WORLD WAR I BATTLEFIELDS

Our very own Roger Gross and his son went to Europe this year on a tour of WWI and WWII sites.  Roger brought us back many photos, and a very telling narative of the WWI sites they had visited while in France.  He told us some fascinating true accounts of what happened during that war, for example, he re-created accounts of 1537 guns firing continuously for eight straight days.  Imagine the horror of trying to maintain your sanity during such a barrage.  He also told us of French and British troops advancing beyond their bunkers, only to be driven right back.  For months on end those soldiers would gain prescious ground, and lose it back again.  The tunneling and digging was extensive.  Many times one side would tunnel underneath the bunkers of the enemy to plant mines to destroy them.

The numbers of casualties, and especially MIA that Roger quoted were astounding and mind boggling, such as 75,000 MIA which were due mainly to the amount of shelling taking place, and the remains could not be identified.