Day Two and all systems go...

I cannot believe how much dirt our team has shifted. Yesterday went really well. Trench 1 has been excavating a concrete bunker foundation. after the war the locals demolished the shelter for scrap and concrete chippings for the road but the foundations survived and Kirsty and her team, including friends from the historicql society have uncovered the plan. It is heavy work as rubble fills the blockhouse. Meanwhile Steve R has found what may be a trench mortar pit , Steve L abnf teqm are looking for an Anzac trench cutting the upcast from the Ultimo mine and Jon has been exploring the Factory Farm crater. Here the mine destroyed q moated farm which the Germans had fortified. We have found not only military remains but also the evidence of life before the war, includig glassware, china and horse harness.

Australian TV are happy that we can tell stories of the Anzac battle and Michael M is so excited to be here in the landscape - as he says you cannot write about a battlefield without seeing it and walking round it to experience the terrain.

Last night James plqyed his pipes in the bar and the Irish/Ulster guests at the Peace Village got out a fiddle and there was music and even a little dancing. The music theme continued when John Tomlinson the uber bass of Wagnerian opera came to visit Peter C, the site artist!

Also Franky Bostyn and Bert Heyvaert fron the Passchendale museum in Zonnebeke visited. Their work is excellent - visit the museum!

More soon!

And the sun is shining...

Ein guter Start

Nach einer früheren Anreise am Freitag hatten wir die Möglichkeit bereits die Umgebung zu sichten und die Gerätschaften bereitzustellen. So konnte am Samstag sofort mit der Arbeit begonnen werden. Bevor wir das Schlachtfeld von Ploegsteert jedoch genauer untersuchen konnten, wurde das Gespräch mit den Besitzern des Farmlandes gesucht; ein älteres Ehepaar, das in einem abgelegenen Bauernhaus zuhause ist und noch über viele Geschichten des Ersten Weltkrieges zu berichten weiß. Trotz der Geschichten erscheint das Land idyllisch und weißt auf den ersten Blick auf keinerlei Zeichen der damaligen Geschichte hin. Nur die zwei dazupassenden Weiher und Unebenheiten im Boden deuten schon eher daraufhin, dass dies kein normales Farmland ist, auch wenn über den Gräben der Alliierten Bohnen heute gepflanzt werden und damit die Ausgrabung eingeschränkt wird.

Mithilfe der Geophysik konnte der Verlauf der Schützengräben rekonstruiert werden. Zudem wurde das Land mit einem Theodoliten vermessen und in entsprechende Planquadrate eingeteilt. Damit wird die Aufteilung der Arbeit vereinfacht, gibt eine Übersicht der Umgebung und dient zu einer besseren Orientierung. Nach Anreise aller Teilnehmer am Sonntag, wurde ein kurzer historischer Überblick über die Situation und die Beteiligten Parteien im Zusammenhang mit der Ausgrabungsstelle gegeben. Im Anschluss an die Vorträge erhielten wir eine Sicherheitsunterweisung und damit Verhaltensregeln für den Umgang mit den damals verwendeten Gefahrenstoffen.

Mit dem Wind im Rücken und ohne Regen konnte nun, am heutigen Montag, die Grundlagenarbeit begonnen werden. Das vollzählige Team wurde dafür in Gruppen eingeteilt, die nun an vier verschiedenen Bereichen arbeiten. Die Arbeit geht gut voran und die ersten kleineren Funde wurden auch schon gemacht (z.B. Munitionshülsen, Schrapnelle, Gläser, Zahnbürste) und treiben die Motivation an, um tiefer zu graben. Eine erweiterte Berichterstattung findet auch über das Fernsehen statt, da ein australisches Fernsehteam die Arbeit an der Seite dokumentiert.

Sunday - Day Two

Hello to Rod, Nigel the elder, Ruth and Katharine and Mark!

Day Two
So we couldn`t dig the British Front Line due to the crop in the field but we have got access to the woodland and the Factory Farm area. We began with the continuation of the geophysics near Ultimo Crater and a chat with the film crew fron ABC and Matt and Michael from Oz.

Cleaning of the Factory Farm area started under Jon's capable leadership, and a contour survey of the crater lip was also started.

