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Bodies of WWI soldiers found in Alpine glacier -
ABC News - Australia ^
| August 23, 2004
Posted on 08/22/2004 5:08:17 PM PDT by UnklGene
Bodies of WWI soldiers found in Italian glacier -
The preserved bodies of three Austrian soldiers killed in World War I have been found at the foot of an Italian glacier, 86 years after their deaths, a museum in northern Italy said on Sunday.
They were found by Maurizio Vincenzi, the director of the military history museum at the small town of Peio in the Trentino region, member of a mountain rescue team and military history buff.
The bodies were found 3,400 metres up a mountain called San Matteo and are said to be exceptionally well preserved.
They had been spotted by Vincenzi as he scanned the glacier with binoculars and noticed marks on it.
The area was the scene of fighting between Austrian and Italian troops in 1918 and the Austrian soldiers would have belonged to a regiment based at Dimaro nearby.
It is believed that the men died when they were attacked with grenades.
Their bodies have been taken to a morgue in Peio and will be transferred to a military cemetery.
According to Vincenzi it is 80 years since the preserved body of a World War I soldier has been found.
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Germany
KEYWORDS: alpini; ancientautopsies; austria; forniglacier; glacier; godsgravesglyphs; italy; kaiserschutzen; sanmatteo; soldiers; worldwarone; wwi
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To: qwertz; struwwelpeter
41
posted on
08/23/2004 9:12:25 PM PDT
by
Calpernia
("People never like what they don't understand")
To: qwertz; 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub; Old Sarge
42
posted on
08/23/2004 9:13:13 PM PDT
by
Calpernia
("People never like what they don't understand")
To: qwertz
Bump and thank you for posting that awesome piece of history.
43
posted on
08/23/2004 9:13:49 PM PDT
by
Calpernia
("People never like what they don't understand")
To: somemoreequalthanothers
44
posted on
08/23/2004 9:15:55 PM PDT
by
Calpernia
("People never like what they don't understand")
To: Calpernia; 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub; tomkow6; HiJinx; Radix; Atlantic Friend; Arrowhead1952; ...
I can't help but wonder, what military honors these troops will be buried with? Since they were Austrian, that means they served under the Austro-Hungarian Empire - my mother's and grandmother's people.
Will they be honored with the Hapsburg Eagles, or the Austrian flag before the Anschluss, or the old Hungarian banner?
45
posted on
08/24/2004 5:25:57 AM PDT
by
Old Sarge
(ZOT 'em all, let MOD sort 'em out!)
To: Old Sarge
I dunno. An interesting question.
46
posted on
08/24/2004 5:29:46 AM PDT
by
Jet Jaguar
(Who would the terrorists vote for?)
To: Jet Jaguar
I'm reminded of Baron Von Trapp - the father of the Trapp Family Singers.
I read Maria Von Trapp's autobio, long ago. She mentions that when Georg von Trapp passed away, they buried him with military honors from his time in the Imperial Navy in WWI. Austian naval ensign, medals awarded, the works.
47
posted on
08/24/2004 5:32:59 AM PDT
by
Old Sarge
(ZOT 'em all, let MOD sort 'em out!)
To: Cronos; swarthyguy; VinayFromBangalore; A Simple Soldier; freedom44
48
posted on
08/24/2004 5:43:29 AM PDT
by
risk
To: Old Sarge
At that time regiments did most of their recruiting locally, so if they know the regiment they came from, they'll be buried as either Austrian or Hungarian soldiers, I suppose, maybe with a ceremony showing both modern Austrian (or Hungarian) and Imperial Austro-Hungarian flags.
To: Old Sarge
I can't help but wonder, what military honors these troops will be buried with? Since they were Austrian, that means they served under the Austro-Hungarian Empire - my mother's and grandmother's people. To add an interesting wrinkle, what if they were from one of the many smaller groups within the Austrian Empire? Say, Croatian, Slovenian or Italian. My grandfather, for example, was a Slovenian from Trieste but he was born in the old Austrian Empire.
