Question 663 : Farms of Steel

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It has been estimated that, for every square metre of territory on the front from the coast to the Swiss border, a tonne of --------------- fell. One shell in every 4 (some sources say one in every 3 did not ------ 

Given the swamp-like conditions of trench warfate in the period, the weapons - in the form of ___________________________- buried themselves on impact or were otherwise quickly swallowed in the mud. As time passes, construction work, field ploughing and natural processes bring the rusting s____ to the surface. Most of the __X__ is found during the spring planting and autumn ploughing.

In Belgium, X discovered by farmers is carefully placed around field edges, or in gaps in telegraph poles, where it is regularly collected by the Belgian army for disposal by controlled explosion at a specialist centre near Houthulst.

Gas canisters and grenades need greater care as the gas remains poisonous and volatile long after many explosives have perished. The town of Vimi and the villages of Farbuf, Willerval, Acheville and Arleux-en-Gohelle were evacuated in April 2001 when mustard started to leak from X that had been gathered by the French Département du Déminage for disposal

Belgium has a disposal facility that can deal with most kinds of ---- at Poelkapelle, built after ocean dumping of stopped in 1980. Once extracted by the army, the gas chemicals are burned and destroyed at high temperatures at specialized facilities -----