World War I Training Tunnels Studied in England

WILTSHIRE, ENGLAND—The Guardian reports that tunnels and trenches used to train Australian troops for the First World War have been investigated ahead of a construction project at Larkhill, an army base located about two miles from Stonehenge. Si Cleggett of Wessex Archaeology explained that more than 200 grenades were carefully recovered, and half of them were still live. The researchers also found food cans, combs, toothbrushes, cigarette and tobacco tins and pipes, candlesticks and stubs of candles, Australian toffee tins, scorch marks from fires, and a bucket adapted into a brazier. Graffiti on the chalk walls of the tunnels has been linked to soldiers’ service records. More than 140 men died in training at the site, many of them from illnesses contracted on the journey to England. Later artifacts, thought to have been deposited in the tunnels by soldiers stationed at the army base, have also been recovered, including a 1930s red MG sports car, and a 1950s motorbike. The tunnels will be sealed and filled before housing for military service personnel is built over the site. To read more about archaeology of World War I, go to “Letter from Turkey: Anzac's Next Chapter.”