Meet the team still cleaning up after World War I | Zone Rouge

Meet the team working tirelessly to clear the Zone Rouge in northeastern France from the deadly debris of the First World War.
Directed by Dominique van Olm
Producer: Darren Snowden
Watch 'Zone Rouge' on Aeon: aeon.co/videos/clearing-the-z...
Watch more free videos on Aeon: aeon.co/videos
Subscribe to the Aeon Video newsletter: bit.ly/2MfCgqO
Follow us on Twitter: / aeonmag
Follow us on Facebook: / aeonmag
Follow us on Instagram: / aeonmag
‘We are a service responsible for removing danger.’
A century after the final shots of the First World War were fired, the nearly unfathomable scale of the conflict’s destruction still scars much of Europe, including northeast France, where some of the most intense and protracted fighting took place. Rusting munitions there pose a danger beyond just polluting the land and water - some grenades and shells are still capable of detonating if jostled by passersby. In this short documentary, the Canadian filmmaker Dominique van Olm captures the tireless efforts of the small team of démineurs tasked with safely removing First World War weapons from a stretch of France known as the Zone Rouge - a series of areas so heavily bombarded during the war that, at its end, they were deemed unfit for human habitation. With this unique and dangerous line of work as her centerpiece, van Olm not only highlights the longterm devastation of armed conflict, but also crafts a portrait of mission-based camaraderie that inverts the traditional war film.

[@gubbothehuggo2771]

"It hasn't changed its purpose. It is absolutely honest." That's what's so easy to forget

[@BenRomm-bu9qb]

Chilling, in his tone, as well

[@jlo7770]

I mean... if you're messing with with an unexploded bomb what do you expect? This thinking is why 90% of the world can't have guns cuz they're too dumb to handle them lol

[@bulldogstrut1]

My wife and I visited the WWI battlefields from Ypres to Verdun in 1978. We were moved to tears seeing the destruction still very evident all around us. What a terrible tragedy WWI was.

[@Kysushanz]

What a terrible tragedy ALL wars are! Wars; conducted by young men and started by old fools. Make a law which says that the politicians are the first to be conscripted in the event of a war and let's see how keen they are then for a war.

[@simonkevnorris]

I've also visited Ypres, Verdun and the Somme. Some of the museum's around Ypres had shell holes that were the same size and evenly spaced out like they had been dug that way. When I've seen shell holes elsewhere they've been varying sizes and dispersal. My first visit to Verdun was on a damp day and there was mist in the forrest. Very spooky! Vimyq Ridge was worth the visit. I was aware that both sides dug tunnels but not the extent they were dug. There are many tunnels still in existence with explosives in them. Some of these tunnels have blown up due to a lightning strike. There are groups of engineers that search for these tunnels and early some have lost their lives.

[@johnciummo3299]

My wife and I have made 7 trips to the Western Front. The area around Verdun is haunting. You can go off trail and within a few yards see the unexploded shells laying just above the surface. Every years a few french farmers are killed when their tractors run over one of these shells. Tragic!

[@JFKismyhusband_]

Do you have any recommendations on where to visit?

[@johnciummo3299]

You should go to Verdun and the surrounding forts. Amazing! Also visit the Somme battlefields. This was the British sector during the war. Two British war memorials you must visit are the Menin Gate in Ypres and famous Thiepval Memorial. Absolutely incredible. There are more than 1200 British cemeteries in that sector and each one is heartbreaking some are small and some are enormous.

[@ianabcdefg8632]

​@JFKismyhusband_ Visit Fort duamont it's commercialized but worth it.. Also go to the ossuare de duoamont it's a bone house basicly with hundred thousand of unknown soldiers remains behind glas windows etc.. And also a burial site. Memorial de Verdun is also a nice visit it's a small museum also close by. We went to fort souville too No commercial shit just the fort the turrets etc it's amazing to visit. it's very close duamont for those brave enough you can easily acces both the moving turret "bunker" and see it's internals but also the fort souville itself We spend about 1.5 h inside it's in good shape. Just make sure you go with some one else and have spare flashlight.. The fort itself is nicely exploravle with good footwear. The turret bunker has a few large floor holes so be careful. With the whole souville area there are signs saying forbidden entry military area blablabla.. but there is not a living soul so😊. Enjoy we visited allot of places there this is just a small visit.

