Century-Old World War I Carrier Pigeon Message Unearthed in French Field Reveals Shocking Secret
During the battle at The Linge, French forces went up against German troops in the countryside where a bevy of war artifacts have been uncovered over the last decades, including old weapons, ammunition, and personal items which are mostly kept at the local museum.
An estimated 17,000 lives were lost in the battle. However, despite this terrible loss of life, the frontlines that were established here remained mostly unchanged when the war finally drew to a close in 1918.
Getty ImagesA typed out version of the letter’s contents, deciphered at the Linge Museum at Orbey.
Museum Curator Dominique Jardy enlisted the help of a German-speaking colleague to decipher the century-old war artifact. The barely legible letter appeared to have been dated either in 1910 or 1916, but its content which includes sensitive military information places it firmly in the midst of the First World War.
The letter contained the following message:
“Platoon Potthof receives fire as they reach the western border of the parade ground, platoon Potthof takes up fire and retreats after a while. In Fechtwald half a platoon was disabled. Platoon Potthof retreats with heavy losses.”
Jardy described the letter as a “super rare” discovery. The artifact is slated to become a permanent part of the Linge Museum’s exhibit.
The discovery of old letters sent by soldiers is not that uncommon, and sometimes they wield a deeper glimpse of what life was like in the military during the most uncertain of times.
In August 2019, an Alaskan man out looking for firewood accidentally came across a message in a bottle that had been written by a Soviet sailor in the 1960s, a particularly fraught time with the Cold War and mounting social unrest under the Communist Party.
Post Comment