WWI German trench supply tunnel discovered.

[Watchdog]

I don't know how old the source info is but this just appeared on the BBC website.

Looks like it will be very interesting to keep an eye on;

Discovering WW1 tunnel of death hidden in France for a century - BBC News

It could be something of a race against time to prevent those disgusting black diggers from plundering it!

Regards

Mark

[lebus12]

Hello! A well known story here, German must come to take off the corpses.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Long forgotten tunnels are stumbled upon more regularly than some people realise, and quite often they are full of entombed bodies. Mametz wood was full of tunnels, some going down 30 feet or more, but the preliminary bombardment for the battle of the Somme entombed many of their occupants who remain lost to this day. Black diggers have always been a problem, but some French farmers are not much better either. My late friend Stan Dobson was married to a French woman, and they owned a bungalow at Pozieres near the Gibraltar strongpoint. Stan 'walked' the Somme many times a year and he quite regularly found skeletons lying on the surface. Some may doubt this, but Stan was quite meticulous on his walks and photographed everything. Just before spring and late autumn were his favourite times for walking, and on one particular occasion there had been a ferocious storm which had washed much of the top soil away. Stan came across a field with human remains and boots scattered over a wide area. The French farmers are supposed to notify the authorities if they find body parts, but they often ignore this and plough them back into the ground. Any delays to getting their crops planted could cost them a lot of money, and the last thing they wanted was the authorities carrying out large scale excavations on their land.

On another occasion, Stan and his mate Ged Madden approached the Mayor of La Boiselle to obtain permission to enter a storm drain at a certain crossroads (I know the exact location) which would lead them to the tunnel dug for placing the charges at Lochnagar crater. Permission was refused, but they went in anyway. I have seen the photographs of the tunnel, the wooden rail lines were still there, as were other relics - mostly tools used to dig out the tunnel. Sadly, I am no longer in a position to be able to borrow the pictures to show, but I can absolutely assure you that all this is true. There is so much out there that is still waiting to be discovered.

Cheers,
Steve

[lebus12]

Hello, Mayor can do nothing :
Permits are issued by the regional Prefect, via the Regional Archaeological Service depending on the qualification of the applicant as well as the nature and methods of the research.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Hello, Mayor can do nothing :
Permits are issued by the regional Prefect, via the Regional Archaeological Service depending on the qualification of the applicant as well as the nature and methods of the research.

Whether he could do anything or not, it was the Mayor that Stan approached. Maybe that is why they went ahead without his permission, maybe they knew he could not stop them, and only asked out of common courtesy. Nonetheless, the story is absolutely true. It is just a pity I cannot produce the photographs of the tunnel.

Cheers,
Steve

[vegetius]

I am shocked this is not being conducted in a acceptable and professional manner. From the look of it the whole affair seems wrong. Knowing the DRAC I would imagine it would be stopped pretty rapidly.

[BlackCat1982]

The existence of the tunnel and the grizzly contents are known about by too many now. DRAC and the Volksbund had already been investigating the area before the entrance was discovered by another party. Now it appears that, by word of mouth, social media or whatever that the location has become a magnet to black diggers. Hopefully now this might galvanise everyone to redouble their efforts to resolve any issues before the site is further damaged or worst still someone loses their live by being buried alive.

There is a short news piece on the unearthing of the tunnel, clearly they decided not to wait for permission and chose to dig first.

Le mystere du tunnel de Winterberg enfin elucide