NEVER FORGET
Posted on 08/24/2004 5:12:58 AM PDT by risk
Bodies of WWI soldiers found in glacier
ROME - The bodies of three Austrian soldiers killed in World War One have been found frozen and almost perfectly preserved in an Italian Alpine glacier. ADVERTISEMENT
Mountain rescue worker Maurizio Vicenzi discovered the mummified bodies on Friday, encased upside down in ice at 11,940 feet altitude on San Matteo mountain near the Swiss and Austrian borders.
``Using binoculars, I saw what looked like a stain on the Forni glacier and went to look,'' Vicenzi, 46, from the northern Italian town of Peio told Reuters on Monday.
``When I got close I discovered they were the bodies of soldiers frozen in the glacier. Nothing like this has ever happened in my lifetime. Bodies haven't been found in the ice around here for decades,'' he said.
Vicenzi's fellow rescue workers helped him remove the bodies on Sunday and transfer them to the Peio morgue by helicopter.
NEVER FORGET
ping
Wow. Poor guys.
Glacier yields soldiers' bodies after 86 years
August 24, 2004
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/23/1093246448074.html?oneclick=true#
The mummified bodies of a group of Austrian soldiers killed in World War I have emerged remarkably intact from a thawing glacier that has preserved them for almost 90 years.
Maurizio Vicenzi, an alpine rescue volunteer, stumbled upon the soldiers, still dressed in their tattered uniforms, about 3500 metres up on the dei Forni glacier, near the Swiss and Austrian borders, on Friday.
It is thought they died in the battle of Punta San Matteo, fought along a 50-kilometre front of glaciers in what is thought to be the highest altitude battle in history.
Local reports differ as to whether there were three or four bodies, but seem to agree that the remains were tangled in a way that suggests that the men may have died or been buried together.
After walking for hours alone looking for memorabilia of the war, Mr Vicenzi, who runs a small museum featuring finds relinquished by thawing glaciers, spotted a "dark stain" 25 metres down a precipitous wall of ice.
When he looked through his binoculars he made out a dark, mummified hand, protruding from clothing in rags.
He said that the soldiers had almost certainly died on September 3, 1918, in one of the many battles fought on the Italian-Austrian front.
The discovery is thought to be the first mummified remains of soldiers to come to light from World War I.
Glacial thawing in the same area of north-eastern Italy, blamed on global warming, revealed several years ago a skeleton of a soldier and remnants of the so-called city of ice, including indications of bunkers, barracks, cells, corridors and storage areas, which Austro-Hungarian troops built inside it.
Similar thawing in the Similaun glacier, in the same region where Friday's discovery was made, led to the discovery in 1991 of Otzi, a hunter who had lived about 5300 years ago.
The Telegraph, London
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I always think I'm first and I'm not.
I saw it posted by you first, then I was pinged about the original. Okay by me. It peaked my interest and I am glad you posted it.
Ah ha: "peaked" -- a nice pun on piqued for this thread!
Unintentional, but thanks for making me look smarter. LOL
I'm just sorry they had to die for a lost cause at the end of a brutal war. It set the tone for much of what we face today, and the stakes were just as high then as they are now.
One thing for which I've been finally disillusioned: the world will never be safe for democracy. We'll have to fight and kill for it on a regular basis.
Why am I not surprised to see this statement?
I hope they didn't have the flu. We could be in deep sh*t.
You probably know someone who lost a relative to the flu in those days. It was the worst epidemic in human history by far, and unlike catching AIDS getting it had little to do with lifestyle.
If we find out they died in a shootout with Otzi, the iceman, this could get very serious.
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orte Strino on the Tonale road above Vermiglio, calls to mind the First World War.
strategic passages.