BELGIUM:THE TOWN OF NIEUWPOORT IS SLOWLY COLLAPSING BECAUSE OF TUNNELS BUILT TO PROTECT TROOPS FROM FIRST WORLD WAR FIGHTING

Record ID: 588529

  • Title: BELGIUM:THE TOWN OF NIEUWPOORT IS SLOWLY COLLAPSING BECAUSE OF TUNNELS BUILT TO PROTECT TROOPS FROM FIRST WORLD WAR FIGHTING
  • Date: 9th February 2001
  • Summary: NIEWPORT, BELGIUM (FEBRUARY 9, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GVS NIEWPOORT 0.03 2. VARIOUS WORLD WAR ONE MEMORIALS / TOMB STONES IN NIEWPOORT 0.11 NIEWPOORT BELGIUM (FILE)(REUTERS ~ ACCESS ALL) 3. VARIOUS OF FIGHTING IN AND AROUND NIEWPOORT DURING WORLD WAR ONE 0.45 NIEWPOORT, BELGIUM (FEBRUARY 9 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 4. VARIOUS OF TUNNEL PASSAGES 0.54 5. VARIOUS OF BUILDING THAT IS BEING PROPPED UP TO PREVENT MASSIVE SUBSIDENCE 1.04 6. VARIOUS OF BRITISH HISTORIANS LOOKING AT MAP, AND WALKING IN DUNES 1.20 7. VARIOUS, PETER BARTON, MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR BATTLEFIELD ARCHAEOLOGY IN FLANDERS POINTING OUT POSITIONS OF TUNNELS ON MAP 2.19 8. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) PETER BARTON SAYING: "We know that all these structures were completed, they all existed. Today as you look out over the sand dunes here you notice that what was completely undeveloped in 1918 is now covered in housing estates so these have been built, probably without any knowledge of what was beneath them."/ GV TOWN 3.00 9. PAN FROM MIRROR TO BARTON AND OTHERS LOOKING AT MAP OF BRITISH AND AUSTRALIAN TRENCHES 3.13 10. GV, SUBSIDING HOUSE. 3.19 11. VARIOUS OF PIERRE HAMERS WALKING AROUND DAMAGED HOUSE 3.43 12. (SOUNDBITE) (Dutch) PIERRE HAMERS SAYING, "The Secretary of State cam to look and he didn't think it was normal either what was happening here, but apparently they don't want to cooperate with us anymore. So we feel forced to bring a lawsuit against the Belgian state in order that they cooperate with us to make them dig a pit to see if there are underground corridors or not." 3.59 13. VARIOUS OF DAMAGED HOUSE 4.09 14. SV, PROFESSOR PETER DOYLE, GEOLOGIST, UNIVERSITY OF GREENWICH IN SUBSIDING HOUSE/ ZOOM CRACK ON WALL 4.15 15. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR PETER DOYLE SAYING, " "Failure is increasing and we get an increasing incidence of failure in houses over tunnels. Here in Nieuwpoort it is a very concentrated problem where we think we may be on the tip of an iceberg." 4.33 16. VARIOUS GVS, OF NIEWPOORT 4.40 17. SETUP SHOT OF LUC DE VOS, A PROFESSOR OF MILITARY HISTORY AT THE ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY IN BRUSSELS/ CU MAPS (2 SHOTS) 4.55 18. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(ENGLISH) DE VOS SAYING:PROFESSOR LUC DE VOS (ENGLISH): " When you make a tunnel and cover it you can lift the cover and fill it and that is what was done in Nieuwpoort. When you build a house on that and afterwards the level of the water in the ground is changing then we have cracks in the houses." /MAPS 5.14 19. SETUP SHOT OF ROLAND CRABBE MAYOR OF NIEWPOORT 5.25 20. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(Dutch with English translation) MAYOR ROLAND CRABBE SAYING:"We always have to be a little bit worried, I think that most of the covered trenches were filled with stones, and also the bomb craters, but in any case I cannot assure that through external factors some houses have been not damaged through subsidence. This does not mean however, like it has been written in certain British newspapers, that our oh so lovely city of Nieuwpoort will sink into the ground ... this I do not believe." 6.19 21. (SOUNDBITE)(ENGLISH) REUTERS REPORTER NIKLA GIBSON SAYING: "There is more at stake here than the proving of historical facts, thousands of people live in this area, and if the tunnels really do exist and are causing this, then lives and not just homes may be at risk" 6.37 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 24th February 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NIEWPOORT AND BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • Country: Belgium
  • Reuters ID: LVA8JXH78DCX1IDBLD48W43IY56I
  • Story Text: It's more than eight decades ago that the last shots
    were fired in World War One. But the small Belgian town of
    Niewpoort is still feeling the legacy of the conflict.

    Kilometres of tunnels dug in the town to protect Allied
    troops during the conflict are crumbling and are thought to
    be causing massive subsidence.

    Will the town soon be sinking into the ground.?
    Niewpoort, Belgium. Here in this small town
    perched on the North Sea coast, the memories of world War one
    abound.

    For approximately three years until 1918, Niewpoort was the
    scene of bitter fighting between British, Australian, and
    German troops trying to gain control of the town and its inland
    waterways.

    Life on the surface was atrocious for the tens of
    thousands of soldiers who lived and died here. Under constant
    bombardment from large German guns, young recruits died like
    flies under the barrage of exploding shells.

    To protect troops on their way to the front, army
    engineers decided to dig tunnels. They contained dormitories,
    offices, field hospitals and latrines.

    And more than 80 years on, they could be responsible for
    this: dozens of buildings that are literally sinking into
    the ground.

    A group of British-led historians and geologists have
    spent years researching the tunnels in and around Niewpoort.

    Peter Barton says Niewpoort and the sand dunes behind it are
    honeycombed with holes.

    The tunnels were used to protect troops on their way to
    the front on the outskirts of the town. Entire battalions of
    700~800 men would advance under cover and out of eyesight of
    German soldiers.

    The British are backing up their claims with copies of
    the original military documents that map the tunnels, which went
    as much as five metres under ground.

    They say that the patterns of the tunnels correspond to
    the subsidence on the surface.

    Local officials dispute the claims.

    But for Pierre Hamers, there's no doubt that something
    has gone terribly wrong.

    His family home, like the condemned house two doors down
    has started to show signs of major subsidence.

    No explanation or compensation has been forthcoming.

    Hamers is still waiting for a reason. And for an idea of whom
    he can turn to for help.

    Peter Doyle, a geologist with the University of Greenwich in
    Great Britain, says the worst may be yet to come in
    Niewpoort.

    He fears that as the tunnels crumble away, more and more
    buildings will fall into the ground.

    This could be the tip of the iceberg, he says.

    Since the openings of the tunnels were sealed up decades
    ago as the town was rebuilt after the war, they seem to have
    also been forgotten.

    But at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, Professor
    Luc de Vos says that the troubles are not caused by the
    underground passages.

    He says the subsidence, clearly visible in and around
    the town, is due to the lowering of water levels under ground
    and not to the tunnels.

    And, in Niuewpoort itself, the town's mayor dismisses
    talk of deep tunnels under his town.



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