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Taco Cowboy writes:
"FoxNews is reporting the discovery of a WW1 trench system in the UK, and how the war transformed Britain.
Two lines of trenches face off across No Man's Land. A soldier marches, rifle in hand, along a ditch. These are instantly familiar images of World War I
In the heathland on England's south coast long forgotten trenches are being discovered. Thousands of troops trained here to take on the German army. The trenches, near the town of Gosport, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of London, were rediscovered a few months ago by Robert Harper, head of conservation at the local council. Several other sets of practice trenches have been found in Britain, but this is easily the most extensive. Conservation body English Heritage, which announced the find Friday, said the task of mapping and documenting the site has just begun. The trenches are being used to reveal how the Great War transformed Britain - physically as well as socially. As living memories of the conflict fade, historians hope these physical traces can help preserve the story of the war for future generations."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday March 13 2014, @07:40PM
In a densely populated island, I'm surprised these were ever "forgotten", in fact I sort of doubt it. Probably the young generation shown in the pictures find them new, but I suspect historians (local and national) always knew about these.
I've visited places in the US that still have battlements, earth works, gun emplacements dating back to the revolutionary war, the Civil war, and WWII. Pill boxes in Sitka Alaska, Naval Gun emplacements in Cross Sound (rusted guns still in place). Abandoned radio antenna stations, POW camps, and induction camps from both world wars can be found in several states.
Local historical museums and historical society documented all of these places. With the UK's sense of history, I doubt these places were ever really forgotten.
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(Score: 2, Informative) by n1 on Thursday March 13 2014, @09:45PM
We have a lot of history in the UK from hundreds of years ago, and from a hundred years ago. That however doesn't mean we know everything between then and now, and things like those trenches would not be immediately obvious to have any value in preserving. In the scope of WWI these trenches were a sentence in a paragraph in a chapter in one of the many volumes of the book on WWI. There was no value in preserving them or remembering at the time, allowing them to be rediscovered now on a slow news day.
The national and probably more likely local historians may have had access to the information, but if anyone actually 'knew' about it is a different proposition, which I doubt given the reports. So while it might be on record, it actually being 'known' I think plays out more like this;
You/Historian: Do we have information on military activity locally during WWI?
Local Council: "Yes information pertaining to activities regarding troop movements locally in WWI are located in file cabinet 565241B, drawer 3. Unless someone else took it out and didn't write it in the log. Also not sure where that file cabinet is..."
You: Oh...
And even if you managed to find it, you'd probably find that trenches were constructed directly by MoD/Army without local oversight, so you'd have to file a request with the MoD for the information which they may or may not respond to, in either case you'd need to know all the information you were looking for already, in order to request it. If your request didn't tally with their records (ie, wrong dates/administrative regions, then your request would be returned blank, as no information was available). You might hope for in 6 months time when the Army is doing a new PR campaign all the information you wanted suddenly comes out as part of a 'support the troops' presentation...
I'll stop being cynical now.
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Thursday March 13 2014, @10:25PM
It was in fact a historian with the local council that started looking into these, according to the story. Probably after someone started asking questions based on Google maps as Dunbal suggests in his post below.
But that's not the only location. There were many more further north near Sheffield according to this document (complete with maps) http://www.pals.org.uk/sheffield/redmires.pdf [pals.org.uk]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.