generalspeaking: Companions of War : Death and History

Sunday, March 21, 2021

Companions of War : Death and History

German troops travel the famous route Chemin des Dames, from Soissons to Craonne, on their way to the Aisne battlefields. The first Battle of the Aisne occured in September 1914 in which German forces withstood an Allied offensive. In April 1917 the second Battle of the Aisne began with a French offensive, halted with heavy losses. Only in September 1918 was the Aisne finally taken by French troops. By October 1918 Germany had lost Laon, its final foothold in France

"I felt it. I knew I was near."
"I knew the tunnel was there somewhere beneath my feet."
Alain Malinowski, Craonne, France

"Remember, the tunnel was where these soldiers lived from day to day -- so there will be all their normal possessions [there]."
"Every soldier will have a story. It will be the biggest ever reserve of human material from the First World War."
"The bodies will be preserved, so they will be like mummies, with skin and hair and uniforms."
"There will be photographs and letters they wrote in their dying moments to their mothers, fathers and wives. Because they will have hoped that their bodies would soon be found."
Pierre Malinowski, historian, France

"Everyone was calling for water, but it was in vain. Death laughed at its harvest and Death stood guard on the barricade, so nobody could escape."
"Some raved about rescue, others for water."
"One comrade lay on the ground next to me and croaked with a breaking voice for someone to load his pistol for him."
Account of survivor

"If I can help just one family to trace an ancestor who died in the tunnel, it will have been worth it."
"What I hope is that the bodies can be brought out and identified by their dog-tags."
"Then what would be fitting is that they leave this cold eerie tomb and be buried together as comrades."
Mark Beirnaert, a genealogist and Great War researcher

A wartime picture of the German soldiers outside the tunnel at Winterberg

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 agonizing deaths imaginable. Pierre Malinowski

200 km northeast of Paris the battlefront known as Chemin des Dames took place during the First World War. A man living nearby the extensive woodlands where the battle took place studied military archives contained in the Chateau de Vincinnes comprised of maps and prisoner interrogations. He was intrigued by stories of a tunnel built by the Germans in their determination to hold the forested hilly area near Craonne. One map he consulted showed the location of the tunnel with two paths leading to it. He studied the terrain, discovering an area of woodland he was convinced was the site.

What he was looking for was an intricate system of tunnels dug into the limestone meant to store supplies, munitions and house soldiers for underground defences. German soldiers from the 10th and 11th companies of the 111th Reserve Regiment dug down deeply -- as much as 20 metres -- to construct the tunnels, one of which was a supply tunnel running 300 metres from the hills' north to the south side; site of the first line of German trenches.

This was where in May of 1917 the French made an attempt to retake the hills, to break the stalemate along the Western Front. They had knowledge of the location of the entrances to the Winterberg tunnel, and they planned to bomb both entrances. When one of the shells closed the south entrance, explosions were triggered from ammunition stored there. Poisonous fumes were sent into the shaft, while another shell closed off the exit.

There were present within 270 soldiers. Over a period of six days one after another either suffocated or killed themselves to avoid further agony as oxygen became scarcer. Some among them begged their comrades to kill them. A day before the German retreat, three men were rescued, one of whom wrote an agonized account of the gruesome horror that overcame his comrades. Despite which the German army stopped the French advance thanks to their complex defensive system.


For 10 years nothing happened. He told the authorities of his find but they refused to follow it up, either because they did not believe him or because they had no desire to open up a mass war-grave.

France had no inclination in saving German soldiers; the Germans withdrew and the tunnel was abandoned, forgotten, its location lost to the forest swiftly overgrowing any evidence of its presence. Enter Alain Malinowski and his insatiable curiosity. When he advised authorities he knew where the tunnel was located, they were disinterested. His son, however, was not. Pierre Malinowski ran a foundation that traced Napoleonic era war-dead and he added the First World War site to his discovery list.

He informed both the French and German governments of his intention to open the tunnel; illegal, but that failed to deter the 34-year-old former soldier-cum-historian. In came a mechanical digger to the area his father identified, and his team dug four metres into the ground, finding the entrance to the tunnel. At the entrance was a bell used to sound an alarm, along with hundreds of gas-mask canisters, transport rails for munitions, machine guns, rifle bayonets and what remained of two bodies.

He had the hole covered while he contacted authorities again but they were still disinterested. He finally alerted Le Monde to the story, leading some historians and archaeologists to feel that the unsanctioned search dishonoured the dead -- but had the effect of forcing the French government to open and protect whatever is in the tunnels from looters. Nine soldiers' identities have been identified enabling descendants of those who died in the tunnel to be advised.

A bare beginning to unearthing all that remains in the tunnel. Looters had since been at the site, though its presence and location have been maintained in secrecy. Indications were that they had dug down three metres, yet missed the entrance position. "To be honest, we are not very excited about the discovery. In fact we find it all most unfortunate", the German War Graves Commission stated on German radio.