Early finds include:
parts of a sniper shield (German)
Coolant system from a maxim gun
incoming.303 rounds from Factory Farm and
large calibre shell splinters.

Dinner was "interesting", especially for the veggies who got peas (hello justin).

After dinner we had a short briefing seminar for the team about the site and its history. Thanks especially to Ralph who got off a plane from Baltimore and a train from Brussels and almost immediately gave a paper on the Bavarian Army at Messines.

Beer time!

Day One on the Plugstreet Project

Saturday
So, here we are then.

If the spzlling is q bit squint its becquse Iµn using a continentql keyboard. Anyway...

After coffee at length with the farmer and a good breakfast at the Peace Village we hit the site. Peter (AKA the Colonel) did great service with his magnetometer and found us all manner of anomalies, many of which appear to be Great War features. Meanwhile Michael Molkentin appeared with mega jetlag and a plan of the Anzac defnces of the Ultimo crater. Strangely the two seemed to tie together.

Richard and Martin also went off to see the Comines-Warneton Historical Society. After an informative meeting and a beer/coffee (you decide) they returned, having seen treasures by the score and having been given the heqds-up on the site and its context.

Dinner in various establishments in Ieper - the eels were magnificent.

Colonel's quote:
"I'll get you to put your tongue on that..." Ref the resistivity probes (allegedly)

Over the Top

The project is about to start and the blog will hot up. Look out for contributions from various team members, pictures, bomb of the day - especially for our usual EOD cover who can't be with us because the Queen has invited him to a war - and so much more.

And the Auberge has announced that the mussel season has started, so that's tomorrow's dinner sorted out.

As my partner says "It's like a job". Well it would be but Richard and I are taking leave... it's more fun than the beach!

Keep watching and don't forget to leave comments for us.

Ready for the off

Tomorrow some of us leave as the advance party for the project. Saturday will see us meeting the landowner again, as well as our allies from the Historical Society. Meanwhile Peter, Swantje and one or two others will be starting the geophysical survey that will help us target the features we want to excavate. Then we can advance on all fronts with the digging.

The rain has abated, let's hope it hasn't all gone south-east to Flanders.

Another link

Now That Swantje has added our first German posting, it might perhaps be the time to introduce a website for those that read Dutch/Flemish. Many contributors on this forum live in the locvality of our excavation and thus may be able to visit site:

http://forumeerstewereldoorlog.nl/

A German contribution - Ein deutscher Beitrag

Mein Name ist Swantje Krause und ich absolviere zurzeit ein Masterstudium an der Bournemouth Universität in England in Forensischer und Biologischer Anthropology. Ich arbeite mit menschlichen Knochen, die ich untersuche, um ein sogenanntes biologisches Profil zu erstellen, welches mir Auskunft über die Abstammung, das Geschlecht, das Alter und die Größe eines Individuums geben kann.

In der Woche vom 30. Juli bis 3. August werde ich an der Seite von Engländern, Belgiern, Franzosen, Deutschen und Australiern an einer archäologischen Ausgrabung in Ploegsteert (engl. Plugstreet), ein kleiner Ort in der Nähe von Ypern im Süd-Westen Belgiens, arbeiten. Dieses Team arbeitet gemeinsam an einem Projekt von „No Man’s Land“, einer europäischen Vereinigung, die sich mit historischen Kriegsschauplätzen aus dem Ersten Weltkrieg archäologisch beschäftigt und dadurch versucht Hintergründe und Zusammenhänge zu ermitteln. Die Leitung über dieses Projekt wird von Martin Brown und Richard Osgood, zwei Archäologen des Britischen Verteidigungsministeriums, übernommen. Der Schwerpunkt der Arbeit wird darin bestehen Informationen über die Dritte Division der Australier zu erlangen, die damals in Messines kämpften. Die Schlacht um Messines gilt als eine der blutigsten Schlachten des ersten Weltkrieges. Die Gegend ist durch gewaltige Krater gezeichnet, erzeugt durch massive Minenexplosionen. Am 7 Juni 1917 zündete die Britische Zweite Armee 19 Minen, mit einer Sprengkraft von ca. 600 Tonnen, unter Deutschen Linien. 10.000 Mann verloren damals während der Explosion ihr Leben. Die gewaltigen Explosionen waren angeblich bis Dublin zu hören.

