These expressions and others like them contribute to keeping the influence of the Great War very much a part of our lives. 

The wristwatch also dates from the period – before 1914 pocket watches had been the norm.  In the trenches wristwatches were easier to use and the design became accepted.

The Iron Harvest

There is another very real and dangerous memorial which still appears with frightening regularity.  The vast quantity of ammunition used on the battlefields has left a lethal legacy in the area known as the ‘Iron Harvest’. 

Right across the areas fought over during the Battle of the Somme, farmers still plough up shells, bullets and grenades dating from the battle. 

These are left piled at the roadside for the collections still provided by the French authorities.  They are rightfully regarded as dangerous – people are still being killed or maimed by them regularly.

After the war France established a Département du Déminage – a department for disarming.  Since then 630 ‘disarmers’ have died in the course of their work. 

Over 18 million artillery grenades, 10 million grenades, 600,000 bombs and 600,000 sea mines have been collected and destroyed – not just from the First World War. 

The work continues – 123 men carry out the ongoing clearance work.  It is estimated that there are still 12 million unexploded grenades at Verdun.  The disarmers get two million calls annually about unexploded grenades.  A total of 900 tonnes of ammunition are destroyed each year.
 
Another reminder which returns every year is the poppy.  Nobody really knows why, but the link between the Great War and poppies is strong. 

This scarlet flower has come to symbolise the sacrifice of human life involved in war and the remembrance of it.  On many of the Somme battlefields where the land was laid waste the ground is covered with poppies in early summer – returning year after year to perpetuate the myth.