Northern France. While excavating ground for a new BMW plant, the bodies of 24 British soldiers were found, entirely intact. They were buried with arms linked in a sign of solidarity and it is thought they are all from the same town.

Can you imagine being buried arm-in-arm with a fellow soldier on foreign soil because you are from the same town as he is? The things that link us are growing less and less.

Can you imagine 24 dead from the same town - from any cause including war - and not having any record that they had died, how they had died, and where they were buried? The information that we save is growing more and more.

I would wager that they were POW's in a Nazi camp, prior to the D-Day invasion.

Just the way they died is obvious they were executed en masse, which says automatic weapons. The earliest use of autos in France was WWI, but I don't think the Germans made it past Paris, thus a WWII camp.

In which case, it's understandable something like this would happen. In a situation like that, any differences would be the acme of trivial.

~Mike

Except that, dopey me, I forgot to include the detail that these guys were WWI soldiers, killed in 1917.

Which town is this site near? Somme? Verdun?

I'd wouldn't think that they are all from the same town. Imagine going through war with a group of men. I would think that one would develop a strong group bond, just by the sheer terror of the trench warfare of WWI.

When they were captured, the German forces most likely tortured the highest ranking officer for information on the British Army's movements. My guess is that he refused, and after the whole group was tortured, they were executed.

-Cyc

The by-line <a href="http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010619/wl/sons_of_war_2.html">here</a> says ARRAS. Here's the eerie fact that supports your theory. One other guy was found alone, separate from the rest.

Woah.

The Pals Battalions

[unrelated question] Tove, you were a FishNetter, weren't you?

(To outsiders: FishNet is an ISP near Philly, which I worked for from 96-97 and Tove was a user)

I don't know exactly what the status is, but it's not completely dead. They have been trying vainly to sell it for a very long time, and there are no buyers. Four months ago there were still about 800 users.

Weren't you a Quake enthusiast back then? Did we wind up shooting at each other at some point? The whole office there was big on gaming, and we used to play Duke regularly after hours.

It's truly amazing if you found the Cellar through "organic" means, and not my sig or sycamore's (he posts to phl.*) or some other, "local" method.

Hey, I've got Tribes 2 on the shelf as well! I've bee playing the only game you haven't, Unreal Tourney. It works.

Did you read of the Everquest feud between Curt Schilling and Doug Glanville? When Glanville hit two home runs off Schilling a few months ago, he told ESPN it was because Schilling killed a character of his.

Tribes

I actually just got done playing the original tribes (tribesII smokes my computer, even though it's a 933 with 128ram). And I must say that it is, indeed, one of the best way to blow off steam without hurting real people (a formidable task in itself some days)

Re: Tribes

The box sez the minimum supported is Pentium II 300 or 400 depending on the video card. TNT2, they say, the minimum is a 400 Mhz.

So why should it smoke a 933? I guess I should just load it and find out... I have a 750 here. But you people are making me think I should upgrade!

Go AMD

I think my problem might not be with the computer, though. Let's just say I've got all the latest games, and I haven't bought a piece of software since late 1998. I {heart} my burner, and other peoples'.