All language subtitles for Americans.Underground.Secret.City.of.WWI.2017.1080p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE

New discovery.

How far down?
How many meters?

Could... Could you hold
this for me, please?

Merci.

Yes?

Okay.

Okay, thank you.
I'll be careful.

You find a hole in the ground,

and you crawl down
into that hole,

and you're in a different world.

Oui?

Yeah, I'm okay, Francois.

I'm safe.

I'm just amazed
at what's down here.

Wow.

American photographer
and explorer Jeff Gusky

has entered a rare window
into a war most Americans

barely remember:
World War 1.

[explosions]

To escape the terrible
carnage on the surface,

men on both sides took refuge

in underground
shelters like this.

And they left their mark.

There's a name,
Louis Lefevre.

L-E-F-E-V-R-E.

Another name by Louis Lefevre.

Under this heart.

It's a pregnant woman.

Signs of humanity
in a world gone mad.

Jeff Gusky's mission
is to document

these long forgotten havens
hidden beneath the surface.

[explosions]

In 1914, Europe,
the Middle East,

and parts of Africa are
plunged into a conflict

the likes of which the world
has never seen before.

World War I is
the industrial revolution

turned from the factory
floor to the battlefield.

It is mechanization, it
is large scale destruction.

It is high technology
of its day.

Not just a war on the ground,
but also a war in the air.

All the great powers are drawn
into this killing machine.

Germany and the Austro-Hungarian
and Ottoman Empires

battle against
Britain, France,

Russia, Italy, and
ultimately, the United States.

The fighting is the most
intense along the Western front,

a 400 mile corridor
of trenches filled with

millions of weapons and men.

We all know the phrase
of "going over the top".

And going across no-man's land
into the battlefield.

But what most people
don't realize,

even people who study
World War 1, there were

these adjacent spaces
where 1000s of soldiers

lived for extended
periods of time.

In this parallel universe
below ground,

many of those men left
evidence of who they were.

Their own individual stories.

In the 21st century,

when few American are
touched directly by war,

our closest experience may
be the emergency room.

May be a gunshot wound,
it may be an overdose.

It may be a
pregnancy emergency,

a psychiatric emergency.

We have to take care
of everything.

Are you allergic to
any medicines?

No.

Jeff Gusky's passion
for a forgotten war

grew from his work as a doctor.

My job as an emergency
physician is to save lives.

We're on the frontlines,
just like in World War 1,

they were on the frontlines.

In my work as a photographer
and an explorer,

I was fortunate
to find places

that had history in the raw.

His images from underground

have captured a view
of World War 1

few even knew existed,

and where all sides contributed.

When you go down
in these spaces,

and you see some
of these artworks,

particularly the very
personal ones,

you really sort of feel like
the souls of these individuals

are still here.

For Jeff Gusky, bringing to
light these long lost souls

has become a mission,

one he hopes will deliver
an even greater reward.

Chemin Des Dames,

an area of Northern France.

It means "road of the ladies."

Jeff Gusky hopes it
will lead somewhere else.

For years, he's photographed
French and German carvings.

-Hello.
-Hey!

Hello, Jeff!

Now he's heard of an
underground city nearby

that once housed 1000s
of American troops.

They fought here in
the last year of the war

in trenches now largely
vanished.

Some friends of mine told me
about this place

and they knew the farmer.

Are you excited about
this opportunity?

A little bit, yeah.

Jeff's friends belong
to Soissonnais 14-18,

an association working
with local landowners

to preserve and protect
the remains of World War 1.

One of them tells him
about a hidden world

beneath
Francois Aubry's farm.

Wow.

They fought here.

Wow.

As many as 500
underground sites

lie close to this 45-mile
section of the western front,

crossing the
Chemin Des Dames plateau.

Both sides use them as
troop quarters.

In April, 1917, the
trenches here see some

of the heaviest fighting.

A massive French offensive fails
to break the German lines.

But for Jeff Gusky, this
is more than just

another underground site.

He hopes American soldiers
left a vivid record

of their presence here.

And before me was
an underground city.

This place is huge.

Just seems to go
on and on and on.

Oh my gosh, look.

Here's a dog.

Man's best friend.

What Jeff is entering
is a centuries old quarry,

a source of limestone
for building

dating back perhaps
to the middle ages.

All these strokes are
made by hand

as quarrymen were
taking blocks of stone

out of these underground mines
for castles and cathedrals.

