In France, a German tunnel from World War I was discovered...30 meters underground
In August 2024, a group of “Great War” enthusiasts made an unexpected discovery: a German tunnel, containing certain remains of the First World War, buried at a depth of 30 meters.
17 members of the 'Association des Souterrains allemands de Puisaleine et des Environs', or ASAPE 14-18, couldn't believe their eyes when they discovered the tunnel in the woods of Moulin-sous-Touvent, in the east of the Oise region in France. The history buffs set out to explore a forest subsidence, once one of the German army's front lines, and initially thought it was “a badger or fox burrow”. This soon turned out to be “a gallery entrance used by soldiers”.
Maximilian Hiebinger, President of ASAPE 14-18, spoke to Le Parisien about the adventure. After obtaining all necessary authorizations, the small group of explorers were able to uncover the tunnel entrance, buried under a layer of barbed wire. There, beneath their feet, lay a 122-metre-long tunnel, 30 metres underground.
“It's such an intense feeling to be the first to return to the site 106 years later. You can smell the earth, the damp and sometimes gunpowder (...) you go through a multi-gas detector to make sure there's a sufficient concentration of oxygen and no dangerous gases. Then we ventilate,” says Maximilian.
As reported by Demotivateur, one of the underground galleries contained engravings bearing the names of soldiers or regiments, graffiti, war material, shoes, old ammunition and bottles of German wine.
In reality, this tunnel is a mine gallery; some fifteen on the French side and thirty on the German side have already been identified by ASAPE 14-18 between Bailly and Autrêches. The tunnel, which dates from 1916, has been named G24 (galerie 24), and the artefacts discovered have been offered to archaeologists from the DRAC (Direction régionale des affaires culturelles) and to the Municipality of Moulin-sous-Touvent, which has put them on display until November 11, 2024, explains Demotivateur.
The G24 will be resealed to prevent theft.
(MH with AsD - Source : Demotivateur - Illustration : Unsplash)