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From: Gordon Angus Mackinlay <gam47@bigpond.com>
List Editor: H-War Editor David Silbey <david.silbey@ALVERNIA.EDU>
Editor's Subject: REPLY: The 26 year old victim of World War I
Author's Subject: COMMENT The 26 year old victim of World War I
Date Written: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 6:28:12 AM
Date Posted: Thu, 25 Nov 2009 06:30:57 -0500

in the reference :
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-26yearold-victim-of-the-first-world-war-1824135.html

gives this most pitiful story (the article itself is full of
errors - the worse being that in 1992 Israel invaded Lebanon
and Britain recaptured the Falklands!).

The Belgium press since the weekend had a field day, whilst
the young lady is quite possibly the youngest still alive
receiving benefits as "wounded person from the Great War" she
is not alone.  Whilst accurate records not available in the
public domain, strong evidence points to some hundreds of
people under the age of fifty years receiving these.

A number of the Belgium articles make mention of a four year
old and six, killed when playing with a device in 1999.

Each year in Belgium there are a substantial number of
incidents involving unexploded munitions of various kinds,
and not just those of the Great War, but, WWII (the Ardennes
in particular are full of US items, a anti-tank minefield
discovered only this year).

The Belgium articles are quite scathing of the British one,
especially in regard to the claim made by the writer that the
British made aerial bomb was dropped by the Royal Air Force.
 As they pointed out, the area in which the young child (as
the lady then was) was bombed on a frequent basis by all of
the other Allied air arms, American Air Service, Belgium Air
Force and the French, daily.  Whilst in the March, 1918
offensive the Germans captured very large amounts of aerial
ordnance from British dumps, they in turn bombing the area
when it recaptured.

Yours, G/. G.A.MACKINLAY
Gordon Angus Mackinlay <gam47@bigpond.com>
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