Wow, this is the eyepiece
of a French gasmask

just laying here.

French soldier looked
through these eyepieces

to protect their face
from gas.

I wonder if these helped
to save a life.

That soldier may have been part

of the second French attack
in late 1917.

They had finally driven
the Germans out of the quarry

they've occupied since the
early days of the war

and where they, too,
left behind their mark.

Germans were very organized
in the way they marked

different sectors.

And they just left
everything in place,

so... all around you,
you see objects of daily life.

You find food cans
and tobacco pouches

and clocks and pots and pans.

And you find shells.

Fortunately,
this is not live.

Over several hours,
Jeff Gusky finds

plenty of images, too.

But none obviously American.

Beginning to wonder
if the story is false,

he enters a new gallery.

The walls are blank.

But then...

Oh, wow.
This is huge.

This is amazing.

Looks like it was
made yesterday.

It's been in darkness
almost 100 years.

Mechanic A. Ardine.

Company G, 103,
U.S. Infantry.

South Brewer, Maine.
I never heard of that town.

Not only German, then French,

but American soldiers, too,

made this their
temporary home.

E. J. Laskey.
Manchester, New Hampshire.

This guy is from
Boston, Massachusetts.

Elvin R. Dickerson.

So... or Nickerson.

Looks like hundred and hundreds
of Americans were here.

And they lived here.

I keep seeing
New England names.

I keep seeing guys from
Maine and New Hampshire,

Vermont and Massachusetts.

In April, 1917,

the United States finally
enters World War 1.

Woodrow Wilson has
basically campaigned

as the president who kept
us out of war.

And then finally,
in 1917,

the Germans who are
really desperate to break

the deadlock on
the western front,

but the can't do it
with their army,

return to unrestricted
submarine warfare.

With her passenger and
merchant ships under attack,

America declares
war on Germany.

Americans knew perfectly well
how bad the war was.

And they nevertheless
in April, 1917

joined the war.

And I think the
explanation really rests

in a lot of ways
in their sense that

civilization
itself was at threat.

In this vast underground city,

Jeff Gusky has uncovered
hundreds of images

made by American soldiers
in World War 1.

Who were they?

Can he find their descendants?

And what do these
intriguing symbols mean?

Explorer Jeff Gusky
arrives in New England

on the trail of the names
of American soldiers

he's found in an underground
quarry in France.

I'm in Concord, Massachusetts
heading to

the Massachusetts National
Guard archive and Armory.

It's kind of eerie
knowing that

some of the young men
whose names I photographed

in France may have
lived on this street,

and that they were
transplanted

rather suddenly from
this peaceful place

to hell on earth.

Morning, Len Kondratiuk.
Welcome, Jeff.

Hey, General Kondratiuk,
nice to meet you.

Lieutenant
Johnson Bratten.

Jeff Gusky has come
to meet two experts

in New England regiments
from World War 1.

This is really the first
chance I've had

to talk to anyone
who knows

about what these names mean.

And, uh... they're guys
from Maine,

they're guys from Connecticut.

From Massachusetts. And...

Brigadier General
Len Kondratiuk

and Lieutenant Jonathan
Bratton are historians with

the Massachusetts and
Maine National Guard.

What part of the front was it?

It's right in the
Chemin Des Dames.

That's where the Yankee division
first went into the lines

in February and March, 1918.

Oh, wow.

So this is one with
about eight names on it.

Look, the squad is commanded
by Corporal Blodgitt

from Company E,
the 101st infantry,

which was from Boston.

What's amazing to me
is the detail on this.

Looks like to me they
just listed their names

just a few days ago
as opposed to

100 years ago.

But they're so proud
of what they do.

Auto rifle squad,
and they even have their

Chauchat automatic
rifle down here.

I was simply blown away.
I was amazed.

I had no idea that anything
like this existed.

I knew right away that it
had to be the Yankee division.

The Yankee division is the
nickname that was given

to 26 US Division which
was an amalgamation of

different national guard
regiments that have existed

for, some of them,
100s of years.

28,000 men in all.

Jeff Gusky has uncovered a
record lost for a hundred years.

Few photos survive
of the quarries.

And only sketchy descriptions.

So who were these men
of Yankee division

who left behind their names?

They had about 2000 Mainers

who probably never left
the state of Maine

because it's a small,
rural state.

You mainly have paper
mill workers, lumberjacks,

fishermen,
potato farmers.

