Height 80

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Aerial photo from 1916 with today's excavation site from height 80 (green) and the church (yellow)

Height 80 is the abbreviated name for an excavation project in which a military position from the First World War in Wijtschate (former name: Wytschaete ) in West Flanders ( Belgium ) was archaeologically examined. The facility used from 1914 to 1918 within a mill was part of the German positioning system and was called the "Kapelleriemühle" by German troops. It was on the outskirts on a slight elevation of 80 meters above sea ​​level . During the four-year trench war , it was mainly in the hands of German troops and was held for a short time by Allied troops. In 2018 an excavation was carried out in front of a residential development, mainly financed by crowdfunding , by an international team of archaeologists , historians and volunteer excavation helpers. Numerous pieces of military equipment and the remains of around 130 soldiers were found on the 1.1 hectare area examined.

location

Wytschaete-Bogen , west of it the Kemmelberg , 1916
German military card with the inscription Ehe. Chapel

The position in Wytschaete was located roughly in the middle of the approximately 15 km long front bulge of the Wytschaete arch , which was connected to the north of the Ypres arch . It lay on the elongated ridge between Messines and Wytschaete on a slight elevation of 80 meters above sea level, from which the terms "Height" 80 and "Hill 80" for the excavation project carried out in 2018 are derived. The area of ​​the previous position is located in an area called a chapel about 200 meters north of the town center with the church, which is at the highest point of the town at about 84 meters above sea level. The position was in a mill with a windmill and a steam mill, as well as other buildings that were militarily redesigned. Accordingly, the position of German troops was called "Kapelleriemühle". The mill burned down in 1914.

The Wytschaete arch was in the area of ​​the place Wytschaete a multi-part position system. The foremost front line , which on military maps as "I. Position "is called, was about a kilometer west of the place in the lowlands. The position at "Height 80" was due to the "II. (Treble) position ". About two kilometers east in the hinterland of the place was the "tendon position". The “III. Position ”, the“ Tenbrielen-Riegel ”and the“ Flanders Position ”as a catch line in the event of a possible breakthrough by the Allies. The Sachsengraben passed the position at "Höhe 80" as a trench , which was part of the "II. (Altitude) position “surrounded the place; From the position the Schweinle Steig led as a trench to the front line.

The position afforded a wide view of the level up to 50 meters below, in which the Allied positions were located. Of particular strategic importance was the unobstructed view of Ypres, around eight kilometers away, and the front line of the Ypres arc. After there, artillery observers were able to direct the artillery fire of German cannons, which were set up to the east of the ridge, protected from view. Three kilometers west of Wytschaete was in the held by Allied troops field of strategic and at the time as Eye of Flanders called Kemmelberg (159 meters above sea level). From there Wytschaete and the "Höhe 80" were clearly visible, so that visible movements of people resulted in immediate artillery fire from the Kemmelberg.

  • German map with height indication 80 (red) and Schweinle Steig and Sachsengraben
  • Aerial photo from 1916, excavation area from 2018 green, church yellow
  • British map from 1917

history

Main street in Wytschaete, 1916
The destroyed town of Wytschaete after the Battle of the Wytschaete Arch , 1917

The town of Wytschaete was taken by German troops at the First Battle of Flanders in early November 1914 after heavy fighting against French units. The Germans then settled on the strategically important ridge between Messines and Wytschaete.

German troops expanded the place Wytschaete as a military base with accommodation. An extensive system of bunkers , trenches, galleries and tunnels was created, which was secured by barbed wire barricades . This also included the position at the “Kapelleriemühle” on the outskirts. It included trenches and trenches , buildings, a command center in basements, observation posts and tunnel connections to the front line about a kilometer away. When the bombardment of the place grew stronger during the course of the war, two underground tunnel barracks with 200 and 35 beds were built to protect the soldiers. In 1915, mainly Bavarian units were deployed in the area , such as the 5th and 17th Infantry Regiments .

During the Third Battle of Flanders, allied troops overran the place at the Battle of Wytschaete-Bogen after devastating mine blasts in June 1917 and took the position. The gain in terrain achieved in the advance was only a few kilometers.

In April 1918, during the Fourth Battle of Flanders , German troops retook Wytschaete and advanced beyond that to Kemmelberg. Then the Allies took Wytschaete during the Hundred Days Offensive in September 1918, and with it the position for good. The place was almost completely destroyed by artillery fire during the war; the surrounding area resembled a lunar landscape due to the numerous shell holes . After the war, funnels and military trenches were filled with earth, including around the position. Since then, the site has remained largely unused.

excavation

Excavation work in the area of ​​fallen soldiers, recognizable by orange sticks, 2018

The area of ​​the previous position at the “Kapelleriemühle” came into the focus of historians and archaeologists in 2015 when they were looking for historical soil remnants due to a planned development of residential buildings with small-scale test excavations. The relics discovered in the process, such as ammunition and military equipment, indicated that rich finds were to be expected.

