The mass grave in Villeneuve-Loubet, full details

[Adrian]

An outstanding thread which compliments an outstanding piece of reasearch and archaeology. The descriptive way in which you describe the battle and the events leading up to the burial is remarkable and if reflected in your book will make it an absorbing read.
Congratulations and well done on your hard work and effort in bringing the story of these soldiers home to us and turning history into reality.
I truly hope that you receive some from of recognition for your dedication.

[Jean-Loup]

Thanks again to all for the flatering comments.

Adrian, the book I am preparing will be in similar style to this thread, but more detailed, and with information from several other villages as well. I saved some of the more interesting interviews and historical info about Villeneuve for my book, although I have already submitted to the temptation of putting some of the more surprising info here, like the Polish soldier getting shot by his officer. In the interviews I have made I have been astounded by some of the things I was told. I would never have thought such horrible things had occured on our nice french riviera during the supposed "Champagne Campaign". But unfortunatly, war had the same grim face everywhere.

Simon, thanks for telling me about the Volksbund magazine, otherwise I wouldnt have seen it.
I always find it amusing how things are twisted by the press to give a certain image of things. In this case, they jumped on the fact that I brought my Croatian girlfriend along to the exhumation. I would have perfered if they had put my email address saying I was looking for additional info about the battle, but maybe an other day....
Here is my best translation of the Volksbund article, someone with better competences in German then me may want to correct mistakes:



Exhumation near Nice.<o =""></o>
The Volksbund organises thousands of reburials per year. But the exhumation of the bones of German war victims in Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice, was something else. Because here, honnorable french helpers authorititavely participated. Beside the 6 young frenchmen under the leadership of the Volksbund worker Julien Hauser, a young girl from Croatia was also working at the recovery site. All of them worked at their self imposed duty with great commitement. For this, the Volksbund wants to say its heartfelt thanks in the name of the still unidentified next of kin.

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Ausbettung bei Nizza<o =""></o>
Viele Tausend Umbettungen organisiert der Volksbund pro Jahr. Die Exhumierung die Gebeine von Deutschen Kriegsopfern In Villeneuve-Loubet bei Nizza war dennoch etwas Bezonderes. Den hier waren ehrenamtliche franzosicher Helfer massgeblish beteiligt. Neben den sechs jungen Franzosen unter der Leitung des Volksbund-Mittarbeiters Julien Hauser wirkte auch ein junges Madchen aus Kroatien an der Bergung mit. Sie alle haben ihre selbst gestellte Aufgabe mit grosem Engagement betrieben. Dafur mochte sich der Volksbund auch im Namen des bisher noch nicht ermittelten Angehorigen ganz herzlich bedanken.<o =""></o>

[Spanish Freiwillige]

Needles to say, jean-loup, you have doen an extrordinary job , and a great service to military history, I do hope that the families of this fallen salduers are contacted.

One of this days we should go on a relic hunting expedition to russia

[historypioneer]

I have never read anything more interesting and moving than this in my entire life. I am speechless.Honest.

pioneer.

[donsmith]

Jean-Loup
My heartfelt thanks and congratulations. I knew quite well one of the American officers who fought at Villeneuve-Loubet and I have known part of the story. It is gratifying to learn more of it. Please feel free to contact me off-line and we can dialog more. From one historian to another, nicely done.
Don

[Time Bandit]

Excellent thread - well done on both the thread and your work in recovering somebodies lost loved ones.

[Ostmark]

Outstanding Jean-Loup ... great work and perfect presetation

Keep on finding Soldiers MIA

Last year we could not find any remains, maybe this year we have more luck

[Sigurd Helge]

Stunning thread. Very interesting and also touching. Jean-Loup, I have the highest respect for your fantastic effort. It truly brings life to history.

I'm also curious about the fountain pen that was featured. Do you have any close-ups or additional info that would reveal maker or model?

[gregM]

This is a great thread. One of the best I have read in the few years
I have been hanging around here. WELL DONE. I am sure that the
families of these fallen me will be ever so greatfull in knowing that
their loved ones have been found.

[History]

Jean-Loup this has been wonderful ,thank you for posting all this. If you only knew how so many of us would have loved to have been with you doing this, you are so lucky and we appreciate it very much. Maybe one day I will be able to do something like this ,who knows maybe with that guy from Russia with the Totenkat. Thank you Jean-loup,and all of you who bring this to us.

