Hi Kid and Pete. A few weeks back ,a friend and I did a 4 day tour of World War 1 battlefields etc. We were at Ypres in Belgium and the Somme in France. The amount of Australian soldiers among the graves was starling. We were at numerous places where young men ,fought ,died and were buried. One British ( British, Australian ,Irish etc) had 12,000 graves. A German army graveyard had 44,000 graves of which 25,000 unknown German soldiers are buried in a pit approx. 30 feet by 40 feet. 10 bodies from WW1 are being found every year still and to me the most unreal fact is this : WW1 ended in 1918, 91 years ago but twice a day, every day the Belgian army is destroying explosives that are still being dug up /stockpiled and it will take another 40 years to finish that job. While walking through one field which was under tillage ,we found a piece of an exploded shell ,bits of barbed wire and other assorted bits of metal. I dont know how many Aussies/Kiwis died in that war ,but approx 70,000 Irish men died fighting in the British army. My wifes grandfather fought ,and we are researching his war records at the moment. What an unreal waste of young men ,from all places. There were 56 nationalities engaged on the Western Front.
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Subject: Lest We Forget 
Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:47 pm