[@JFKismyhusband_]

@@johnciummo3299 thank you so very much! I’ll definitely have to plan a visit sounds so incredible and surreal thank you! Best of wishes to you and your wife God bless 😊🙏🏻

[@johnciummo3299]

Your welcome.​@@JFKismyhusband_

[@hunterprowsemrereviews9141]

The hell and misery that is WWI, will forever haunt the land with which it was fought on. I had a great great uncle that fought in WWI. He was known to us as uncle Charlie. When my grandpa and great uncles would ask him about it, he never talked to them about it much. Simply stating, the things I had to comprehend in that hell are things that shouldn’t be comprehended by either the human mind, or human spirit. And that was it. He died in 1991 shortly after I was born. Grandpa told me that uncle Charlie actually held me as an infant, right before he died, and said this one is going to do great things. But his experience and memories of what he seen in WWI he took with him to his grave.

[@rustynail7609]

Uncle Charlie would be real proud you made such a great comment!

[@hunterprowsemrereviews9141]

@@rustynail7609 oh for sure!

[@Nyx571]

Im from mexico, no relationship to anyone from france, yet i cant help but want to visit france to pay respects to all the soldiers who lost their lives in this conflict.

[@NathanCatherall]

It’s just such a tragedy that the effects of a conflict that ended well over 100 years ago are still claiming innocent lives. I have the greatest respect for the people who do this work. Being from Great Britain, I had relatives who fought in both world wars. And with global tensions rising, I hope that people can look back upon the mistakes of the past and never allow such a hideous event to occur again.

[@simonestreeter1518]

It ended well, did it? It was utterly unnecessary in the first place, and Britain played a shameful part in getting it started. I am sorry for the average British civilian who was duped into thinking it was crucial, which includes my great-grandfather who was a prisoner of war in France. I agree, a hideous event, and one seemingly likely to be starting again, by the same interests that have arranged the last two. I hope people will finally speak out against the carnage in Ukraine, and push their leaders for peace.

[@catey62]

They wont, unfortunately. as human beings we are destined to destroy each other. and as a 61 year old woman, it scares me now what is going on in the world right now.

[@dougtheviking6503]

Nope, no one learns at least countries that have politicians.

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

All the people who cheer on the war in Ukraine should take note

[@darlingps]

For ESL readers: "well over" is an English expression meaning "much longer than"

[@malexder0082]

I lived in Verdun for four years in the 60s. I remember well the areas we could play and those where we could not go. Every kid knew not to touch munitions, which were all over.

[@lancemillward2462]

i was transfixed by this documentary. Beautifully put together.

[@ncc74656m]

When you watch something like this, when you see how dangerous it still can be living on French soil, it's astounding to me that people don't understand why France was still war weary 20 years later and why they couldn't stomach another fight that would be almost exclusively on their soil. The vast majority of the entire war was fought there.

[@FacadeWitch]

The last time someone touched that piece of ordinance was over 100 years ago when a soldier loaded it into an artillery piece, crazy to think.

[@IGuessIDoThings]

It’s kinda surreal how insane countries were to just completely annihilate each other that people are still dealing with it 100 years later

[@blocviking]

I often wonder what vietnam is like. I know in the former Yugoslav republics there are areas they tell people to avoid cause of the unexploded ordinance.

[@Rese516]

They “insane countries” are still doing it😵‍💫

[@russthebiker]

@@blocviking there are EOD people working there now, dismantling and making safe ordnance , but the maps they have do not always tie up with locations, its usually when children play with them and get killed they find another batch, plus you have three wars in Vietnam so thats even more ordnance buried

[@robertpontisso4953]

Retired Army EOD ,having worked a World War 2 battle ground in the pacific we found ordnance every day.

[@theuniongamer4552]

Okinawa?

[@TubeRadiosRule]

Demineurs...those guys have brass balls! Salute!

[@stevea9604]

I worked in the US Navy EOD…This was done so well and it is so spot on…

[@louisimission2153]

Thanks for sharing. Important to whitness the consequences of war. With highest hopes for the saftey of the brave men doing this work. Thank You.

