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Discovering WW1 tunnel of death hidden in France for a century
BBC ^ | 3-15-21 | Hugh Schofield

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 ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: 111threserveregiment; 1917; 191705; 19170504; alainmalinowski; ancientautopsies; chemindesdames; dianetempelbarnett; france; germany; godsgravesglyphs; jeanmarielepen; pierremalinowski; thegreatwar; tunnel; unitedkingdom; victorylap; winterbergtunnel; ww1
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To: The Antiyuppie

I teared up a few times watching “They Shall Not Grow Old”.


61 posted on 03/24/2021 9:06:36 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: marktwain

What brings a tear to my eyes is knowing all of these fallen patriots died and we ended up with communism anyway.


62 posted on 03/24/2021 9:07:38 PM PDT by VTenigma (The Democrat party is the party of the mathematically challenged )
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To: Peanutbuttery

I can’t disagree with you there.

I live in a state where I have no representation, and no prospect of it, and they use my taxes for things like this, and have for decades.

Yes. I am worried about human life.


63 posted on 03/24/2021 9:09:11 PM PDT by rlmorel ("I’d rather enjoy a risky freedom than a safe servitude." Robby Dinero, USMC Veteran, Gym Owner)
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To: VTenigma

And all the black soldiers who fought and died for the US, only to come back home to the most racist President we ever had, in Woodrow Wilson, and set back race relations for decades.


64 posted on 03/24/2021 9:10:29 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: marktwain

It wiped out a generation of men in France. There was a great novel “Once An Eagle” about a soldier who got in after the Spanish-American war and served into Vietnam.

Great writing, and in one passage he talks about France after the war when there were no adult French men around, and women from childbearing age through elderly grandmother stage were all dressed in black.


65 posted on 03/24/2021 9:14:26 PM PDT by rlmorel ("I’d rather enjoy a risky freedom than a safe servitude." Robby Dinero, USMC Veteran, Gym Owner)
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To: rlmorel

Inter-War France was a train wreck, it’s no wonder it was such easy pickings for Hitler.


66 posted on 03/24/2021 9:16:36 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: marktwain

The Last Day of World War One is a BBC documentary by Michael Palin of Monty Python. He had a relative who died on the last day of the war and he wanted to find out what happened. Epic stupidity on display The armistice was signed and would go into effect at 11 am. Both sides new it and yet orders were given for early morning attacks. It is worth the watch.


67 posted on 03/24/2021 9:25:11 PM PDT by freefdny
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To: freefdny

Both sides knew it.


68 posted on 03/24/2021 9:27:06 PM PDT by freefdny
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To: dfwgator

Strange times, too.

Germany was a debauched place after the war and into the Roaring Twenties.

Strange times.


69 posted on 03/24/2021 9:28:09 PM PDT by rlmorel ("I’d rather enjoy a risky freedom than a safe servitude." Robby Dinero, USMC Veteran, Gym Owner)
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To: FreedomPoster

LOL.

Just resize the breech and screw on a new barrel.


70 posted on 03/25/2021 1:52:43 AM PDT by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism:http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html) )
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To: dynachrome

well Nazi memorabilia is a big seller.


71 posted on 03/25/2021 2:01:58 AM PDT by Joe Boucher (Molon Labe')
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To: dfwgator; The Antiyuppie

That’s a great movie. I hope you stayed past the credits for the Peter Jackson interview, it was interesting.


72 posted on 03/25/2021 2:37:02 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: dfwgator

All wars are stupid and sad.

But some are necessary. Mostly not.


73 posted on 03/25/2021 4:49:07 AM PDT by epluribus_2 (He, had the best mom - ever.)
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To: epluribus_2

World War 1 was started and led by people who didn’t think they had to worry about getting killed. Generals didn’t lead charges out of the trenches.

World War 2 was not like that. Everyone had to worry except places like the Americas and parts of Africa.


74 posted on 03/25/2021 4:59:14 AM PDT by AppyPappy (How many fingers am I holding up, Winston? )
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To: dynachrome; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...
Thanks dynachrome.

75 posted on 03/25/2021 6:20:13 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: dynachrome

as well as unexploded shells - left in a heap...............................


76 posted on 03/25/2021 6:25:26 AM PDT by Red Badger ("We've always been at war with Climate Change, Winston."..............................)
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To: crz

Franco-Prussian War of 1872 that unified Germany.

(I was posting on the phone and it has a weird auto complete and a small screen)


77 posted on 03/25/2021 7:29:16 AM PDT by Fai Mao (Hillary Clinton =The Pig In A Pantsuit (The PIAPS))
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To: rlmorel

https://www.oddhistorian.com/if-world-war-one-was-a-bar-fight/


78 posted on 03/25/2021 8:16:19 AM PDT by Tallguy
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To: dynachrome
"On April 22, 1915, German forces shock Allied soldiers along the western front by firing more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres, Belgium. This was the first major gas attack by the Germans, and it devastated the Allied line."

I feel no sympathy for the Germans...as I'm sure the French didn't either.

79 posted on 03/25/2021 9:09:44 AM PDT by moovova (Yo GOP....we won't forget.)
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To: Tallguy

LOL, now THAT’S funny, to see that. So I agree with someone, or they agree with me!

On a related note, there was a description of The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, in which the IJN force of a battleship, cruisers, and destroyers, had split up into two columns, and coming towards them to go between the two columns was an somewhat inferior column of American cruisers and destroyers.

Forces were so close and intermingled in those black hours just after midnight, that an American destroyer nearly collided with an IJN battleship, and the destroyer was so close it was just pumping five inch rounds as fast as they could fire, and they saw them leave the muzzle and immediately disappear into the superstructure of the Kirishima, and the superstructure began to glow cherry red from the fires within.

It was described as a “Bar Room Brawl with the lights turned out”, but one sailor said that someone kept turning on the lights for a second as big guns fired on each side so you could get a glimpse of who was where, then the lights went immediately out.

Chaos.


80 posted on 03/25/2021 1:38:23 PM PDT by rlmorel ("I’d rather enjoy a risky freedom than a safe servitude." Robby Dinero, USMC Veteran, Gym Owner)
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