French cave engravings reveal last thoughts of WW1 soldiers | Reuters - 0 views
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eglected 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.
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ar researchers say the engravings in the chalky rocks of Bouzincourt, which range from inscriptions of a soldier's name to crudely carved 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.
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"They knew that they may be about to die. 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," Jeffrey Gusky, a U.S. medic who for the past 20 years has gathered images for a photo project called "The Hidden World of WWI",
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Most of the inscriptions date back to 1916, many from July of that year when the Battle of the Somme started. Some 20,000 British soldiers were killed on the first day; by the battle's end in mid-November, the two sides had together suffered over a million casualties