Winterberg tunnel

The Winterberg tunnel^[1][2] is located on the mountain of Craonne, France. In World War I more than 250 soldiers^[3][4] were buried alive in the tunnel.^[5][6]

History[]

On 4 and 5 May 1917, in Craonne,^[7] more than 275 German soldiers disappeared in this tunnel.^[8][9][10] The tunnel, nearly 300 meters long, was used to supply the first front line with men, arms and ammunition.

The French artillery succeeded in destroying the two entrances and 275 soldiers were stuck more than 20 meters underground.^[11] Most of them committed suicide or died of thirst.^[12] Only two were saved a week later.^[13][14][15]

Discovery[]

This tunnel was discovered in January 2020 by a family of amateur historians.^[16] Alain Malinowski, mayor of Orainville, worked with the archives for 25 years to find the entrance,^[17] while his son Pierre Malinowski^[18] organised the night operation^[19] to open the tunnel with a crane.^[20][21] In 2021, French and German organisations opened up the tunnel to give a proper burial to the soldiers who had died years before.^{[22][23][24][25][26][21][27]}

References[]