In 2018, a large-scale excavation was carried out on a 1.1 hectare area that was earmarked for development. Archaeologists, historians and volunteer excavators from several countries were involved. The excavation, which can be attributed to both battlefield and modern archeology , served to gain knowledge about the construction and functioning of the position. Likewise, the fallen dead were to be recovered from the excavations in order to identify them and to bury them in a dignified manner in one of the surrounding war cemeteries .

Excavation project

View over the excavation site

The excavation project was called "Dig Hill 80 Project Whitesheet (English name for Wytschaete ) 2018" and "Height 80 Project Whitesheet 2018". The initiators were the Belgian battlefield archaeologist Simon Verdegem as well as the British military historian Peter Doyle and his German colleague Robin Schäfer. The excavation project was sponsored by some celebrities, such as the British comedian Al Murray and the historian Dan Snow. A total of 204 excavation helpers were involved in the 60-day excavation.

Crowdfunding was chosen as the type of financing because the Belgian state did not provide any funds for a major excavation and the client could not afford the high costs. At the end of 2017, crowdfunding raised around 178,000  euros from almost 2,700 donors. Most of the money came from the United States and Great Britain, followed by Belgium and Germany. Other funding options were also used, such as the sale of merchandise and paid tours of the excavation site. The excavation workers themselves also contributed to the support by paying for their participation in the excavation work. A total of around 220,000 euros was raised from 3000 donors. The previously calculated costs amounted to a total of 250,000 euros, of which 100,000 euros were the work of the archaeologists. 45,000 euros were earmarked for the disposal of ordnance and 30,000 euros for dredging work. The post-processing process with restoration and found processing measures was estimated at 40,000 euros. The cost of forensic examinations on human remains should amount to 20,000 euros. The lowest costs, at 15,000 euros, were the on-site organization with work containers and devices.

Excavation results

Remains of buildings from the previous position
Wood remains from a ditch or shelter and sandbags

During the excavations on an area of ​​around 10,500 square meters, the archaeologists examined military trenches with a total length of 476 meters and 430 shell holes. They came across six basement rooms of buildings and a cellar reinforced to a bunker, which they interpret as the former headquarters. Another suspected bunker turned out to be a floor slab. The earlier buildings were a mill complex, which included a windmill, a steam mill, a storage shed and the miller's house , which had been converted for military use. The archaeologists were able to distinguish between the original building parts and the later military fixtures based on the stone material used: the older building parts were made of red brick, the military fixtures of light-colored building material such as concrete and concrete blocks. In addition to the buildings, the archaeologists uncovered two tunnels and a wooden staircase with an unknown function. On the excavation site they found the trenches that were also shown on military maps from the First World War. Numerous items of equipment belonging to British soldiers were lying in one of the trenches, suggesting that they left the trench quickly in a German attack.

The finds from the excavation included around 4,000 artifacts . These included mainly items of equipment used by soldiers, such as bayonets , rifles , steel helmets , cookware and canteens . Uniform parts found by Bavarian troops are evidence of their historical presence in Wytschaete. The finds are examined and inventoried in a depot in Bruges . Explosive ordnance such as grenades and ammunition were also recovered.

The remains of around 130 soldiers, some of them hastily buried in mass graves , were found on the excavation site . These included German, British, French and South African soldiers, none of whom could initially be identified so far (October 2018). Experts believe that there were around 100 German soldiers among the dead, most of whom were killed by rifle or shell fire during the First Battle of Flanders in November 1914. Forensic examinations on the bones of fallen soldiers are carried out by the British University of Cranfield .

With their investigations, the archaeologists were able to reconstruct the war history in Wytschaete, which began with the fighting of 1914. The trenches were built between 1915 and 1917, while the battles took place in 1917 and 1918. According to the archaeologists, the particular importance of the site was that the area has not undergone any major encroachment since 1918 and has not been used for agriculture. In their opinion, the position is a kind of " Pompeii of the First World War".

  • Found objects

  • Wooden steps of an underground corridor

  • gun

  • Rifle ammunition

  • Feldspade , mug

  • Cup and pipe

Found presentation

A first presentation of the excavation results took place in Ypres at the end of 2018 . Another performance took place in November 2018 in London . After their restoration, the finds are to be made available to the municipality of Heuvelland or exhibited in regional museums on the history of the First World War in Flanders , such as the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres and the “Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917” in Zonnebeke .

