Visit by Adolf Hitler, June 1940 to his old battlefields of WW1

Dixmude Trenches of Death

WW2 Gravestone  "A local man from Wytschaete, south of Ypres, who was a young boy at the time, recalled the impression it made on him suddenly to see a convoy of big black cars and lots of German officers in their grey uniforms driving near his family’s farmhouse. He hid in the wood owned by his family and watched Adolf Hitler walking nearby with his entourage of officers. In the First World War Hitler had served with the Bavarian Reserve-Infantry-Regiment 16. "

 WW2 in color: "Hitler visiting the old WW1 front line trenches of his Bavarian 16th Reserve Regiment near Fromelles, France. He was wounded around this area during the Battle of the Somme (November 7 or 8, 1916). Photo taken in 1940, after the armistice."

Archaeologists find the bodies of 21 tragic World War One German soldiers in perfectly preserved trenches where they were buried alive by an Allied shell  Fascinating photos in here:  . . . "Many of the skeletal remains were found in the same positions the men had been in at the time of the collapse, prompting experts to liken the scene to Pompeii.

"A number of the soldiers were discovered sitting upright on a bench, one was lying in his bed and another was in the foetal position having been thrown down a flight of stairs." . . . 

. . . Archaeologists also uncovered the wooden sides, floors and stairways of the shelter.

"The dead soldiers were part of the 6th Company, 94th Reserve Infantry Regiment.

"Their names are all known - they include Musketeer Martin Heidrich, 20, Private Harry Bierkamp, 22, and Lieutenant August Hutten, 37, whose names are inscribed on a memorial in the nearby German war cemetery of Illfurth."

More on the trenches of WW1

WW1: Aerial Trench Ghosts Part 1 - Invisible Works

In Flanders Fields: PASSCHENDAELE AERIAL GHOST – LATE 1917

"It didn’t exist…"

"Nor did any trench lines, at most men stood in shellholes up to their waists in mud. Again the only vaguely recognisable elements in this flyblown muddy graveyard are the church, a scar of powdered stone and the remnants of roads." . . .

More here.