Mit Spannung erwarte ich das Projekt und hoffe, dass das Wetter angenehm sein wird, so dass wir in der kurzen Zeit vernünftig arbeiten können, und dass wir neben Artefakten auch Überreste finden, die wir gegebenenfalls identifizieren und zurück in die entsprechenden Länder überführen können. Zudem hoffe ich, dass ich in einem netten, internationalen Team einen Beitrag zur Geschichte leisten kann.

Our partners from Comines-Warneton

We have received emails from Jean-Michel, on behalf of the Comines-Warneton Historical Society. They are our key, local partners in the Plugstreet Project. Members of the group will be working with us on site and they have already helped with documentary research. Some members of the Society have plenty of experience in Great War archaeology and one member was associated with discovery and identification of Private Lancaster, about whom I wrote on 4th July. We are looking forwards to working with them.

Like us they have a blog and it includes details of two Great War exhibitions, as well as photos of the Flanders Giants, which are quite a phenomenon.

http://www.vanelslande.org/blog/

We intend that the excavation report will appear in the Society's Journal.

TV

Readers lucky enough to receive UK TV channel 5 might want to make a date in their diaries to be out tomorrow.

At 19:15 tomorrow (Tuesday) 5 will be starting a re-run of the series "Trench Detectives" which was their edited version of "Finding the Fallen". The series concentrates on our group No Man's Land and our work on five archaeological projects from the Western Front, including Serre, Loos and Beaumont Hamel.

Actually the series gives a fair idea of the process involved in excavating sites of this type and in the backstories one can uncover about individuals whose bodies and possessions are uncovered on the battlefields.

A number of the team who will be out at Plug Street are featured in the programmes, including a bizarre moment of Jon and Martin singing a Baptist hymn.

Rain, mud, more rain

Non-UK readers may not realise just how wet it has been over here this week. A quick google search on Upton-on-Severn or Tewkesbury should give you the general idea. Please god(s) let it stop raining before the project starts, otherwise it will look like the classic pictures of the Salient in 1917. Fingers crossed for a few days of no rain and a drying wind.

Initial German Perspective

For those who do not know me my name is Ralph Whitehead and I am what can be described as an historian with NML. I am quite pleased to be able to attend another NML dig and hopefully assist in identifying any finds the group makes. The Australian contingent is well represented and I look forward to meeting old friends and make some new ones. Some of you already know me and my interest in the German army. Hopefully all of the different perspectives of the fighting will allow us to piece together a better idea of the fighting and events that took place some 90 years ago.

In looking over the German side of the battle we will probably be running into men who served in the 9th Bavarian Infantry Regiment, an active regiment in the 4th Bavarian Division. This regiment or the others in the division, the 5th Bavarian IR and 5th Bavarian RIR held this portion of the line for some months prior to the attack. On 7 June 1917 the regiment had taken over from the 5th Bavarian RIR that had suffered heavy losses due to artillery fire. The III Battalion (9th, 10, 11th and 12th Companies) took over the sector where the mines were detonated, in fact the 12th Coy was positioned directly above the Ultimo mine. When the mines were set off this company suffered the worst losses followed by the 10th and 11th Companies, both of which lost a major part of their men in the initial blasts. The 9th Company was located in the intermediate terrain between the front line and the second line of defense. They occupied shell craters and strong points.

I looked over the available records for these units (9th and 5th Bavarian have regimental histories while the 5th Bavarian RIR did not publish anything in the post-war years). The 9th Bavarian IR had seen service in all main areas of the Western Front other than the fighting at Verdun in 1916. After reviewing the losses suffered by the regiment I found that the III Bn was the hard luck battalion in that they lost more men than the rest and the 12th Coy was the hard luck company having lost more men in the war by far than any other company in the regiment.

An example of this was the time they served on the Somme from 31 August 1916 through 18 September. In this period the regiment suffered heavily in the tank attack at Flers on 15 September where the III Battalion was virtually destroyed. The total losses for the 19 day period was 5 officers, 182 men killed; 20 officers, 776 men wounded and 20 officers, 540 men missing for a total of 45 officers and 1,498 men.

