The Discovery Of The Lost Soldier Of WWII.
In the summer of 1970, a man named Dave Panebaker got a job as a seasonal ranger at Crater Lake. Over that summer, he heard about an interesting but little known sight in the park: A dark-blue Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter that had crashed there a month or two after World War II ended.
The old Navy fighter had hit hard, and everyone assumed the pilot was long dead. One of its machine guns was embedded in a cliff face, and the blue wing with its white star insignia was clearly visible through the underbrush.
It was a relatively short and very do-able hike to go see it. So Panebaker, on his day off, pulled his boots on and set out.
But Panebaker got lost while searching for the crash site. Rather than just continue hiking and hoping for the best, he sat down on a log to think through his options for what would most likely get him back to civilization.
And while he sat and thought, he suddenly got the feeling somebody was watching him.
He looked up and locked eyes — or, rather, eye sockets — with a human skull that was staring at him from under a nearby log....
(By the way, the skeleton shown here is a movie prop from an old Tarzan film. It's not one of the ones found at Crater Lake.)
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Drawing depicting a U.S. Marine stabbing a German soldier with his bayonetted rifle, 1918. .
The following is the memoir of U.S. Marine Brannan during the Battle of the Blanc Mont Ridge on October 3,
1918, today 105 years ago:
"2 or 3 hours before daylight, the word was passed along to get ready for the attack. Just as it was breaking day, we came out of our trench and began the ascent in combat formation. The rows of men moved forward unhesitatingly but fell like ten pins before the deadly machine-gun fire.
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I was with a Lieutenant when we entered the forest (...) We were firing on the retreating enemy as we advanced, sometimes dropping to a knee for better aim. A bullet hit my bayonet (...), shattering the bayonet and leaving me only a stub.
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A Marine near me rushed at three Germans who were also near. I speeded up and rushed at them, too, with my rifle lowered to use my bayonet. They surrendered, and then I noticed them looking at my bayonet. I tried to read their minds. They must have thought that I had broken off my bayonet in a man. Later a man in my company saw me with my stub of a bayonet and said, "Old Brannen stuck his bayonet in one and broke it off."
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A machine-gun nest was now holding up the advance. Instead of trying a direct assault, we decided to flank it. (...) When we were in close proximity to the nest, we were a little too exposed, and the fellow on my right fell, killed.
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As I jumped for protection into a ditch nearby, a fusillade of bullets caught me below the heart on the left side, (...)The best I remember, ten bullets in my own belt exploded, but they had deflected the enemy bullets, saving my life.
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I collected myself together and, with the other companion in the ditch, looked for our machine gunner but saw the Americans were now in possession. (...) On going up there I found three dead Germans stretched out by two guns.
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Machine gunners were never taken prisoners by either side. The reason is obvious, for when a man sat behind a gun and mowed down a bunch of men, his life was automatically forfeited."
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