The mass grave in Villeneuve-Loubet, full details

[Jean-Loup]

They were also young and alive once.

[Duane E]

Jean-Loup, this is a great thread. I enjoy reading and seeing your work. Duane

[robby]

Outstanding - I've really enjoyed reading this. Very impressed with the work you've done.

Rob.

[DANNIE1063]

Great work, totally enjoyed reading this thread.

[Jean-Loup]

Dannie, I am proud that your first post in this forum is to comment on my thread.

I was recently able to have an other look at the bones discovered during the exhumation (they will not be reburied untill june 2007), and one of my goals was to reconstruct the 2 skulls that were totaly fractured when we found them; to determine who was wearing this helmet when he died, and who was wearing an other helmet shown before in the thread, and that was hit by a bullet from behind.

[Jean-Loup]

The helmet had been found about 50 cm away from the skull of body number 4, so I strongly suspected number 4 had been wearing the helmet when he was killed.
I wanted to make sure of this, because number 4 still had his dog tag, and in the event that I could one day be asked by his familly how he was killed, I would like to be able to give them the real answer.
This is what the skull of number 4 looked like.

[Jean-Loup]

This is the damage I expected to find on the skull of whoever was wearing the schrapnel damaged helmet:

[Jean-Loup]

And after a few hours spent cleaning and glueing together all the pieces of the skull of body number 4, this is the result obtained.
The white fractures are new ones that we made during the exhumation. The darker fractures are the old original ones.
As you can see by some of the white fractures, several large pieces of skull are missing, but not in the impact area, where the pieces are "really" missing.

[Jean-Loup]

Although there are many pieces missing, it is quite clear that this skull did not receive a bullet from behind, but has damage that corresponds almost perfectly to what I expected to find, and that also corresponds to the hole in the helmet of course.

[Jean-Loup]

I think I can safely conclude that the helmet belongs to body number 4, who was killed by massive head wounds.

[Jean-Loup]

Although I didnt take good pictures of it, parts of skull 4 (circled in red) looked like a typical entry hole, with a "funnel" shape, the thicker part of the "funnel" being where the schrapnel exited. The reason for this is rather simple, and explained by my little drawing.
This supposed entry hole is on the correct side of skull number 4 so that it corresponds with the helmet. The entry hole in the skull seems a bit low compared to the entry hole on the helmet, but it is mostly because the skull was not positioned at the proper angle when the pictures were taken.
JL

[Daniele C]

jean this is really interesting to know and it shows the real meaning of wot soldiers pass in a war

[sunny59]

Appreciate your effort on this thread. Who knows how many germans relatives will finally put to an end this chapter of history. 62 years is a lot of time...

[sturmann]

J-Loup,

Toutes mes felicitations
It's very interesting & I can only aplaude your dedication, allowing those men getting a decent burial & their family getting more info about the fate of their loved ones.

Bravo ,
yves

[reidmuller]

Thats amazing our very own CSI episode! Is that a 30.06 round that hit him or a .50? looks more like .50 to me
Thanks for these pics and for finding some of our missing soldiers so there family can finally know what happned