Demineurs

 

Brigades of men now move like ghosts through the forests of Verdun. They are members of the government's Department du Deminage, hunting for the millions of unexploded bombs that litter France. It's slow, heavy work unearthing and disposing of the eighty-five year old armaments that litter the landscape -- still volatile, explosive and deadly. Since this work began in 1945 the demineurs have gathered more than twenty million shells but have lost six-hundred demineurs. At this pace France will be fully cleared and safe -- in seven-hundred years.