The Attack of the Dead Men - a TRUE story
The Attack of the Dead Men.
Thanks to my youngest son Rhys Oldham for bringing this horrific tale to my attention. The true story of ‘The Attack of the Dead Men’ – the name given to the Battle of Osoweic Fortress in WWI. They say that truth is often stranger – and worse – than fiction. This is one tale which definitely proves that.
In World War 1 an horrific battle took place for Osoweic Fortress, now northeastern Poland. The Russian soldiers were hit with deadly mixtures of poison gases, bromine and chlorine by the German forces, forcing them to cover their faces with cloths if they were to continue to fight back.
The advancing Germans, around 7,000 of them, did not expect any real resistance after the bombardment of chemicals. They underestimated the men they were fighting.
Surviving soldiers of the Russian 13th Company of the 226th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Kotlinsky, counterattacked. The sight of oncoming Russian soldiers, coughing up blood and bits of their own lungs as the deadly mix of chemicals began to dissolve their flesh and organs, understandably horrified and frightened the Germans, prompting them to retreat. In their desperation to get away they became entangled in their own concertina wire traps, whereupon the five remaining Russian guns opened fire.
With the odds so overwhelmingly against the Russians though, they did not hold the area much longer. Instead, they demolished as much of the place as they were able before themselves retreating. Lieutenant Kotlinsky died later that evening, as I imagine many of those men died that day.
If there was ever to be a moral to a story such as this, I would suggest that it might be ‘never underestimate anyone, no matter how weak they may appear.’
History often gives us such lessons, though whether we learn from them is a debate for another time. Those poor souls, to have gone through such gruesome agonies. So much for ‘The War to End All Wars…’
There seems to be quite a lot on the web about The Attack of the Dead Men, including songs, videos and so on. Wikipedia, from which I have borrowed heavily, has a bit about it too, if you are interested to find out more.
A tale of brutal warfare, this also has an enigmatic appeal to it. No wonder it spurned imaginative recreations later on. I mean picture it, an actual zombie war, or close enough. I might return to this topic some time myself.
Image: Squarespace stock images - Scott Rodgerson