells at each other. One hundred years later, France is still attempting to clean up the mess. Roughly 140 miles east of Paris lies the Zone Rouge (Red Zone), an area that even 100 years later is still a deadly reminder of the battle that claimed over 700,000 casualties. Pockmarked by the continued bombardment, the landscape is forever altered. But today, the danger comes from unexploded shells scattered throughout the Red Zone. Some estimates claim it may take between 300 and 700 years to safely clear the region of shells. But the shells are only part of the problem.

World War 1 introduced many new machines of war, including airplanes, tanks, flamethrowers, and a variety of deadly gases. Verdun saw the use of phosphine gases by the German troops, and those shells are among the deadliest in the region. Apart from the continued threat to munitions removal workers from toxic buildup, the chemicals have seeped into the soil and in some places, nothing grows and animals die from exposure. Previously, hunters were allowed on the land with special permits, but high levels of lead and other chemicals in the animals have driven them away.

Studies on soil and water in the region have shown that instead of fading with time, the toxicity has increased. Arsenic is as high as 17 percent in some regions, and some water sources contain 300 times more arsenic than is considered safe. Lead from shrapnel is a common toxin, as are mercury and zinc, which are also found in high concentrations and can remain for up to 10,000 years in the soil.

World War I decimated old growth forests on the Western Front. Even today, unexploded shells are unearthed by farming along the line where the front existed in stalemate for four years. Toxins threaten the water supply of nearby municipalities. Though France tried to move back in once the war was over, it is clear it will be a long time before Verdun can be reclaimed.

~RA

Image: http://bit.ly/2qS84ZF

Sources: http://bit.ly/2pWCZ28 http://bit.ly/2fKV5Pz

[dieselpunkflimflam]

Zone Rouge

Another appearance of the Specter of the Great War

When you imagine France and its scenic countryside, you might think of the picturesque villages, vineyards a plenty and endless rolling green hills to drive through on a blissful summer road trip. But there’s one corner of this scenic country that no one has been allowed to enter for nearly a century, known as the “Zone Rouge” (the red zone).

After WWI, unable to keep up with the impossible task of removing endless undetonated weapons, human and animal remains, the French government decided on a forced relocation of residents which led to the creation of the Zone Rouge. Entire villages wiped off the map were considered “casualties of war”.

Farmers in less dangerous re-populated “yellow” and “blue zones”, still hit shells every year, exploding their tractors and narrowly escaping death by the remains of a hundred year old war. In Verdun, there are road signs to indicate a dumping grounds for farmers to leave the shells they’ve plowed up on their land to be collected by authorities.

They call it the “iron harvest”, in which nearly 900 tons of unexploded munitions are recovered each year by Belgian and French farmers after ploughing their fields.

Thank you, @devientdeco

http://www.messynessychic.com/2015/05/26/the-real-no-go-zone-of-france-a-forbidden-no-mans-land-poisoned-by-war/

[letsgethaunted]

Welcome to Episode 257: Zone Rouge, France’s Forbidden Zone. This week, we explore the scarred battlefields of northeastern France where World War I left behind a toxic, uninhabitable wasteland still littered with human remains, unexploded bombs, and poisoned soil. Known as the Zone Rouge, this restricted region is not only physically dangerous, but also steeped in eerie reports of ghostly soldiers, phantom music, and unexplained disturbances. From trench warfare horrors to modern-day paranormal encounters, we trace how history, trauma, and environment collide in one of the most haunting places on Earth. Is the Zone Rouge simply a contaminated graveyard of war, or could something more supernatural still be lingering beneath the toxic topsoil? Thank you to special guest Kassie Askin for joining us on this week’s episode! Check out our episode on her channel here: https://bit.ly/4d7cpgg