Another One Confirmed

Well, it’s definitely confirmed.  The “bear traps” did exist.  Some friends who also have memories of past lives have helped me dig up this information.

The New York Times ran an article in June 1918, but I suspect that as much as they would have been eager to spread the word about German atrocities in those days, there was also a great deal of censorship; also, the NYT was naturally more interested in the hardships of American troops, and they weren’t there until 1917.

This is very fascinating because the information is scarce, in fact there was a forum thread about it on a WWI forum I sometimes browse but even they had little more than this article and a picture.

While I haven’t confirmed that these traps were used at Second Ypres, this is still the first time a detail about actual combat that isn’t something that I’ve seen dozens of times in war movies, documentaries, diaries, and history books/websites.  It’s not a smoking gun that these memories are genuine, but it’s just strengthened things a bit.

And yet, beyond the excitement there’s a deep horror that people would actually do this to each other.  These were people who, in happier times, would happily share a beer and sang the same melodies in church.  Total War makes monsters of everyone.   I can’t help but feel a bit shaken by discovering that there is truth in some of my darker memories.

More Discoveries

Hello, anyone who actually reads this.

It’s been a slow week or two and I haven’t been thinking about my recovered memories much.  It was wearing me out to consider the weight of cruelty that the Great War brought out and it made me ill to think that my soul might bear that stain.

However, thanks to a friend in the UK, I came across some information that was of interest.

The 77mm Feldkannone and its FKG11 shells seem to be a fair match for the vision of my possible death in four crucial ways:

1. The FKG11 was a high-explosive round.

2. Multiple fuses were available for the munitions used by this gun, including an impact fuse and a time fuse.

3. They were in the German arsenal at the start of the war, which makes a date of 1915 possible.

4. They had a slow rate of fire, which explains the intervals of several seconds between reports that I recall (versus later in the war when by some accounts shells rained down like steel hail).

Yet another tantalizing lead.  If I discover Pvt. Harris was killed by shell fire, especially if it was at night, then that would strongly hint that I was him in a previous life when considered with the other evidence.  At this point I don’t think anything will ever be “proved” but if I do learn who I was in that life, then at least his story- my story -will be told.

More about the 77mm Feldkannone and its munitions here: http://www.landships.freeservers.com/feldkanone_96_na.htm