What amazes me is
the esprit that they had.

These were hardy New Englanders

from the woods of Maine
and New Hampshire.

And the clerks and mechanics
of the Boston area.

Soon, they'd be inscribing
words on a French quarry wall

to keep alive
memories of home.

So you'll see underground

in big bold letters

"Red Socks seven, Yanks four."

1918 was the last year
they won the series.

Yes.

And they're obviously
very proud of it.

Nearby, another New England
soldier carves a self-portait.

At a third site, a German
carves a striking image

of Field Marshall Hindenburg.

When one side took over a
space from another side,

they didn't destroy
what they saw there.

All of the soldiers,
whatever side they were on

recognized that the carvings
that an individual made

had meaning and they sort
of left those things there.

The American's French allies

who've lived in
the quarries for years

produced some of the most
profound and elaborate artwork.

Like a ship named Liberty
sinking beneath the waves.

It really does represent
the idea that

the first world war really
was a great disaster.

Not only in terms of
loss of life,

but also just profoundly
changing how the world

looked at itself and how
we interacted with one another.

As a bulwark against such
an apocalyptic vision,

another quarry contains
a delicately carved altar

whose inscription reads
"God protect France."

And just adjacent to it
are a series of steps.

which take you up
to the trenches

and take you out
to the battlefield

and you know those soldiers

would pass by
that religious altar

walking up those steps,

knowing what they're
about to face.

Similar fears surely drove the
Americans of Yankee division,

whose names Jeff Gusky has
most recently photographed.

I'd love to know if there are
relatives that are still alive.

I'd love to know about
who these guys were.

You know, you get a sense of
their personality

from their carvings.

Whether through names
or symbols,

Jeff Gusky is counting
on these historians

to help him reach a much
higher goal:

to connect these ghostly names

to living descendants.

I can go through and start
looking up the names.

Thank you, that
would be fantastic.

Company, move out.

At the time that the
United States enters the war,

there are about 120,000
soldiers in the Army.

It is, I think the 16th
largest army in the world.

It's not an enormous force.

In fact, many believe
the United States

will fail to raise an army
of significant size.

Part of the reason that
Americans surprise everyone

so quickly is that
the level of

volunteering is
really remarkable.

The number of people who
volunteer to join forces

like the Yankee division
really sort of

brings the numbers of
soldiers through the roof.

Within a year, 2 million
American troops

will deploy overseas,

to fight on the western front.

We have a 139,000
cards down here.

So sometimes it takes
a few minutes and many

of the soldiers
have the same names.

And oftentimes there will be
the next of kin

on the back of the card,
which will give us a lead.

Arthur Blodgitt.

Okay, I got it.

That's him.

Len Kondratiuk
quickly tracks down

Corporal Blodgitt,

the squad leader at one
of Jeff Gusky's photos.

Another squad member,
19-year-old Harold Lombard,

soon follows.

Jonathan Bratten turns up
another 19 year old,

Ralph T. Moan from
East Machias, Maine,

who wrote a diary
about the war.

Which is an
absolutely incredible find,

especially timed with
having just found out

that he left his
carving in France.

An early entry describes
running the gauntlet

of German U-boats
in the Atlantic.

"We are now in
the danger zones.

The destroyers were
continually..."

...on the lookout
for submarines.

We'd been out of land
for two days now

but on the tenth day,
sighted England.

and at 7:00 P.M...."

Moan goes on to describe
Yankee Divisions

time in the French quarry,

including a catastrophic
event there.

Then Jonathan Bratten
makes another discovery.

Corporal George Currier
who enlisted in Bangor, Maine

has a son Jim who's alive
and knows his father's story.

When he was young,
he was a teamster.

He worked in the woods and
had a team of four horses

and hauled wood...
lumber out of the woods.

Then when he was 16, he
went into the national guard

probably with some friends.

He went to fight
Pancho Villa down

at the Mexican border.

Keeping a Mexican revolutionary
at bay is child's play

compared to what awaits
Yankee division in France.

Three years fighting
on the western front

has produced
a bloody stalemate.

Neither side has advanced
more than a few miles,

and at a cost
of millions of lives.

[gunfire]

Now the Germans are poised

to make a desperate
gamble for victory.

[explosions]

Chemin Des Dames.

Quiet now, but
a hundred years ago,

deadly sector of
the western front.