I wonder who buries them in that situation?
50
posted on
08/24/2004 7:39:18 AM PDT
by
Modernman
(Hippies.They're everywhere. They wanna save the earth, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad.)
To: UnklGene
How sad,
but I do hope they get a hero's burial.
51
posted on
08/24/2004 7:48:11 AM PDT
by
najida
("Let me get this straight, Mr. Kerry....you injury was caused by rice in you butt?")
To: UnklGene; Cannoneer No. 4; TEXOKIE; xzins; Alamo-Girl; blackie; SandRat; Calpernia; SAMWolf; ...
Bodies of WWI soldiers found in Alpine glacier Rest in peace and thank you for your services.
52
posted on
08/24/2004 8:39:38 AM PDT
by
Calpernia
("People never like what they don't understand")
To: nuconvert
53
posted on
08/24/2004 8:51:25 AM PDT
by
F14 Pilot
(Imagine...)
To: Calpernia
To: tet68
When one thinks of the gear and conditions these men fought in it makes the tear in my gore tex or the weight of my wiggy extream sleeping bag seem moot......
55
posted on
08/24/2004 9:10:57 AM PDT
by
Squantos
(Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet. ©)
To: risk
well the indians and the pakis don't really call it a war -- they're pretty coy about it and call it a leetle skirmish at 8000 feet!
56
posted on
08/24/2004 9:39:05 AM PDT
by
Cronos
(W2K4)
To: risk; Cronos; sukhoi-30mki
I believe the Siachen battlefied is about 20K feet, IIRC. Not to mention some of the skirmishes in mountain passes between India and China in 1962.
To: tet68
Thanks for the ping. Alpentruppen were tough troops.
58
posted on
08/25/2004 2:12:29 AM PDT
by
Cannoneer No. 4
(I've lost turret power; I have my nods and my .50. Hooah. I will stay until relieved. White 2 out.)
To: Old Sarge; Jet Jaguar; Atlantic Friend; Modernman
I can't help but wonder, what military honors these troops will be buried with? Since they were Austrian, that means they served under the Austro-Hungarian Empire - my mother's and grandmother's people.
I did some googling. They were Tyrolese
Kaiserschuetzen, specifically from the III. Regiment. So they were members of traditional Tyrolese home defense ("Landesschuetzen") which was part of the k.k. Austrian army, as opposed to the k. Hungarian army, or the k.u.k. common Austrian-Hungarian army. The Landesschuetzen were reservists, yet considered elite troops, and in 1917 were given the right to call themselves "Kaiserschuetzen" ("the Emperor's riflemen") for their bravery. In 1914 they were moved to the eastern front where most of them perished fending off the Russian steamroller, and in 1915 back to Tyrol to face the Italian army.
The three were likely killed in a foggy battle on Sept. 3, 1918 when the Austrians retook the peak of San Matteo which had been lost the month before. The Italian defense was completely crushed.
Today the body of the best preserved soldier was moved to a hospital in Bozen/Bolzano (South Tyrol, Italy) to be examined by experts of the same archeological museum that's studying Oetzi. He will be later buried next to his comrades at a military cemetery in Pejo - where the other two were buried yesterday with full military honors: representatives of the Kaiserjaeger (who are obviously still around in some form), Tyrolese Schuetzen, the Austrian Black Cross, and an honor guard of the Austrian army were present.
Thought this might interest you.
59
posted on
08/25/2004 8:06:01 AM PDT
by
qwertz
To: qwertz
THANK you, so much, for finding this out for us!
I would render proper honors even to the Tawalkana Division, who stood against us in Iraq - they fought and lost as men should.
60
posted on
08/25/2004 8:12:21 AM PDT
by
Old Sarge
(ZOT 'em all, let MOD sort 'em out!)
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