Author: GeoBeats News
93258View
1m 3sLenght

Glacial melting in the Italian Alps continues to uncover the corpses of fallen World War 1 soldiers. Glacial melting in the Italian Alps continues to uncover the corpses of fallen World War 1 soldiers. The troops that are emerging in the northern village of Peio were special forces who fought in the White War, a high-altitude faceoff between the Italians and the Austrians around 1915. Those who fought there were familiar with the area, and in many cases with one another, be they enemies or comrades. Given the extreme mountain weather, specialized weapons and war strategies were developed, but in the end most lives were claimed by the punishing environment itself. In the past several years, evidence of their battles in the form of letters, diaries, and other personal items has been emerging from the ice. More recently, the bodies of those who perished have begun to surface. Many have been found mummified by the ice and have since been moved to proper burial grounds. Along the way they stop at the lab of a forensic anthropologist in Vicenza in hopes that their identities can be discovered. Most often, they end up in unmarked graves. What remains of their legacy, including love letters, machine instructions, and newspaper clippings, is displayed in Peio's war museum.