WWI munitions transferred safely

Bomb displosal experts are handling 85-year-old munitions

LILLE, France -- Seven trucks carrying munitions from World War I have arrived at a French army base.

Lethal phosgene and mustard gas shells arrived on Monday after being transferred from a depot that was in danger of exploding.

Nearly 500 soldiers, police and ambulances accompanied the convoy on an overnight journey from Vimy, near Lille in northern France.

The local government office said the five-hour trip to an army base in Suippes, southeast of Vimy, had gone off without a problem and the cargo would be stored in concrete underground bunkers.

The Vimy Ridge was the site of a bloody Canadian assault on German trenches in 1917. More than a million shells were fired at the Germans by the Allies in the build-up to the battle, including many containing chemicals.

Mustard gas was the most feared and lethal of these. Contact with it causes internal bleeding, blindness and slow destruction of the lungs.

Prime Minister Lionel Jospin paid a late-night visit to Vimy before the convoy left. He had ordered the evacuation of around 13,000 people on Friday from the area after cracks were discovered in some of the munitions containers.

The compound, known locally as "Bear's Mouth," has acted for 25 years as a dump for the munitions that are still regularly found in fields and beaches throughout northern France.

Some 173 tonnes of bombs, shells and mines are stacked in the compound, including shells containing mustard gas, phosgene and other chemicals.

A three kilometre (1.8 mile) exclusion zone was set up around the depot, and residents were told they might not be able to return to their home for up to 10 days while the ordnance was made safe.

Sunday's operation to transfer the munitions was delayed after a minor phosgene leak from one of the shells.

The vapour cloud was contained almost immediately by a wall of water sprays installed by local fire services.

"We had it under control in a half hour," said Remy Pautrat, a leading regional official.

He added that the leak proved authorities were right to evacuate the area.

The munitions were transferred in freezer trucks to make sure the gases inside remained inert and will later be unloaded into silos formerly used to stock nuclear warheads.

"There's absolutely nothing to fear there," said General Francois Gaubert, regional commander of France's northern defence force.

"We're talking about a site that was used for decades as a hold for nuclear warheads.

"Even if the whole lot blew up, nothing would get out."

Disposal of WWI ordnance continues
April 15, 2001
Weapons fear sparks mass evacuation
April 13, 2001

Vimy War Memorial
French Government

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