These losses required replacements and as such the men who were manning the trenches on 7 June were between the ages of 18 and 39. The losses suffered by the German Army required calling up the 1917 and 1918 Class of men early. 36 of the III Bn losses on 7 June were from these two classes.

In looking at the total losses for the regiment in the war the 9th Bavarians lost 3,758 officers and men killed; 134 officers and men who died from disease or accident; 346 officers and men missing; 8,630 officers and men wounded; 1,260 officers and men captured for a total of 14,128 casualties in the war.

In looking further at the losses I noted that one man from the 12th Coy listed as killed and presumed dead was a man born in New York. He was one of 6 fatal casualties that were born in the U.S. in this regiment, 4 from New York, 1 from Pennsylvania and one from a state yet to be identified. If these 6 were killed then I would suspect there would have been others serving in this regiment from the U.S. as well.

I will have additional details on the names of the men who have known graves and those we might possibly come across during the excavation as well as details on the uniforms and equipment most likely to be found as well. If anyone has any specific questions or inquiries please let me know over the next week or so and I will make sure I bring this information with me.

See you at the end of the month, possibly in Comines, possibly at Ypres, but eventually at Messines.

Ralph

An Australian Perspective

This is Michael Molkentin here. I am a historian and teacher from Wollongong, Australia; and following Richard's gracious invitation, will be attending the Ploegsteert excavation.

As a historian who has only experienced the Battle of Messines through paper records, I am curious to see how archaeology can contribute to our understanding of the battle. Pouring over the multitude of maps, war diaries and private accounts of the 33rd Battalion's advance at Trench 122, I have often struggled to visualise things like fields of fire, distances, the impact of flanks etc. These things should become clearer by just walking the ground, but given Flanders apparently (now) featureless geography, getting down into the dirt is probably the only way that we will really be able to appreciate the layout of the battle.

From an Australian perspective I also hope that this project will ignite some popuar interest in Western Front operations. Here in Australia most people tend to think that Australia's First World War experience began and ended at Gallipoli in 1915. Where there is some interest, it is usually based on a series of 'Blackadder' or Wilfred Owen style stereotypes. For example, when I recently spoke with a well-read ex-school principal about his grandfather who went missing during the Battle of Messines he commented "Tactics in the First World War? What tactics?". Believe me, after trawling through hundreds of pages of operations orders for the Messines operation there were certainly tactics employed. Major General Monash is reported to have even specified the distinct movements of individual sections in his scheme for the attack!

I have attached some results of some of my recent work at the Memorial. Firstly there is a sketch map of the crater that was consolidated by A Company on 7 June 1917. As it was right on the exposed flank of the entire operation it came under heavy fire. Most of the platoon tasked with taking it were killed and it was held throughout the day by seven men. That night, help arrived and established wired posts armed with Lewis guns.


The second map demonstrates the 33rd Battalion's objectives for 7 June 1917, all of which it achieved. Remarkably, the black line that the troops managed to dig very closely matched that prescribed in the operation orders before the attack.



Michael

Links

Thanks are due to Dr Dan Todman who has linked us to his Trench Fever site. You can return the favour by visiting his excellent blog here

http://trenchfever.wordpress.com/

Dan is at Queen Mary College, London and has written a number of key First War texts. He was also involved in the BBC Radio 4 programme on the "forgotten victory" of 1918 in a series entitled "Things we forgot to remember".

Around the Media

Richard gave an interview on Garrison Radio this lunchtime with the lovely Josette. It broadcasts to all major British Army garrisons in UK and as well as talking about our work here he also talked about the Plugstreet Project and our aspirations for the dig, as well as our view of the war (nobody mention futility, or lions and donkeys, okay?).

http://www.army.mod.uk/GarrisonRadio/

They have been great supporters of our work.

Meanwhile in the Kaiser's Bunker...

Actually the site www.kaisersbunker.com isn't quite as frivolous as it looks as it's got spottery detail on all manner of stuff but you know the real reason to go there is because of the pictures of the dachshund in a spiky helmet.

It's not all futility, you know (again, don't get me started on futility).

I was alterted to this excellent site by my chum Lucy on her blog http://livesbythewoods.blogspot.com/

Of maps and men

Yesterday we had our chum Peter Chasseaud visit. Peter is the foremost expert on the maps of the Great War as well as the Plug Street Project's artist in residence. He had brought some maps over and a selection of aerial photographs that are the fruits of his labours in the photographic collection at the Imperial War Museum.

