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Rusting barbed wire and clips of mud-caked bullets; bent brass cap badges and a broken harmonica; the hunched skeletal remains of a soldier - these are the poignant relics of a titanic struggle that took place more than a lifetime ago. Unearthed from the battlefields of the Western Front, these artefacts tell stories of the men who marched away to fight the so-called 'war to end wars'. They also provide us with a unique window into their world.
Using archaeology as the vehicle for their story Digging up Plugstreet, Martin Brown and Richard Osgood tell how Australian soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division travelled to England in 1914 to fight on the Western Front during the Great War. The authors follow in their footsteps, from training on a windswept Salisbury Plain to the cheerless trenches of Belgium, where the Aussies 'dug-in' north-east of Ploegsteert - known as 'Plugstreet' to the troops - to face the Germans.
The authors have investigated a section of the Allied front line held by the 3rd Division, which served as their starting point for the epic Battle of Messines in June 1917. An area of no-man's-land over which they attacked was also excavated, as well as a section of trenches occupied by their German adversaries. The archaeological finds have helped build a comprehensive picture of who these Aussie soldiers really were, how they lived - and often how they died. In several instances some of the accepted facts have been challenged. Digging up Plugstreet is fully illustrated with numerous colour photographs of the excavations and the artefacts discovered, supported by archive images from the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, and the Imperial War Museum, London. Digging up Plugstreet offers exciting new insights into soldiering on the Western Front during the Great War.
Richard Osgood, FSA, MIFA, is an archaeologist and head of the Defence Estates Historic Environment Team (MOD). Richard's interests encompass warfare throughout history and his publications include Bronze Age Warfare and The Unknown Warrior. Martin Brown, FSA, MIFA, is a specialist military archaeologist with Defence Estates (MOD). He has published on diverse subjects ranging from conflict archaeology and folklore to William Morris. He has also appeared on a number of television archaeology programmes, including Time Team, Ancestors, Inside Out and Tales from the Grave, as well as Lost in Flanders, which features the project covered in this book.
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