WWI soldiers' names underground in France
Apr 6, 2015 6:13:24 GMT
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Post by diane9247 on Apr 6, 2015 6:13:24 GMT
2000 WWI soldiers names.kmz (1.34 KB)
In late February, 2015, nearly 2000 names of WWI soldiers were found deep in an ancient chalk mine under Naours, France. The writing was so clear they appeared to be recently made, thanks to their protection from the elements. Photographer Jeffrey Guskey, a physician from Texas, has been photographing the names since December. So far, the tally is "1821 individual names: 731 Australians, 339 British, 55 Americans, a handful of French and Canadians and 662 others whose nationalities have yet to be traced." He has been working with French archaeologist, Gilles Prilaux, who began a three-year study of the chalk tunnels last July. His intention was to investigate the site's medieval past. Instead, he stumbled upon these remarkable documents of one of the most relentlessly brutal wars in history.
AP/Jeff Guskey
AP/Jeff Guskey
AP/Jeff Guskey
Artifacts like these are important to study, as they leave clues of war-time experience around the world. And, in the end, these soldiers just wanted to be remembered. One very moving inscription was by Herbert John Leach, 25, from Adelaide. His inscription reads " 'HJ Leach. Merely a private. 13/7/16. SA Australia.' Barely a month after Leach added his name to the wall he was killed in action on Aug. 23, 1916, during the Battle of Pozieres."
AP photos and information via: TheAge, USNews and CTVnews. The Age, an Australian publication, reports the finds as ANZAC names (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps), and I inferred that meant NZ troops were included. However, other reports I checked mentioned neither New Zealand nor ANZAC. Maybe one of our friends down under can clarify this point. There are still over 600 nationalities yet to be traced, so it's certainly possible that New Zealanders are among those.
In late February, 2015, nearly 2000 names of WWI soldiers were found deep in an ancient chalk mine under Naours, France. The writing was so clear they appeared to be recently made, thanks to their protection from the elements. Photographer Jeffrey Guskey, a physician from Texas, has been photographing the names since December. So far, the tally is "1821 individual names: 731 Australians, 339 British, 55 Americans, a handful of French and Canadians and 662 others whose nationalities have yet to be traced." He has been working with French archaeologist, Gilles Prilaux, who began a three-year study of the chalk tunnels last July. His intention was to investigate the site's medieval past. Instead, he stumbled upon these remarkable documents of one of the most relentlessly brutal wars in history.
AP/Jeff Guskey
AP/Jeff Guskey
Etchings, even scratched bas-reliefs, were left by many soldiers during the war. But those in Naours "would be one of the highest concentrations of inscriptions on the Western Front" that stretches from Switzerland to the North Sea, said Wilson.
The site's proximity to the Somme battlefields, where more than a million men were killed or wounded, adds to the discovery's importance. "It provides insight into how they found a sense of meaning in the conflict," said [historian Ross Wilson of Chichester University in Britain].
Naours is only a few miles from Vignacourt, a town used as a staging area for troops moving up to and back from the Somme battlefields some 25 miles to the east. Prilaux thinks that the young soldiers from distant countries would have heard about the famous "Naours caves" and taken advantage of a break from war to do some sight-seeing.
That idea is backed by an entry in the diary of Wilfred Joseph Allan Allsop, a 23-year-old private from Sydney, Australia. "At 1 p.m. 10 of us went to the famous Caves near Naours where refugees used to hide in times of Invasion" Allsop wrote on Jan. 2, 1917.
The site's proximity to the Somme battlefields, where more than a million men were killed or wounded, adds to the discovery's importance. "It provides insight into how they found a sense of meaning in the conflict," said [historian Ross Wilson of Chichester University in Britain].
Naours is only a few miles from Vignacourt, a town used as a staging area for troops moving up to and back from the Somme battlefields some 25 miles to the east. Prilaux thinks that the young soldiers from distant countries would have heard about the famous "Naours caves" and taken advantage of a break from war to do some sight-seeing.
That idea is backed by an entry in the diary of Wilfred Joseph Allan Allsop, a 23-year-old private from Sydney, Australia. "At 1 p.m. 10 of us went to the famous Caves near Naours where refugees used to hide in times of Invasion" Allsop wrote on Jan. 2, 1917.
AP/Jeff Guskey
Artifacts like these are important to study, as they leave clues of war-time experience around the world. And, in the end, these soldiers just wanted to be remembered. One very moving inscription was by Herbert John Leach, 25, from Adelaide. His inscription reads " 'HJ Leach. Merely a private. 13/7/16. SA Australia.' Barely a month after Leach added his name to the wall he was killed in action on Aug. 23, 1916, during the Battle of Pozieres."
AP photos and information via: TheAge, USNews and CTVnews. The Age, an Australian publication, reports the finds as ANZAC names (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps), and I inferred that meant NZ troops were included. However, other reports I checked mentioned neither New Zealand nor ANZAC. Maybe one of our friends down under can clarify this point. There are still over 600 nationalities yet to be traced, so it's certainly possible that New Zealanders are among those.
