07/03/2014

Huge First World War Training Ground Rediscovered

Military historians and archaeologists are exploring a newly rediscovered old Ministry of Defence First World War training ground in Hampshire, near Gosport exactly a hundred years after the conflict.

The trench complex covers an area the size of 17 football pitches and was built to train British soldiers before they went to flight on the Western Front against the Germans and it is now covered by fens and bushes.

It has British and German trenches together with a no-man 's land.

The Ministry of Defence's senior archaeologist, Richard Osgood, said: "This is a really exciting find" and said that "it has all the classic textbook things you want from a set of trenches, just as you'd find on the Western front."

Current soldiers are using to help map out the trench complex and get an idea of the trials of fighting a war in such primitive surroundings.

(CVS/CD)

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