The photos seem to show a British line that doesn't alter much but a German line that is constantly being strengthened and refortified. Until the 28th June 1917 AP that is. The Ultimo mine has clearly shattered the line and spread its upcast across the trenches, it was also possible to see hints of the refortification done by Anzac 3 Div. The picture was taken a fortnight after the mine was blown and shows how it became part of the fortifications. We know from written accounts that the Australians had practiced this type of work on Salisbury Plain (the British Army's main training ground) and have seen the crater there but it's interesting to see trenches. Digging might show what they actually did. We couldn't look closely at the crater here in UK because it has badgers living in it and they are protected by law!

Anyway thanks to Peter. Now we look forwards to Birger's results - he is our Belgian partner who is studying air photos of the front for his PhD.

By way of thanks to Peter we took him out to see some of our archaeology on the Plain, including some lovely practice trenches on Beacon Hill and some rather nice hillforts and burial mounds (we know how to entertain!).

Anniversaries, or not...

Last week there was a terrific hoo-hah in the UK media about the 90th Anniversary of the opening of the Third Battle of Ypres or Passchendaele as it is commonly remembered. There was a ceremony with attendant royals, the full ceremonial thing and our last veterans on parade. The tone was "90 years to the day", except it wasn't. The battle began on 31st July 1917 but I am told that by then the respective Royal families will have gone on holiday so the anniversary was shifted.

In a sense it doesn't really matter so long as the events and the fallen are comemorated but the innacurracy was very poor. I also heard the usual stuff about poor command and control and futility. One of the key things we have seen from the very inception of this project is that Messines was a model of preparation and of execution. Old General Plumer might look like Colonel Blimp but he knew his stuff and the troops were well prepared for the battle, which is why they did incredibly well. And that, my best beloved, is why the battle is forgotten - it doesn't fit the popular paradigm of the First World War.

Breaking News...TV Coverage

Thanks to many people (especially Mat),
We now have confirmation that the Film and TV office in Australia has agrees to provide funding so that the excavations at Messines will be filmed. WE hope to use this as the basis of a documentary for screening in Australia on the archaeological work. Obviously the storyboard of the programme will develop depending on what the excavations uncover. Still - very exciting news!

The Australian War Memorial

The AWM are a key partner in the project and were instrumental in its inception (actually it was in a pub near the UK National Army Museum where Pete Stanley of the AWM and Richard and I were discussing the Anzac practice trenches at the Bustard on Salisbury Plain, after that things just growed).

The AWM has a very good page leading to all sorts of information about the 1917-2007 Messines anniversary her:

http://blog.awm.gov.au/1917/

I commend it to you.

Amazing Trench Map evidence

This morning Richard posted a copy of a trench map kidly scanned for us by Michael Molkentin. It shows our area of digging with the gains and consolidations made by the Anzac troops as the advanced across No Man's Land toward and through the German lines. The Germans (Bavarians) were pretty disordered following the blowing of the mines.

The map appears to be on the fron page now but if it vanishes again, as it did earlier, go to the July menu in the bar on the right hand side of the screen to find and open it. The map is quite remarkable and well worth your perusal.

Exciting news from one of our Australian team members, Michael. One of the main project aims is to see how training on Salisbury Plain influenced (if at all) the effectiveness of combat units at Messines, specifically the Australian 3rd Division. We already have a large number of trench maps and aerial photos of the site from the Great War (thanks to another team member, Peter Chasseaud) but now have a specific map from the attacks of 7th June.

Michael has been to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and has located the 'Consolidation' map of the 33rd Btn; the unit that was detailed to capture the German lines at 'Ultimo' and 'Factory Farm' craters. This shows the re-wiring and new trenching of the 33rd Btn following their Messines success. This map is produced below with new work (as of post 7th June 1917) shaded.

We will build this into our survey work and will hope to explore further this summer...

