Preserved WW1 German trenches and tunnels excavated

[Keith Webb]

Amazingly preserved find in France of a former Western Front German trench and tunnel system.

Link

The bodies of 21 German soldiers entombed in a perfectly preserved World War One shelter have been discovered 94 years after they were killed.
The men were part of a larger group of 34 who were buried alive when a huge Allied shell exploded above the tunnel in 1918, causing it to cave in.
Thirteen bodies were recovered from the underground shelter, but the remaining men had to be left under a mountain of mud as it was too dangerous to retrieve them.
Nearly a century later, French archaeologists stumbled upon the mass grave on the former Western Front in eastern France during excavation work for a road building project.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1mU1SzooS

[hrpearce]

Amazing that there are still secrets to be discovered after such a long time.

[cliff]

Very interesting. I often wonder if they will find more items and bodies like this in time.

[Rick W]

They keep coming up on a regular basis, whenever there is building work there they inevitably turn up. The remarkable thing on this was the level of preservation.

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Rick W

They keep coming up on a regular basis, whenever there is building work there they inevitably turn up. The remarkable thing on this was the level of preservation.

Rick..
The magic in the preservation was mud..sealing out the oxygen that causes corrosion..decay..rot..and break down of the body's and structures..and machines..
Some more examples of the power of mud to preserve

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxYXNLrXBgE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ccLlJ67MCg

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Alex

Always get a kick out of some of these recovery efforts, what really gets me though is the people standing taking photos in the wip zone if the cable breaks or the tow eye it has been hooked to lets go.

Back to the original posting though in reading the article it appears a full archeological/historical investigation is being done. But I wonder what ultimately will be done with the site, will it be preserved? With it being 100 years since the out break of "The World War" will there be a historical interest in the general public to know more about our (my) grandparents generation?

I can remember in the early 1960s the hoopla about the American Civil War and there was nothing as real and dramatic as this accept for some of the masonry forts.

Cheers Phil

[Howard]

What an amazing find, I do hope that the site is preserved and the road that was being constructed is realigned.
Thanks for sharing this, Keith.
H