Explorer Jeff Gusky is back,
this time with expert support.

Military Historians
Len Kondratiuk

and Jonathan Bratten have
come to see for themselves

the underground city
occupied by Yankee division.

Composed entirely of
regiments from New England,

they're among the first
American divisions to arrive

on the western front
in early February, 1918.

They're there at
a very critical time

that most American units
are going to miss

because the Germans are planning
their great Spring Offensive.

They've reached a settlement
with Soviet Russia,

which has just gone through
the Russian revolution.

The war on the eastern
front is over, right?

So it means that the Germans
can now concentrate

all of their forces
on the western front.

Over half a million of
them will soon arrive

to confront the Americans
who barely completed

their training in the
techniques of trench warfare.

In the hidden world
of World War 1,

it's totally raw.

It's untouched.
It's unfiltered.

You get to experience
a completely authentic

original moment in your life.

With only flashlights
to guide them,

it takes a while
to get their bearings.

Okay, please be careful.

This ground is loaded
with dangerous objects.

But then, a first trace
of Yankee division.

Oh my God.

That almost looks
like a rifle.

That is a rifle,
a 1903 Springfield rifle.

-It is.
-For K company.

Second Maine, perhaps,
with the 2.

-Yeah.
-Yeah.

-Holy cow.
-Cool.

And that's the insignia
they wore on their uniform.

Right.

While they were here,
it was on their uniform.

And then here's more.

Jeff leads them
to a familiar name.

Oh my God, this is...

Mechanic T. Moan.
There's Ralph Moan.

That's Ralph Moan.

When you read about somebody
then you suddenly see

this very spot
where they were,

because these guys
were all buddies.

He talks about them
in his diary.

They formed a singing quartet.
Ralph Moan was a baritone.

But Ralph Moan and his buddies

were apprehensive entering
these strange new quarters.

About three miles near
the first line...

Let's go back this way.

Take a look at this.

Wow.

There's a skull
and crossbones.

-You see that?
-Yeah.

Death Avenue.

It's an ominous sign.

Jonathan Bratten recalls
a passage in Moan's account.

When they first got here,
they were told

not to touch anything

because the Germans
had booby-trapped

large portions of the cave,

but it just seemed like
one of those soldier myths

that gets passed
around the army,

and I didn't really put
a lot of stock in it.

This is a major roof collapse

that I think could be
related to Moan's story.

1200 Frenchmen were quartered
in one part of this cave,

but they were simply wiped out
for the Germans had

the whole cave mined.

That whole section
blew to pieces so

not a Frenchman escaped.

We're very likely standing
atop a cemetery

that no-one knows about.

Um... there are men under here.

There are bodies.

Ralph Moan sums up
the grim realities of war

he and his fellow
soldiers are facing.

I think we're
getting into an area

that is your unit, the 101st.

Take a look at
this, Len.

-Oh, man, that's pretty cool.
-Oh my gosh.

That's a work of art.

Do you know any
of these names?

I do. I do.

I recognize their names

because I actually have
their military records.

And Corporal Blodgitt is
from Medford, Massachusetts.

He is a section leader.

His squad is made up of
Irishmen and Yankees.

It's America at its best.

There are two Lombards,
are they brothers?

They are. Francis Lombard
and Harold Lombard.

Records show the brothers
enlisted the same day,

and survived the war,

but Len is still trying to
find out what became of them.

And what's
interesting to me is

a picture of a
Chauchat machine gun,

and that's what they
carried throughout the war.

[gunfire]

The United States didn't
have any small machine guns.

The French equipped the
Americans with

this Chauchat machine gun.

Guys, there's Chauchat
magazines to hold the rounds

for that very gun.

Possibly carried
by the same squad.

Yeah.

The squad carries
another piece of equipment

to protect them against one of
the real horrors of World War 1:

poison gas.

No one likes a gas mask.

It really curtails
your vision,

um, you're like... if you
suffer from claustrophobia,

it's got to be
absolutely horrible.

But they're essential.

Especially when out
in the open.

Using a period map,
Len Kondratiuk

and Jonathan Bratten study
Yankee divisions battle plan.

...being the front lines.

The cave being back here,

where would you say
that is, about...

About five kilometers.

-According to the map.
-Yep.

German artillery can
still reach the cave.

Oh, easily.

The underground quarry lies
a few miles

behind the front line.

Each company moves forward
for a week,

across a landscape bearing
no resemblance to today.