Yesterday's Burials

The newspapers and news websites have all been carrying pieces about the funeral of the Lancashire Fusiliers that I was talking about yesterday. The BBC are now carrying this piece from their military history correspondent Peter Caddick-Adams of the UK Defence Academy:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6273292.stm

In the piece he describes the difficulties of arriving at any identification for the bodies that are still being recovered from the Western Front. He describes visiting the "Finding the Fallen" exhibition at the National Army Museum last year and learning how the smallest details could help identify a man.

I am proud to say that the exhibition was based on the work of No Man's Land http://www.no-mans-land.info/ and took it's title from a TV series that featured our work. NML is, of course, the lead body in the Plug Street Project and many of its members are key people in the August dig.

The BBC article underlines what I was trying to say yesterday - that attention to detail is important because it is those small clues, like the position of buttons on a cuff, that could make all the difference.

Great War Burials

According to today's BBC web pages the bodies of a number of Lancashire Fusiliers will be buried today with full military honours:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/6268464.stm

The men all fell during World War One and one of them has been identified as Private Richard Lancaster of the 2nd Battalion, who was killed near the dig site. The men are to be buried in Prowse Point Cemetery, en route to site. I imagine this means we will call in to pay our respects during the dig.

The BBC have also published a photograph of Mr Lancaster on the net. This is always something I find remarkable and difficult - in more normal archaeology is is far from usual to see the face of the person one has carefully exhumed but I have now had the experience of seeing the face Jakob Hones, who I helped recover in 2003. The frisson is remarkable but it really punches home the responsibility the excavator has to seek out each clue that might lead to a positive identification. If you want to know more about Jakob Hones then go to the No Man's Land pages and then look at the links.

Some people think the dead of the War should be left where they are but in an age of major development and agri-business that isn't an option so what you are left with is a responsibility to do the best job possible and to be respectful of the person in front of you as you try to recover their earthly remains and the artefacts that can help identify them.

Cheery stuff but at least you now know it's not digging folk up for fun!

Is anyone there?

Am I doing this for my own bemusement? If you are reading this please do leave a comment.

Thanks

Martin

Conference Time

14th July sees Martin co-chairing the annual Conflict Archaeology conference at the Royal Logistics Corps Museum at Deepcut (yes that Deepcut) in Surrey.

Papers include the Plug Street Project's own Peter Masters, who will describe the geophysical survey he undertook on a Great War landscape in ... Wiltshire! Salisbury Plain is still a major Army Training Area, as it was in 1914. Out near Shipton Bellinger there are the in-filled remains of practice trenches. They are visible on aerial photographs but no longer extant as earthworks. Peter undertook a magnetometer survey of a large part of the site and his results are amazing. Come along to find out more.

http://www.army.mod.uk/rlc/rlc_shop_museum/index.htm

Other papers will include the No Man's Land Project at Thiepval Wood on the Somme where we are working alongside the Somme Association to open, record and reconstruct trenches in the Wood from which the 36 (Ulster) Division attacked on 1st July 1916. There will also be something on the Zeppelin offensive and contributions covering Neolithic warfare, WW2 chemical weapons (British!) and the contribution made by archaeology to the study and crime scene analysis of combat and war crimes sites in the Balkans.

Tickets are £20 but it'll be worth every penny!

http://www.army.mod.uk/rlc/rlc_shop_museum/index.htm

Next year we'll have the first Plug Street Project to talk about! Scary Thought!

It's getting worryingly close to the first spadeful

July. Crumbs, it's July! At the end of this month we actually have to start digging holes and making sense of the site. At least we know we have a crack team in the field (no pressure guys) and some good friends waiting in the wings to help us out.

Last Friday Richard and I were pleased to see Dr Rob Janaway from Bradford University, who gave us some invaluable advice on conservation of finds. Although some of the techniques are standard for archaeological sites the relative newness of some of the materials, notably the organics, means that care and flexibility may be the order of the day. Between Rob and NML finds supremo Luke have excellent support.

In the meantime we are watching the weather and hoping that the pea crop in M. Delrue's field will be lifted in time for the launch of the project. Watching the weather is a common preoccupation at the minute. Belgium has been having similar weather to the UK and Claude (patron of the excellent Auberge) has told us to bring our wet suits. Mind you, they were saying on the TV that it was the wettest June since 1914 and I keep comforting myself with the thought that July and August 1914 were remarkably good, giving that image of the Edwardian Summer that ends on 4th August (a bit like the project).