About five kilometers north of and Langemarck and Passchendaele in Flanders are the barracks of DOVO (Dienst voor Opruiming en Vernietiging van Ontploffingstuigen), the Beligan Army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal) at Houthulst Forest (Poelkapelle).Here old unexploded grenades from the First (and some also from the Second) World War are collected by squads of DOVO's 150 bomb-disposal experts and destructed safely, although slowly - as disposal is difficult with gas shells (Belgium stopped ocean dumping in 1980). The amount of grenades collected says something about the First World War - DOVO receives 3,000 calls annually...
