Some site record shots

As you will sense, Ian has been very busy. the three above photos are some of his record shots of the trenches excavated in 2007. Top is Steve L's team trench with Australian recut of demolished German trench. Middle is Steve R.'s team trench through the trench that presumably led to a punker which illustrates the 33rd Btns reuse of what was left of the German line. The bottom image is Dan's team excavation of the Lewis gun sap. The lighting for these sondages (in woodland and very sunny) was incredibly tricky and thus the results are really fantastic.

Ian's Images

Those of you on site in 2007 will remember the presence of Ian R. Cartwright, photographer with the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. Ian brought his box camera with him and took plate photographs on site in much the same way as Frank Hurley did in following the Australian 3rd Division. His stunning results are presented below. We have also included the original Hurley image of the Australian 3rd Div artillery limber (Richard's grandfather's old mob!) to illustrate the motivation for Ian's studies. The images speak for themselves and we hope to be able to announce their exhibition alongside some of the Messines finds at some point.

'Spoils of Archaeology': detritus of war emerging from the excavated trenches

'Front Line dirt': part of the (enormous) spoil heap from the bunker trench

'Life in no-man's land': Mr Delrue's crop emerges in no-man's land.

Entitled 'Anzacs' - Michael in the Australian Lewis Gun sap


Entitled 'Fallen Remembered' - Tori and Ralph laying the wreath at the Ploegsteert Memorial


Entitled 'Sap Team' Danny and his team (with Martin and Richard) at the Lewis sap


'Generations': Tori and Kirsty by the German bunker with the church of Messines in the distance


'Peace Dig' - Jo and Becki looking on as the Australian recut of the German front line is dug


'Messines Ridge' taken from no-man's land


'Shell burst' - Tangled iron work from Jon's excavation of the shell crater


Archaeological Limber - Ian's take on the famous Hurley photo of the gun team (below)

More news on the re-burial...find Mat and Michael..

Many more images of the events surrounding the re-burial of the 5 Australian soldiers are present at this location: http://www.forumeerstewereldoorlog.nl/viewtopic.php?t=10901

The images are noteworthy not simply for their recording of this event, but also for capturing evidence of Mat and Michael in suits!!! (they appear in two or three images. I'll leave you to find them...) oh, and what appears to be a Belgian military outside urinal!

This site also includes images on the Anzac rugby match played as part of the commemmorations in Belgium (sadly not featuring either an Australian scrum that posesses a reverse gear, nor a ref that allows forward passes v the New Zealanders!), and of the launch of the Passchendaele Australian walk put together (I think) by Franky and his team with elements of the miltiary railway used by, amongst others, 'our' 33rd Btn.

Re-burial of Australian Soldiers

5 Australian soldiers killed at the battle of Passchendaele were yesterday re-buried at Buttes military cemetery. Their remains had been discovered by Belgian workers laying a pipeline and were recovered by a team lead by Franky Bostyn. DNA analysis has led to two of the individuals being identified. Our Australian film crew that covered the Messines dig filmed the event, hopefully for inclusion in the documentary of our work and Michael and Mat from the dig team were also in attendance. Some newslinks are present below:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071004/wl_nm/australia_passchendaele_soldiers_dc

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/quest-for-identity-laid-to-rest-in-flanders-fields/2007/10/04/1191091276328.html

http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=383&sid=1261590