{"id":50080,"date":"2023-01-16T23:34:42","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T22:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=50080"},"modified":"2023-01-19T16:33:48","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T15:33:48","slug":"the-curious-german-bunkers-named-after-animals-built-in-france-in-1918","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/01\/16\/the-curious-german-bunkers-named-after-animals-built-in-france-in-1918\/","title":{"rendered":"The curious German bunkers named after animals built in France in 1918"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Northwestern France was the scene of some of the most terrible and bloody battles of the First World War (1914-1918).<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/11\/08\/anyox-an-abandoned-military-cemetery-in-a-remote-ghost-town-of-canada\/\">Anyox: an abandoned military cemetery in a remote ghost town of Canada<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/10\/01\/the-ghost-fleet-on-the-potomac-the-greatest-ship-graveyard-in-the-west\/\">The Ghost Fleet on the Potomac: The greatest ship graveyard in the West<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>One of those battles began in February 1916 in the Ceres Forest, 15 kilometers from the town of Verdun. <strong>The battle lasted ten months, pitted the Germans against the French and was a real carnage<\/strong>, with more than 300,000 combatants killed on each side. The battle ended in a French victory, but due to trench warfare, <strong>the front remained in that area until 1918<\/strong>. Remnants of that brutal war can still be found in the area today, more than a century later, from barbed wire to artillery craters, as well as old French and German bunkers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In 1918 the Germans were still fortifying that area.<\/strong> In the Bosque de Ceres some German bunkers from that year labeled with animal names are preserved. The German channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Simply_Adventure\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Simply_Adventure<\/a> <strong>published today an interesting video exploring these curious bunkers <\/strong>(the video is in German but has subtitles in Spanish, you can activate them in the bottom bar of the player):<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RP6_D77LwzA<\/p>\n<p>We can see here some captures of the video. This first image shows us <strong>a German bunker called \"Mammut\" (Mammoth) <\/strong>. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.morthomme.com\/caures-wald-heute.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Morthomme.com<\/a>, the text \"Minkdo\" would be a Abbreviation for Minenwerfer-Kommando (Mine Launcher Command).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52631534646_47584c8b61_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Another dilapidated German bunker.<\/strong> This one had a vaulted ceiling.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52631020167_f6f7195815_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The German bunker \"B\u00fcffel 1\"<\/strong> (there was also a \"B\u00fcffel 2\"). Again we see the year of construction, 1918, and the text \"Minkdo\". The care with which these signs were made, based on pebbles, in a war situation, is striking.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52631020182_9d4d0d211b_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The roof of one of the German bunkers<\/strong>, in a terrible state.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52632014328_03a6507e7d_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The German bunker \"Nilpferd\" (Hippopotamus).<\/strong> In this case, the year of construction does not appear.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52631020202_38f39e0a49_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The \"Habicht\" (Hawk) bunker.<\/strong> This also does not indicate the date of construction.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52632014378_9a0585bd4f_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Northwestern France was the scene of some of the most terrible and bloody battles of the First World War (1914-1918).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12876,16879],"tags":[18252,10575,10929,18251,15298],"class_list":["post-50080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-excluir-de-anotaciones-eng","category-fortifications","tag-battle-of-verdun","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-verdun","tag-world-war-i"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50080"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}