Traffic Jam Stuck In Belgian Forest For 70 Years
Though it looks like a scene from another apocalyptic flick, these rows of abandoned cars actually formed one of the most intriguing vehicle cemeteries in the world – the Chatillion Car Graveyard in Belgium.
They say that these cars were left during World War II by U.S. soldiers who were stationed in southern Belgium, only to retrieve the cars after the war. It is thought that when the military troops were sent home after the war they couldn’t ship the cars back with them so they decided to hide them in this forest. After then, the spooky collection had been enriched with other cars.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, many of the cars had been stolen by the locals and car collectors and the whole graveyard was removed in 2010 due to environmental reasons.
(h/t: amusing planet)
Photo credit: Rosanne de Lange
Photo credit: Rosanne de Lange
Photo credits: Theo van Vliet
Photo credit: Rosanne de Lange
Photo credit: Marcel Wiegerinck
Photo credits: Marcel Wiegerinck
Photo credits: Marcel Wiegerinck
Photo credit: Rosanne de Lange
Photo credit: Rosanne de Lange
Photo credit: Rosanne de Lange
Photo credits: Theo van Vliet
Got wisdom to pour?
great scene for the upcoming season of The Walking Dead.
Overseas soldiers, whether from US or other countries, didn’t bring their cars during WW2, but only after that, when the allied forces established SHAPE (Mons/Bergen) or AFCENT (Brunsum NL) and indeed many of the cars are from fifties or sixties. I guess they might have stolen and hidden. Sad but poetic pictures nevertheless
I’m wondering how many years would have taken to be fully desintegrated by rust if they wouldn’t had them removed
Belgian guy, you should think more poetical if you watch those kind of pictures…
Of course there is another explaination more true. But I personnaly loved to imagine this trafic jam in contrary of a wild waste place for broken cars…
Dreams are all about art, and those pictures are art.
Those are not cars from the 40’s, but later. To me the story doesn’t add up…
Here could be another explanation: there actually were a lot of ‘wild & private’ vehicle graveyard, especially in that province of Belgium because there is nothing there and a lot of space. People would just throw (sometimes valuable) things anywhere before… Let’s say because they possessed the lands to do so as well. In the end, the places were “found back”, but years later only (by the heirs of the land(s) for example)! I know a few stories like this one.
intersting
Let’s call things with their names: those cars were stolen by soldiers as war booty – or at the *very best* were abandoned cars they “borrowed” from the streets. That’s probably why they had to hide them in the forest.
Some of those cars are from the 60’s – meaning at least 15 years after the war. So, calling things as they are, I’d call your statement entirely inaccurate. I don’t know what did happen, so calling things what they are, I’ll say it’s a circumstance unknown to either of us that had nothing to do with either World War.
Very interesting!