WW1-CENTURY/ENGRAVINGS Hundreds of engravings by WWI soldiers surface from French underground

Record ID: 146855

  • Title: WW1-CENTURY/ENGRAVINGS Hundreds of engravings by WWI soldiers surface from French underground
  • Date: 16th July 2015
  • Summary: BOUZINCOURT, FRANCE (JULY 13, 2015) (REUTERS) INSCRIPTION BY CANADIAN SOLDIER ON WALL INSCRIPTION BY CANADIAN SOLDIER SAYING HE WAS WOUNDED THREE TIMES INSCRIPTION BY BRITISH SOLDIER INSIDE ENGRAVED HEART CHURCH AMERICAN DOCTOR AND PHOTOGRAPHER, JEFFREY GUSKY, ENTERING CHURCH GUSKY WALKING DOWN STAIRS GUSKY WALKING IN UNDERGROUND CORRIDOR GUSKY ENTERING CAVE AND TAKING A P
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA42BFDVGYZV1JS4FGMIN5MC6VA
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Neglected for decades, underground caves in a small village in France's Somme valley contain a treasure trove of hundreds of engravings by World War One Canadian and British soldiers as they sought refuge from German assaults.
    War researchers say the engravings in the chalky rocks of Bouzincourt, which range from inscriptions of a soldier's name to crudely sculpted flags and hearts, offer a powerful insight into the thoughts of those caught up in the Somme Offensive, one of the bloodiest battles of the 20th century.
    Accessible by small spiral stairs in the village's church, the caves, some 12 metres under the surface, were originally used by locals to store food and even shelter their families and livestock during extreme summers or winters, as early as the 17th century.
    The underground has been taken care of by local volunteers, who organise visits on demand. In December, United States emergency doctor, explorer and photographer from Dallas, Texas, Jeffrey Gusky, who has worked for some 20 years on a photography project called "The Hidden World of WWI", was introduced to this underground world by the volunteers.
    Gusky has created thousands of images of underground and above the ground remains of WWI and said he believed the inscriptions in Bouzincourt were a human-to-human connection that would touch people of our time.
    "Because they are young men like us, they were modern people and they knew that they may be about to die. And so we all want to be known, we all want to feel like our lives matter. And so here on these walls we see them writing their last message to all of us, not knowing if anyone would ever see it. These have been in darkness for almost a 100 years and now we all get to see them and people can come to Bouzincourt and view these names and touch the past as if it's yesterday," he said on Monday (July 13).
    Many of the shapes carved out of the cave walls are designed specifically to allow a postcard to be inserted there -- others are inscriptions of the name of a soldier, often followed by details of his injuries. Of the 829 names recorded in the caves, around 500 are of Canadian soldiers, Gusky said.
    Most of the inscriptions date back to 1916, and many from the month of July, 1916, when the Somme battle started. On the first day of the battle, the British had suffered 60,000 casualties, and when the battle ended more than four months later, each camp, the German and the Allies one, had suffered more than 600,000 losses in human lives.
    The particularity of the Bouzincourt underground is that it is the site with the largest number of Canadian inscriptions, Gusky said.
    "This is an amazing place, there is no place like it on the Western front. Here, very close to the frontlines, you have hundreds and hundreds of young men who are just wanting to say 'I was alive, I was here, I was a living breathing human being and on these walls, we've found 829 names. The largest number of Canadian WWI soldiers inscriptions on the Western front, about 500 in number," he told Reuters Television.
    On the surface level, Bouzincourt also hosts a small military cemetery, where one particular grave drew Gusky's attention, that of the Lieutenant L.M. Lupton, an ancestor of Britain's Catherine, Duchess of cambridge.
    "I felt amazed because here we are, late at night, drinking coffee, in a simple little kitchen and something that is really powerful, that no-one knows, is discovered, is brought out. And so it's just part of this process of being on the frontline, of being curious and you find things. And the beauty of it is that WWI is a hundred years ago but yet it's real and it's present when you find things that make it relevant and they touch us emotionally. So I was very moved and very excited," he said.
    In addition to his artistic work, Gusky also said his aim was to help protect the remains of WWI. In many places such as Bouzincourt, volunteers work hard to preserve the inscriptions with no budget at all. With the centenary of the Somme battle in 2016, Gusky and the local volunteers said they hoped the Canadian and British governments could help them bring more exposure to the underground inscriptions and more visitors to the site.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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