Discovered by chance 94 years on: Bodies of 21 German soldiers in perfectly-preserved First World War trenches

Discovered by chance 94 years on: Bodies of 21 German soldiers in perfectly-preserved First World War trenches

Stunned workers were meant to be digging a new road but journeyed instead into a dim and grim past

They were meant to be digging a new road but journeyed instead into a dim and grim past.

Stunned workers stumbled upon an underground shelter – and inside were the bodies of 21 German soldiers killed in the First World War.

Many were found in the position they died when an Allied shell hit their tunnel and caused it to cave in 94 years ago.

A large number of personal possessions – preserved by the lack of air and light – were also found in the 300ft tunnel near the small town of Carspach in the Alsace region of France.

Michael Landolt, the archaeologist leading the dig, said: “Everything collapsed in seconds and is just the way it was at the time. Here, as in Pompeii, we found the bodies as they were at the moment of their death.

“Some of the men were found in sitting positions on a bench, others lying down. “One was projected down a flight of wooden stairs and found in a foetal position.

"The collapsed shelter was filled with soil. The items were very well preserved because of the absence of air and light and water.

"Metal objects were rusty, wood was in good condition and we found some pages of newspapers that were still readable. Leather was in good condition as well, still supple. The items will go to a lab, to be cleaned and examined.”

French archaeologists stumbled upon the mass grave during excavation work for a road building project. The 21 men were part of a larger group of 34 who were buried alive in 1918 at the site named Killianstollen on the old Western Front.

Thirteen bodies were recovered from the shelter after the bombing but it was too dangerous to retrieve the rest. As well as the bodies, poignant personal effects such as boots, helmets, weapons, wine bottles, spectacles, wallets, pipes, ­cigarette cases and pocket books were also discovered.

Even the skeleton of a goat was found, assumed to be a source of fresh milk. The dead were part of 6th Company, 94th Reserve Infantry Regiment. Their names were already inscribed on a memorial in the nearby German war cemetery of Illfurth.

The underground tunnel was big enough to shelter 500 men and had 16 exits. It would have been equipped with heating, phone connections, electricity, beds and a pipe to pump out water.

The French attacked the shelter on March 18, 1918 with aerial mines which penetrated the ground.

It is estimated that more than 165,000 Commonwealth soldiers are still unaccounted for on the Western Front.

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