WW1 Battle of Tannenberg location, lost in the forests. Military cemetery at Drwęck, Poland.

The Drwęck military cemetery in Masuria, Poland is one of the most attractive cemeteries I have seen, as can be seen it is on land reclaimed by the forest but as the archival photographs show, this was not a forest when built, nor was it in the inter war years. This is however, a nature film. I was in my motorhome at Stębark (Tannenberg) and I cycled here. Crossing marshes and forests along an earthen track and then old cobbled roads we hear the screetching of geese and the singing of birds and buzzing of insects. En route we pass anti tank ditches built probably at great cost in labour in the winter of 1944 - 45, now filled with water and are peaceful lakes inhabited by beavers.

The men buried in the cemetery are from both the Russian and German armies and were killed in late August 1914. The cemetery itself is based on a Russian earthwork, and incredible piece of construction considering how little time there was to build it.

Whereas this was filmed in June 2020 during the Covid pandemic, I think most of the summer, this part of Masuria, and indeed large parts of northern Poland, would be this empty.

My history channel is based on my own research and generally comes from places I have visited and or original research. I live in a motorhome and as such spend most of my time travelling between Poland, Germany and Italy which is why there is a tendency to produce material from these countries, and sometimes material that is not available in English. My speciality is in World War Two, and in particular, the Holocaust although as you can see, I have opinions on a lot of other historical subjects too.

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