war damage visible today

[Khaki]

Has anyone started a thread with photo's of the above and where they are located, if so I haven't found it yet, war damage images of bullet holes, shell splinter effects etc in towns and cities in F&F is what I mean although we really should include the UK. I imagine separating GW damage from WW2 damage might be a problem.

khaki

[Guest exuser1]

The normal one shown in UK is Cleopatras Needle on the Embankment , I believe that in Paris there may be evidence of the damage caused by the Paris Gun?

[centurion]

Do you count the rather large holes on the Somme and at Messines etc?

[beestonboxer]

The only thing I have seen from the Great War time period of any kind of battle damage are the bullet holes that are in the colums outside the General Post Office in Dublin caused during the Easter Rising 1916. Plenty of images on Google.

[douglynn]

Ww2 damage outside victoria and albert museum

[Guest exuser1]

Still a bit of damage for the citadel where the Historial is on the Somme ,and Couchy Le Chateau has wide spread damage,and Le Quesnoy of course .

[tootrock]

Damage to the plinth of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London, was caused by the heat from a bonfire lit by the crowds celebrating the signing of the Armistice (so actually just post-war!).

Martin

[Tom Morgan]

Boulevard Saint-Michel, Paris. Damage from the bombardment of Paris, 20th January 1918, and also from fighting for the liberation of the city, 25th August, 1944.

[Guest]

I think there quite a number of bullet holes at the back of the Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle. Possibly WW2 damage.

Mike

[Tom Morgan]

The rear of the tower at the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux is possibly even more peppered than the front.

[MikeyH]

Again of WW2 date, a statue of Queen Victoria on the Parade in Leamington Spa was moved one inch on its plinth by a H.E. bomb which fell nearby. It remains slightly askew to this day.

Mike.

[Khaki]

Thank you for the replies, in the UK I was thinking of damage caused by the GW German naval coastal raids,( I understand that major building damage has long since been repaired), although the last time I was in London, I think 1974, it was pointed out to me the obvious variations in the color of bricks in residential areas where homes had been demolished during the blitz and rebuilt later. I was also thinking of damage caused by zeppelin raids. In F&F, possibly towns or villages that suffered during WW1 but remained untouched during WW2. Isolating GW damage maybe almost impossible, but I was just curious.

khaki

[trajan]

Another WW2 one is Bristol City Museum, a column in the main hall with a large brass plaque next to it reporting how the damage was done during a German air raid. I mention it to raise a slight chuckle as it is by the main staircase on the way to the Art Gallery and every time one of my then colleagues used to pass it, at least twice a day on the way to his office, he would (pre-MPython) mutter "Don't mention the war", that's what they all say, but they never allow me to forget it'. I always felt a bit sorry for him, but always understood his reaction, given that he was German...

[WhiteStarLine]

To keep with the OP's WW1 theme, here are 3 F&F showing contemporary WW1 damage. The first one shows shrapnel in a wall at Suzanne, from August 1918:

The second shows a brickstack at Heilly, destroyed by German shelling late in April 1918, also site of a famous crash.

The third is one of my favourites, as it shows the enduring legacy of WW1 on everyday life. It was pointed out by a local, otherwise you would never know. Every 15 years or so, this 1918 anti-tank trap, dug on the Menin Road and wide enough to stop Mark V tanks, subsides enough to be refilled and resurfaced. How many day trippers, rushing to the water slides at Bellewarde, realise that a WW1-related repair causes the slight bump as they drive over?

[John Cubin]

This stone is in Mametz Cemetery. It has taken a serious clout on its Western corner which has shifted the top block. Fanciful, perhaps, but I'd like to think that this was an attempt to take out the nearby German machine gun which caused such damage to the Devonshires on 1/7/16.

[centurion]

The rear of the tower at the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux is possibly even more peppered than the front.

Dating from 1940. I understand that Hitler was rather annoyed about it - he may have had the odd unpleasant foible but believed strongly that cemeteries and memorials should be respected.!

[centurion]

Tootrock,

The Armistice marked the end of hostilities; the war itself ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919, so you can describe this as war damage!

Incorrect. There was more than one armistice so that hostilities did not end everywhere and with everyone at the same time 11/11 1918 was the last "end of hostilities" (and was only temporary and a new one had to be signed in early 1919) but Versailles only ended the War for Britain (and France) with Germany separate peace treaties were not signed ending war with the other central powers until later - much later in the case of Turkey (and as the USA signed its own separate peace treaties later they were technically still at war with Germany and Austria some time after Britain). It wan't as much of a nice tidy end as some would have it.

[AlanCurragh]

I would suggest discussion of the precise date of armistice(s) doesn't really belong here

Thanks

Alan

[centurion]

I would suggest discussion of the precise date of armistice(s) doesn't really belong here

Thanks

Alan

And it isn't being discussed (the precise dates of the various armistices and peace treaties are all a matter of record). Someone did raise the issue of what defines war time which is relevant as to what is war damage. However I'm surprised that you've accepted all the posts about/showing WW2 damage.

[AlanCurragh]

Sigh....just to clarify, please can we keep this thread to damage caused by the events of WW1 and damage caused to WW1 monuments/graves etc by subsequent conflicts.

[Will O'Brien]

The memorial at Barrow in Furness railway station, commemorating the employees of the Furness Railway Company who fell was damaged in the air raid on Barrow in May 1941. The station itself was badly damaged & the memorial which if I remember correctly is situated in the ticket hall has a number of large holes in it.

[KONDOA]

Rheims cathedral has shot holes drilled in it by the Germans with the intent of blowing it up and destroying it.

Roop

[BereniceUK]

Bradford Place in Walsall. And there's a dead, stuffed, thrush in Holcombe, Lancs., which was the only casualty of bombs dropped by a Zeppelin.

[Khaki]

Nice photo's Berenice, I like the way the wall damage was preserved and framed, very clever. Were the Zeppelins targeting small towns as well as industrial centers ?

khaki

[Guest exuser1]

The dockyard wall at Sheerness in Kent has damage from a air raid during the Great War .