In December of 1944, the Nazis launched a massive assault against Allied forces on the Western Front. Among the 89,000 US casualties was a solider who left his camera behind in the foxhole where he was taking refuge. Now, 70 years later, the camera — and the photos in it — have been recovered.


Update 2014.07.05: It now appears that the discovery of the camera was real, but the photos were faked. Here's a note from troubleshooters.com via Tactical Fanboy:

UPDATE: I have removed the photos that were originally posted. Unfortunately, embarrassingly, and dishearteningly, at least two of the photos have been found in the National Archives and were not from Louis's camera. Thus, I have removed the entire set. Thetroubleshooters.com has removed the photos as well. To clarify, Mark Anderson and Terry Janes were acting in good faith based on the information provided to them, and the camera was discovered by Mark Anderson at the coordinates provided below. He was not, however, present in the dark room in Echternach (where the film was supposedly developed), nor did he see the negatives or prints. Also, Terry Janes, historian at thetroubleshooters.com, has removed all suspect information from the source that provided the photos. From what I understand, two of the photos are from the US Army Signal Corps. Please accept my sincerest apologies.


Captain Mark D. Anderson of the United States Navy and historian Jean Muller found the camera using a metal detector while walking through the mountainsides of Luxembourg. They were looking to recover some artifacts from the Battle of the Bulge. To their surprise, the camera still had an undeveloped roll of film in it. The device belonged to Technician Fifth Grade Louis J. Archambeau, who was part of Company C, 1st Battalion, 317th Infantry Regiment.

The pics are grainy and low quality, but they're fascinating nonetheless. [Update: As noted, these photos weren't in the camera]

The winter assault proved to be Hitler's last gasp on the Western Front. His attempt to push the Allies back into the sea failed after just a few weeks — but not before creating a huge salient in the front line which gives the battle its name.


The battle, which was fought in the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, took place from December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945 under some very wintry conditions.


Some 19,000 Americans were killed during the assault, along with nearly a thousand British. With 610,000 American forces involved, it was the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the US in World War II. The Germans suffered somewhere between 67,000 to 100,000 casualties. It's estimated that 3,000 civilians were killed.


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