Few locations in the world can testify to the brutality of modern war like the area of Verdunin the north-east of the Francedesignated after the conflict as one of the devastated “Rouges zones“or”red areas“. The chain of non -contiguous areas, vast hundreds of square kilometers, was the scene of months of Very heavy clashes during the First World Warwith a massive use of artillery And toxic gases, Especially by the German army: the “new” industrialized war showed all its catastrophic potential here. To the ended conflict, the Region was thus devastated that the French authorities declared uninhabitable extensive areas, called precisely Rouges zones. Here was also organized the Destruction of residual armaments: in an almost alien and lifeless panorama, tons of explosives and armaments based on toxic compounds were burned, which still today they poison the soil of the area.
A premise: the battle of Verdun and Germany’s attack on France
At the start of the world conflict in 1914triggered by the murder of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand in Serbia and extended to the whole of Europe from the dense network of national alliances, the Germany it was surrounded by enemies: east the Russian empire, to the west France. The Germans therefore implemented the Schlieffen planupdated over the years but already formulated already in 1905 in the event in which Germany had found itself at war on two fronts: counting on slowness of the mobilization of the Russians, the French positions on the Western front, wandering around The fortifications on the border passing from the neutral Belgium. The goal was quickly reach Parisforcing the French to the surrender and then moving the troops to the east to counter Russia.
The German plan was initially effective, also thanks to massive use of toxic and explosive gasesalso made possible by the advanced German chemical industry.
The German advance they are raising But against the desperate French defense, also strong in the intervention of England, who took the field just like response to the invasion of the neutral Belgium: after a year and a half of fighting, at the beginning of 1916 the situation was therefore of stall.
The German command decided to concentrate the forces in the Verdun areawhere the fights had been less intense until then: taking advantage of the efficient railway network accumulated up to 2.5 million artillery strokes to hit positions that resisted the conflict from the beginning of the conflict, hoping to wear out The enemy army. A massive reinforcement of French troops and artillery was used to counter maneuvers, leading to one long battle that from February he lasted Until December 1916. On the field they remained well 300,000 dead and at least 500,000 injuredalmost equally distributed between French and German troops.
Devastation in the Rouges areas and environmental consequences
At the end of the conflict, in 1918, France had to deal with one devastation never seen before: in entire regions the ground was completely turned and now vegetation withoutwith holes created by explosions As a loss of eye, to the point that the authorities declared these areas unusable Both for agriculture and for urban reconstruction. To this was added the problem of tons of unexploded devices (who still occasionally come to light) and the abandoned armaments from the retired enemy armies.
These areas were called “Rouges zones“to distinguish them from more easily reconstructed areas. Some have been converted over the years in natural parks or Sacrari In memory of the fallen such as the Ossuario of Douaumont, but in others the pollution is still, after more than 100 years, too high To think of any reuse.
A 2007 study analyzed a site of the Woëvre plainwhere the generated pollution of the war was added to the devastation of the war disposal of about 200,000 toxic ammunition, incinerated by order of the French ministry in the 1920s. After almost 100 years from the conflict, An area of about 70 square meters was still covered with ashes and metal remains and the central part was completely without vegetation, due to phytotoxic pollutants in the ground.
At the limit of the area examined, only species capable of resist high levels of pollution, exclusively grass (Holcus Lanatus) or moss (Pohlia Nutans) And lichens (Cladonia Fimbria)
The persistent contamination of the land in the Verdun area
In the ground have been revealed very high concentrations of copper, lead, zinc and above all arsenic, deriving from German chemical weapons. Arsenic, from carcinogenic effects to already very low concentrations sometimes present in nature, in Rouges zones reaches levels between 2019 and 175907 mg/kg, an almost value 10,000 times higher of the threshold provided for by Italian law (20 mg/kg, for land for residential or public green use, Legislative Decree 152/2006 ). The so high concentrations of Arsenico find themselves not only on the surface on the ground, but also more deeply, up to 2 meters deep in the ground!
Other organic contaminants such as i nitro-aromatic, A family of molecules used in the manufacture of explosives are instead present in minor concentrationsthanks precisely to the thermal treatment (combustion) of the abandoned ammunition, which avoided that they accumulated in the ground.
The severity of contamination is also evident in wider studieswhich compare the pollution of different regions affected by conflicts such as Vietnam or Iraq Post War of the Gulf: The French sites are decidedly among the most polluted.
