Yeah.. I was fucking with ya..

LOLLL peak >:3

An unexploded shell pierced through a tree with a sign stating: "Achtung - Todesgefahr" (Attention/Warning - Danger of Death).

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According to one estimate, 1/3 of shells fired throughout the war on the Western Front were duds; 500 million out of 1.5 billion, in many cases due to the soft and muddy terrain in which the shells were buried in. This would mean encountering a dud shell wouldn't be an unusual or noteworthy event for the average soldier.

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Danish-German soldier Kresten Andresen reported on a near-death encounter with a dud shell in diary entry from February 4, 1915, today 109 years ago. Translated by myself:

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"Lassigny, February 4, 1915.

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Yesterday I encountered Jep Nissen Dalsgård; together with a few other Danes he's with the 76th Reserve Regiment from Hamburg. They've had a rough time since November and have held a position by Roie, which has been attacked incessantly.

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So, now everything was back to normal. The loveliest weather; the sun was high and glowing red; the air was like the first days of Spring, yet it's still freezing at night; a blackbird sung so lovely in a garden. It rang like a call from home, from the Danish birch forests and warm gardens.

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I was in the town after coal and water; ka-boom! Five shells struck nearby and I hastily dissappeared down into a cellar.

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Evening. Another bad experience. Brought dinner with Unteroffizier Roose. He had a slow pace, and that was our salvation; we stood still for a second, when ka-boom, and we hastily dissappeared into a cellar, it was also very timely, for now the road, we were to walk on, got coated with shells.

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Half an hour later we could continue; it was in a hurry, we could see the new grenades impact, in the middle of the street lay a dud, and one of the new recruits wanted to nonsensically kick it, but we luckily got a hold of his neck collar just in time.

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How long shall these trips through towns in broad daylight last - it will surely cost us a few lives as a life lesson."