Video: How wolves reconciled German and Russian soldiers during WWI
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In the winter of 1917, Russian and German soldiers who fought in the frozen trenches of the Eastern Front clearly had something to fear: enemy bullets, "trench feet" (damage to the feet), frostbite, countless diseases, shrapnel, bayonets, tanks, sniper fire. And, oh yes, wolves.
In February of the same year, it was reported from Berlin that large packs of wolves were migrating from the forests of Lithuania and Volhynia to the interior of the German Empire, not far from the front line. The war drove the animals out of their habitats, and they were just trying to find food (remember, the winter was pretty harsh). "Since the animals are very hungry, they enter villages and kill calves, sheep, goats and other livestock," said the report in the press. "In two cases, children were attacked."
The press in St. Petersburg said that the wolves became so brutal that they became one of the few reasons that could unite the soldiers of the warring parties. “Groups of Russian and German scouts bumped into each other in the woods and engaged in firefights when a large pack of wolves pounced on them, tearing at the wounded,” said one newspaper. "The hostilities were immediately suspended and the Germans and Russians attacked the pack together, killing about 50 wolves." There was an unspoken agreement among the snipers that if the Russians and Germans decided to participate in a collective wolf hunt, all skirmishes would cease.
A July 1917 New York Times report describes how soldiers in the Kovno-Vilna-Minsk region decided to end hostilities to fight a common furry enemy:
After that, the soldiers returned to their combat positions and the fighting resumed.
Of particular interest today is World War I in color photographs by French photographers - a unique immersion into the past.
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