The US University of Virginia Tech is producing a 3D projection based on the excavation and documentation material, including aerial photographs taken by quadrocopter . It is planned to make the previous position tangible in virtual reality so that it can be viewed with VR glasses .

See also

literature

  • High Command of the Wehrmacht (Ed.): The loss of the Wytschaete arch. In: The World War 1914–1918. Volume 12, Warfare in the spring of 1917. pp. 425–467 ( online ).
  • Wytschaete and the great funnel explosion of St. Eloi in: Reminder sheets of German regiments : Royal Prussian Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 215, Part II. From the deployment in front of Wytschaete to the march back across the Rhine (March 1916 to November 1918) , Zeulenroda, 1939, pp. 9–77.

Web links

Commons : Height 80  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wijtschate: De molen
  2. ↑ High Command of the Wehrmacht (ed.): The loss of the Wytschaete arch. In: The World War 1914–1918. Volume 12, Warfare in the spring of 1917. p. 675 (map).
  3. ↑ Fabian Schweyher: "If you find human bones, it's sobering" at t-online.de from June 30, 2018
  4. ↑ course of the war in 1915 at White Sheet on was from 1914 to 1918
  5. ↑ Age shall not weary them at "Höhe 80 Project Whitesheet 2018"
  6. ↑ Al veertig soldiers uit WO I gevonden bij Opgravingen in Wijtschate in Het Laatste Nieuws on 27 April 2018
  7. ↑ German bulwark "Höhe 80" is exposed at flanderninfo.be on April 16, 2018
  8. ↑ Mark Hallam: Crowdfunding-Projekt Höhe 80: Archeology in the trenches of the First World War at Deutsche Welle from July 22, 2018
  9. ↑ Wijtschate: Crowdfunding for "Höhe 80" at flanderninfo.be from October 19, 2017
  10. ↑ Height 80 Project Whitesheet 2018 at the municipality of Heuvelland (PDF)
  11. ↑ About Us at "Höhe 80 Project Whitesheet 2018"
  12. ↑ Dig Hill 80 Project Whitesheet, 2018 at westernfrontassociation.com, December 2017
  13. ↑ "Height 80": Urgently looking for money for excavation ... at flanderninfo.be on December 8th, 2017
  14. ↑ Hill 80 blijkt schatkamer voor archeologen in Het Laatste Nieuws from May 18, 2018
  15. ↑ Dig Hill 80: Excavating an Endangered WW1 Battlefield at Kickstarter.com
  16. ↑ Duits bolwerk Hill 80 wordt blootlegerd in Wijtschate at flanderninfo.be from April 16, 2018
  17. ↑ a b c d e f g Opgraving valt veel groter uit dan gepland: 130 lichamen en 4,000 attributen given in nieuwsblad.be from July 14, 2018
  18. ↑ Charlie Moore: Finally a send-off for the heroes: Remains of British soldiers stuck in Belgian trenches will be given a proper burial as archaeologists win race to excavate German WWI position before it's demolished in Daily Mail of February 11, 2018
  19. ↑ Excavations: The "Höhe 80" is a treasure trove at flanderninfo.be from May 24, 2018
  20. ↑ Tijs Mauroo: Al 67 dode soldiers en 1,500 vondsten in Wijtschate bij opgraving Hill 80 at flanderninfo.be from 23 May 2018
  21. ↑ Op de valreep mysterieuze trap ontdekt in Het Laatste Nieuws on July 13, 2018
  22. ^ British First World War heroes found among HP sauce and coffee pots in trench excavation in Express of July 13, 2018
  23. ↑ Thijs Pattyn: Opgraving valt veel groter uit dan gepland: 130 lichamen en 4,000 attributen gevonden (nl-BE) . In: Het Nieuwsblad . 
  24. ↑ Tim Collins: Glimpse into 'hell on Earth': Skeletons of 125 WWI soldiers are found where they fell during the Great War in 101 year-old Belgian trench mass grave in Daily Mail of July 13, 2018
  25. ↑ Lorenz Hemicker: Höhe 80: A Pompeii of the First World War in FAZ from June 29, 2018
  26. ↑ Dig Hill 80: Presentation of Findings , Video on YouTube (1:45 minutes)
  27. ↑ Mark Hallam: Crowdfunded archeology: 'Dig Hill 80' explores the WWI Ypres Salient battlefield at Deutsche Welle on July 14, 2018
  28. ↑ 128 soldiers from World War I unearthed at flanderninfo.be on July 13, 2018

Coordinates: 50 ° 47 '18.3 "  N , 2 ° 52' 55.9"  E