[@limabravo6065]

When i worked at Sandia we were dismantling a pretty old weapon. Apparently there had been some kind of fault in the manufacture of the high explosives that surround nuclear pit that gets squished to create the runaway chain reaction etc etc... well the explosive lenses are made of two types of H.E. with one having a slightly faster rate of detonation, and it was this faster detonating explosive that had been made from a bad batch of boom. If youve ever seen the show LOST when they find the ship in the jungle with the old dynamite that had "sweated" and become unstable. Thats what we were dealing with, not to the extreme as seen in the show but ya know Nuke. Now for the time that weapon series was built they were amoung the most advanced bits of tech humanity had ever built and still something like that happened. So i cant imagine how utterly unstable the compounds in those shells are after 100 years of weathering. Hats off to you lads and your government should be held to account for not providing somewhere to dispose of those damn things, rather than keeping them in storage and just waiting for someone else to die

[@dammitdan106]

Wondering about stability of NorK, Russian, Chinese and Israeli warheads. Yeesh.

[@harsh_yadavrao]

Heros of REAL WORLD, also this video, a kind of DOCUMENTARY is Awesome too, Love from 🇮🇳

[@simonestreeter1518]

Ces vieillards sont des vrais hommes. J'ai les larmes aux yeux.

[@glenmartin2437]

Thank you. My grandmother was French but lived in what is now northern Italy. Thank you to these brave men who clean up the French lands. Godspeed.

[@fun2916]

My grandfather told me this area was avoided even during WWII due to all the leftover munitions

[@thefriedrice4489]

Amazing! Such a dangerous and honorable job, thank you for what they do

[@NeilAlexander-wv6sj]

Absolutely fascinating. Very brave people. Stay safe my friends.

[@Blarg5290]

I'm surprised that they simply pull shells out of the ground by hand like that at 1:27 without knowing if it is unstable or not. Seems like those things could detonate just from being moved.

[@Lucale100]

großen respekt für ihre arbeit

[@jannisares]

They have their work cut out for them. I pray for their safety.

[@hemaneatspizza9111]

When he was talking about the story where two people were killed moving the un exploded munitions shows how the war from 100 years ago can leave scars on the people of the land where it happened. You can see the PTSD in his eyes when he talks about it. The war is still able to kill, and its purpose is never finished. Lest We Forget.

[@smithy280663]

amazing........these people do amazing work.

[@dammitdan106]

You want to work with the big shells. When they detonate, you won't know it. Just disintegrate and move into the afterlife.

[@OLMasterChief]

Fellow yank here, what you guys are doing is extremely important. Thank you for your sacrifice and bravery everyday trying to make the world a safer place from the consequences of war. May God bless you all involved.

[@downeyd88]

Great video, and great perspective story telling.

[@moosehead482]

In a sad sort of way, I find this utterly fascinating. WW1 is still so misunderstood...

[@davidmartin2957]

Total respect, something I had never thought about.

[@julianprice1587]

Wow, these are brave people, doing such important work.

[@SandervkHistory]

Absolutely amazing video!

[@receiving9067]

It still amazes me and leaves me dumbfounded how we're still finding live shells in the dirt left over from a war that ended over a century ago

[@Christoph-lv9tc]

Many thanks for your dedication to the work; may God grant you a safe, long, and happy life!

[@williamyamm8803]

Très bon documentaire. Merci !!!

[@michaeloliveri1907]

Much respect

[@jeffyoung60]

Job security for the next two centuries? No worries about recessions, depressions, job layoffs, everything. Insane.

[@TheThatoneguy12121]

As someone in another video said that gave me insight on the battle of Verdun; "the batlle of verdun for exemple in 1916, where at the begining of the battle, the Germans fired 80k artillery shells in 20 hours on French positions. 50 millions shells fired during the entire battle on both sides. 700k soldiers (French and German) has casualities (around 300k deaths and 400k wounded) during this battle that lasted 10 months. 80% of the casualities due to artillery."

[@kevinconrad6156]

Heroes.

[@DLYChicago]

Insane. Over a century later, the land is still scarred and the war still has casualties.

[@newbeginnings8566]

Merci

[@ballygeale1]

God bless and stay safe

[@yl9154]

De braves héros. Merci.

[@seymourpro6097]

Between the era of horse ploughing and the era of diesel tractor ploughing the UK had steam ploughing engines. Two engines would winch a plough across a field and back. These people could use a system like this where a remote winch could pull a plough blade through the earth. This would mean that people need not be with the plough so inadvertent explosions would not hurt anyone.

[@tomaslopez2940]

What I wonder is whether Zone Rouge saw any more fighting during WW2, since the Germans and the allies fought in the same region at the beginning and end of the war.

