GHASTLY HORROR

Southland Times, Issue 18969, 16 June 1923, Page 5

GHASTLY HORROR

WAR-TIME TRAGEDY TERRIBLE DEATH OF 350 SOLDIERS (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright). (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) PARIS, June 14. (Received June 15, 9.10 p.m.) One of the most frightful tragedies of the war will be revealed by the unveiling next Sunday of a monument of 350 soldiers who perished in the village of St. Michael de Maurienne, in Savoy, on December 11, 1917. The facts were censored at the time and are now first published. Five hundred French soldiers were returning from Italy where they had been aiding the Italians to resist the Austro-German onslaught in the Piave area. When the train reached Modane, the driver protested that it was too heavily loaded to negotiate the gradients through the Savoy Alps, but obeyed the orders to continue the journey. The train entered the most dangerous section where the line ran downhill a considerable distance, on a narrow mountain ledge, with a deep gorge below. Here, owing to its weight, the train got beyond control, and raced to certain death. The excessive speed caused carriage after carriage to take fire, and the men leaping out, were crushed to death against the* rocks bordering the line. When the curve was reached, the engine left the metals and the carriages piled up over it and became a blazing furnace. Nearly 300 men were still imprisoned in the cars when they were wrecked. Practically the whole were burned to ashes and less than 150 of the 500 men were brought out or escaped alive, and the greater part of these were so seriously injured that many died.