Industrial-scale destruction of old chemical ammunition near Verdun: a forgotten chapter of the Great War

Abstract

During the Great War, ammunition had been used on an unprecedented scale in the canton of Spincourt, near Verdun. From 1919, two huge chemical ammunition dumps were created there. The French army started their destruction. From 1920, civilian companies took over this work. New methods for safely breaking down chemical shells were then developed in France. The firm Clere & Schwander operated two factories in Spincourt using open-burning and washout methods to destroy ammunition. A third site was used for open-detonation. Later, 200,000 arsenical shells were burned in the forest of Spincourt by a second firm. To this day, no vegetation grows at this location. Severe pollution was also identified at Clere & Schwander sites resulting in crop destruction. Spincourt is an example of the ignorance of soil contamination left behind by WWI in land-use planning. Furthermore, a perchlorate contamination of drinking water is observed at regional scale along or near the former front in France. It is probably linked with perchlorate high explosives left on battlefields and / or on ammunition destruction sites. But an agricultural origin is also possible. Further research is needed to assess the risks and to restore the memory of the forgotten sites and contaminations.