[@martinjf467]

Merci Mssrs....

[@hfl7393]

What do they do with the collected shells?

[@mikemike9449]

Two lives lost, countless lives saved

[@mutualbeard]

War is insane.

[@BERNTRR]

Can someone explain to me why he just throws it around when taking it out, but they then treat them with such care after? He even lost 2 people while they were reorganizing crates, probably very carefully, how come he lobs them around in the first clips we see om him removing shells?

[@YourFaceisPretty]

I'm also quite curious. Is it something to do with them being wet? I didn't think that made them necessarily inert, but I don't know anything. Or does he know something about those particular kinds of shells? Jeez, what a job!

[@BERNTRR]

@@YourFaceisPretty right

[@Dog.soldier1950]

Their French

[@JohnViinalass-lc1ow]

vous agissez autant pour la planete que pour la republique, copains courageux

[@daveblackburn5393]

Well done documentary. But if you are going to write the translation in English make the text bigger so y can read it better. Thanks for sharing. Herr Dave blackburn

[@firebird6522]

I wonder... were any WWII soldiers killed by unexploded ordinance from WWI?

[@aleisterlavey9716]

Good Question.

[@furchicken]

Definitely. Areas from WW1 were fought over again in WW2 and so soldiers would have come in contact with ordinance.

[@chrisbrown8640]

@@furchicken Same as the area around Waterloo.....

[@user-xs9zr9xs4c]

The iron harvest

[@davis_8082]

13:00 I know this guys last thoughts were ''Oh fuck'' PS: Imagine your outside or in another room, you hear a big explosion and come to see your friends splattered around the walls and ammo crates...

[@morstyrannis1951]

It's a bit jarring to see how nonchalantly they handle the ordinance. I wonder what was different about the shell he refers to that exploded? Was there any way to know it wasn't as safe and stable as the others?

[@NIKOLASAV1]

Amazing and very poignant documentary.

[@johnoh7705]

Might not want to touch those munitions. When that metal gets exposed to the new elements the metal could have a negative reaction to the change in temperature.

[@bushratbeachbum]

You're a bomb disposal expert too? Where are you working?

[@strikezero01]

I remember decade ago when ww1 bomb mine/bomb sweeper, also bomb disposal unit and a reporter, walk along those danger zone, stumble upon a decaying bomb which its explosive chemical is start to become so corrosive that it melts the bomb expert's clothing when contact. Those are one of those remnant hiding under vegetation since the end of WW1.

[@shawncalderon4950]

If the metal came from the ground, how would it hurt the ground?

[@AO840AMSampson]

British EOD look at health and safety here😂

[@thierrylaffitte]

musique beaucoup trop forte sur le dialogue

[@coltonberry9935]

3:52 This is one of the dopest 4x4 trucks I've ever seen

[@jannisares]

I hate war.

[@firebird6522]

Wow, aren't you profound?

[@godmodeus9150]

lo que le espera a ucrania

[@marchammermann9124]

Hopefully the real strength of human is not to divide and forget and to start it all over again and again. I'm not german I'm not frech I'm a european !!!

[@SMGJohn]

In Ukraine, they will be struggling to do the same in the year 2100, war is tragic, but even more tragic are Imperialist wars. Wars fought for resources, not for ideological reasons.

[@lsq7833]

Ukraine is nowhere close to WW1 when it comes to ordnance use. We're comparing a war where millions of shells are fired in a year across the entire frontline with a war that saw the same quantities fired in mere days across a single battlefield.

[@SMGJohn]

@@lsq7833 You do realise millions of mines are planted in Ukraine on a frontline far bigger than the French theatre. The problem is not the scale of it, the problem is when you get big distances like whats seen in Ukraine, you also get a much harder time to clear up the battlefield.

[@TheMsAlexthesinger]

La stupidite de l'humain n'a pas de limites

[@neilmckay8649]

Vietnam must be worse, the jungle terrain, power and complexity of the ordinance, etc.

[@carcher3279]

And Laos and Cambodia. Same thing there.

[@johngaither9263]

Not a fraction of the ordinance in SE Asia as in France. That and it's distributed over a very wide area. The ordinance in France is restricted to very confined areas where the trenches were dug and the lines changed little if any for the four years of the war.

[@openphoto]

And our dumbasses still fight wars

[@1Dougloid]

Ukraine.