Two unknown soldiers (discovered in the Presena Glacier in the Italian Alps)

Economist ^ | October 9, 2013

[NYer]

Ping!

[bigdaddy45]

Fascinating. Thanks for posting.

[knarf]

fascinating

[MAexile]

Kinda makes you wonder what else is up there.

[BenLurkin]

Source: http://www.tiroler-landesmuseen.at/html.php/de/das_tirol_panorama/das_tirol_panorama/kaiserschuetzen

Pic can be enlarged at link site.

[Kirkwood]

It is an interesting region. I used to go skiing there every year for a few years. From the village you look up at the mountain that got pounded and wonder how the men endured. I stayed at a family run inn that was in continuous business for a few hundred years. Lots of war relics lined the walls of the inn.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Dittoes!

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

There is an awful lot of blood there. The 12 Battles of the Isonzo were horrific butchery between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_the_isonzo#Number_of_battles "Cumulative casualties of the numerous battles of the Isonzo were enormous. Half of the entire Italian war casualty total – some 300,000 of 600,000 – were suffered along the Soča (Isonzo). Austro-Hungarian losses, while by no means as numerous were nevertheless high at around 200,000 (of an overall total of around 1.2 million casualties)."

[bandleader]

If I’m not mistaken,Erwin Rommel won the Iron Cross there?

[oh8eleven]

the battles were the highest in the world.
I don't know, some 'Nam vets might disagree.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks NYer.

[NYer]

Thank you for posting the picture. What stunned me in the article was learning that the footwear worm by the soldiers had straw overshoes made by Russian prisoners, that were not much more sophisticated than those worn by Ötzi, the 5000-year-old “ice man” who was found not far away in 1991. So often, we view ourselves as an advanced society, only to discover that our ancestors were quite adept at adjusting to their surroundings.

[SunkenCiv]

The White War (reviews) — at the first link below, a snowmelt in 2003 is mentioned, the upshot (ahem) is that abandoned WWI cannon were revealed.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/3561693/Review-The-White-War-by-Mark-Thompson.html

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/aug/30/history.italy

http://www.maxhastings.com/2011/the-white-war-by-mark-thompson-review/

[SunkenCiv]

Bodies of WWI soldiers found in glacier
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1197091/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1198107/posts\

sidebars:

Last French WWI veteran dies (110, outlived 8.4 million Frenchmen who fought in “la Grande Guerre”)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1984589/posts

Last Doughboy’s Burial Marks End of Era
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2689330/posts

[xzins]

The retreating ice reveals those scars, along with the men who died there

Bad news for global warmists? The ice wasn't there when they fell, and the retreating ice revealed them

[Defiant]

I read a great book about the war in the mountains once, A Soldier of the Great War, by Mark Helprin. I highly recommend it.

[SunkenCiv]

Skoda cannon search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Skoda+cannon&btnG=Search&oe=utf-8

images:

https://www.google.com/images?q=Skoda+cannon&oe=utf-8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=image_result_group

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[Winniesboy]

If you go climbing or walking in the Dolomites, as I frequently have, you still come across many visible relics of the fighting. Barbed wire emplacements, dugouts, tunnels, artillery positions are still there virtually unchanged apart from the gradual depradations of weather. Most of the familiar history of the First World War centres on the trench warfare on the Western Front: but the fighting in the Italian Alps was every bit as terrible. Enduring shellfire in the mud and soft ground of Flanders was one thing: enduring shellfire in the bare rock terrain of the Alps quite another. Entire battalions were also lost in the snow.