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[QUOTE=gblowfish;On those 70 square miles, it is estimated that more than 1,000 shells fell per square mile during the battle. The land was totally pulvarized, at least a half dozen french villages no longer exist to this day, because they were in the Zone Rouge and the French Government forbade rebuilding them.[/QUOTE]
I read (I can't remember if it was in "A Storm in Flanders" or "Now it can be Told") Passchendaele got the same treatment tilling up the soil to a depth of around 4-5ft. then it rained for days and days and days creating a muck something like quicksand. Men were literally drowning in the shit. One of the soldiers talked about seeing men drowning in mud and not having the heart to mercy shoot them, so they had to watch many of them slowly sink away.
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