Posted on 03/24/2021 6:02:27 PM PDT by dynachrome
Not since the 1970s has there been such an important discovery from the Great War in France. In woods on a ridge not far from the city of Reims, the bodies of more than 270 German soldiers have lain for more than a century - after they died the most agonising deaths imaginable.On 4 May 1917 the French launched an artillery bombardment targeting the two ends of the tunnel, sending up an observation balloon to get a sight on the north-facing slope.
For once their accuracy was formidable. A shell fired from a naval gun hit the entrance, triggering more explosions from ammunition that was stored there and sending a cloud of acrid fumes into the shaft. Another shell sealed the exit.
Inside, the men from the 10th and 11th companies of the 111th Reserve Regiment were trapped. Over the next six days, as oxygen ran out, they either suffocated or took their own lives. Some asked comrades to kill them.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Have you seen this?
No doubt. People seem all too frequently to live by the old code: if it’s not nailed down it’s mine and if I can pry it up it wasn’t nailed down.
Considering that there are many unexploded pieces of ordnance in the area and in the tunnel itself, I think it should be considered a war grave and treated accordingly.
I am using the precedent accorded to warships that have been sunk with many of their crew entombed within the hull.
Throughout history, scavengers would descend on a battle site and take whatever they could strip off the dead and dying. Then we became more civilized. Now the pendulum is swinging backwards...........
People are already trying to loot the site.>>>>>>>
I’d want to collect a few working Mauser’s.
Stupid, stupid war.
I am really glad when sick invaders are killed.
That was an interesting, if very sad, article. So many people died for nothing. And it’s just more evidence about how stupid, and wasteful, and unnecessary, WW I was.
There were no saints in that war.
Interesting to see the British want to honor the German war dead more than the Germans want to. I’m not surprised.
The start of the decline of Western Civilization.
War is so wasteful and evil.
Agree 100%....World War II was merely piling on.
Should be GEW 98s.
If you ever are in London, do whatever you can to go to the Imperial War Museum.
Mauser C96 broomhandles would be around too.
A pair would be nice.( putting in my order, LOL)
Cool piece. Thanks.
Just awful. Awful.
The governments were like a room full of big, drunk, stupid, aggressive, hair-trigger guys fumbling around in a room until two of them bump shoulders and start getting pissed at each other and everyone else joins in.
It nearly brings tears to the eyes, the waste. The needless waste. In human life.
No rise of Hitler, potentially no rise of the Soviet Union.
Of course, who knows what would have happened if they had won/hostilities ceased in Europe. But the results of the WWI with Germany losing sure led to a lot of bad stuff.
” stupid, stupid war “
The men of both sides in that war didn’t believe in it.
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