[gebirgs1938]

Hands down the best tread I have ever read on WAF!! Thank you
Eric Decker

[Jean-Loup]

Hi guys. Thanks again for the extra comments, it is quite heart warming. I answered some of the questions that were asked by PM.
I have finnished writting a report on this grave. It is 16 pages long, rather long winded, boring and technical, but if anybody is interested, drop me a PM and I will email it to you. Just to get an idea, this is what it it like:


Body number 4: <o =""></o>
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Position:<o =""></o>
Body number 4 was lying on his back in the southern, middle part of the grave, in an East-West alignment, his head being to the West, facing North. His skull was under the pelvis of body number 5, and his legs were under the bodies or legs of bodies number 8, 9 and 10.
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Description of body:<o =""></o>
All the major bones of body number 4 were intact (though most arm bones were not clearly identified), exept the skull. The skull and apparently the mandible as well were brocken into numerous pieces.
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Notable objects discovered:<o =""></o>
A complete zinc dog tag was found on the thorax of number 4, with the following inscriptions: 3079 A ??? KP ????.R. 452.
No other objects were found on number four, but a helmet (helmet E) was found approximately one meter North of number 4's skull. The helmet was a mdl 42 helmet with a piece of wire going around it for camouflage use. The helmet had also been hit by two pieces of schrapnel. One piece of schrapnel made a large entrance hole approximately <st1:metricconverter w:st="on" productid="3 cm">3 cm</st1:metricconverter> in diameter in the area above and in front of the right air ventilation hole; and made a similar and impressive exit hole in the same area on the left side of the helmet. This piece of schrapnel would have hit the wearer of the helmet very high in the anterior part of the right parietal bone, and gone out very high in the anterior area of the left parietal bone. The leather inside the helmet was torn at the areas of the entry and exit holes.
The other piece of schrapnel made a hole of approximately 5mm by 10mm at the back of the helmet, about 4cm above and and to the right of the rear rivet. This piece of schrapnel hit the helmet tangantialy, with a similar angle as the first piece of schrapnel. It penetrated the helmet, then made a small tear in the rear of the leather helmet liner and did not make any exit hole.
To determine wether helmet E belonged to body number 4 or not, number 4's skull fragments were washed and glued together. The result showed that the most superior and anterior parts of both parietal bones were missing. The skull had one large hole in it in the area where the parietal bones connect to the frontal bone. This missing area corresponded generaly to the large entry and exit hole on helmet E. On the right parietal bone, about one quarter of a typicaly funneled entrance wound remained, corresponding to the size of the scrapnel hole in the helmet. A piece of skull with a large fragment of funneled exit wound was also present and apparently belonged to the left parietal bone, but it could not be glued into place due to other bone fragments being missing. It was not attempted to put the skull in the helmet to see if the damage on both corresponded exactly, but it can safely be said that helmet E was being worn by body 4 at the moment of death, because: the damage on the skull seemingly correponds to the damage on the helmet by its location and nature; and because no other skulls found in the grave had damage that could correspond to helmet E. (One other skull (body 14) was baddly crushed, and could not be glued back together, but the parietal bones were intact in their anterior and superior parts.) No hole or mark was found on skull 4 that could correspond to the second small schrapnel hole. This piece of schrapnel was so small and arriving at such a shallow angle that this does not seem abnormal though.
Additionaly, helmet four had an intact chinstrap at the moment of discovery; and a small mass of hairs was found inside the helmet. These hairs are typicaly found in battle damaged helmets, because when the projectile goes through the helmet, it also cuts hairs off the victims head as it penetrates the head. Some of these hairs can then be found under the helmet liner.
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Apparent cause of death and conclusions:<o =""></o>
Gross schrapnel damage to the skull, and probably in other areas of the body, that would have caused imediate death. Considering the size, speed, and density of the schrapnel that damaged his helmet, body 4 was probably killed by an artillery shell exploding at short range.

[rove]

can you tell us the names of the soldiers?

[Jean-Loup]

Why do you want to know their names?

They have not been found yet anyways. Thats the job of the Wast in Berlin. When they get that done, I am hoping to be put in touch with the families, and will try to get copies of photos of the soldiers, letters, etc. That is if they let me get in contact with them, which isnt sure knowing the privacy protection laws in Germany
These are the bags the bodies were put in after discovery:

[sunny59]

Jean-Loup
Astonish effort and contribution.