It has been blown
to smithereens.

It's like a moonscape.

Trees are destroyed.

These muddy trenches.

A lot of the vegetation
has been blasted away.

And their problem
is that

there literally
is no place to hide.

On the surface,
everything was destroyed.

It was dehumanized.

It was no longer
hospitable to life.

And underground,

you find a world
where you could be human.

After a week spent
on the front line,

the quarry provides
a welcome relief.

An underground city
complete with electricity,

telephones and other
facilities.

Some of the remnants
are still here.

What is this?

-You know what that is?
-What is it?

That's a rail car
used by the narrow gauge line

down below, that's how they
would move supplies around.

That is... yeah,
that's a wheel.

-Really?
-Yeah, sure enough.

Donkeys would pulls this.

These were run by
French soldiers

and the Americans would
feed the donkeys.

And the donkey would
stop once you fed them

so it took the French
soldiers days to figure out

the Americans were
just playing with them.

[laughing]

The first World War is
an interesting combination of

the most modern weapons
but combined with

ancient forms of
transportation,

like the horse,
or the mule.

For pulling artillery,
carts, ambulances.

Just to the left is
a guy riding a horse.

-He's wearing a campaign hat.
-Exactly.

Yankee division soldiers
paid tribute to these animals

in their carvings.

This one is also going
to touch your heart.

Corporal George Louis Currier.

Company G, 103 U.S. Infantry.

February 14th, 1918.

It's a cross.

Don't we know his ancestors?
His son's still live?

Yeah.

And he talks
about his father,

he had a horse that
he was taking care of.

And men developed a very,
very, very personal connection

with their animals.

My dad saw
that the gas was...

they were having
a gas attack,

and his thing was
to get to the horse,

and to get that gas mask
on the horse before anything.

And he'd take care of
himself afterwards.

And I'm sure that's
where he got gassed,

it was doing that.

Over the years, physically

and medically he suffered
for taking care of the horse

and it shortened his
lifespan in the end.

Jeff Gusky leads his team
to a section of the quarry

that has always intrigued
yet baffled him.

There's a mystery
in this place,

I've never been able
to figure it out why

here do you have
Indian carvings,

and I think I can find
some of them above,

let's see.

Wait here, look at this.

It's a canoe.

Yeah, that's your typical
birch bark canoe.

Do you have any idea why
you'd have Indians here?

What this could be
a symbol of is there

are the nine Passamaquoddy
in Company I.

And they all came from
Pleasant Point, Maine

which is where
the nation exists now.

There are, yeah.

There were Indians
in Company I.

Initially skeptical
about the story himself,

Jonathan Bratten digs deep
into the Maine military records.

When I got down to
examining the actual roster,

lo and behold it's true,
there were nine of these guys,

including the Chief's
son, Moses Neptune.

And these guys
served in Company I

throughout the war.

More astonishing still is
that these Native Americans

would volunteer to fight
in the first place.

When we entered
World War 1 in 1917,

Passamaquoddy's didn't
have the right to vote.

They didn't have the right
to own land individually.

A lot of rights that
people take for granted.

Citizenship to
the American Indians

in the United States
didn't come about until 1924.

For Jeff, this poses
a new challenge.

Are these carvings the work
of Native Americans?

Holy cow.

That's a whole relief of
a headdress and everything.

That's incredible.

But none of the
carvings has a name,

and without a name, Jeff Gusky's
team has no definitive proof

connecting the Passamaquoddy
to these intriguing symbols.

In his final days
at Chemin Des Dames,

Ralph Moan engages in
a bloody night fight

with a German patrol.

Second platoon got wise.

We jumped up and put hand
grenades and machine guns

to them.

One man had his head blown off
and it made a ghastly sight

suspended in the barbed wire.

The snipers got about...

He ends his diary in March
and says,

"I'm going to cut this
diary out right now.

"No one wants to remember
what we've been through.

From now on, all
we see is HELL."

The "hell" is capitalized.

It hits you right here.

March 18th, 1918.

Yankee division
leaves the front,

but when the
German Spring Offensive

smashes through allied lines,

Yankee division will be
called upon to fight

a crucial battle.

German forces are within
striking distance of Paris.

Wow.

That's right.

Explorer Jeff Gusky
and his time discover

an American Eagle carved
by an unknown soldier

from Yankee division.

But in 1918, the quarry
they recently occupied

falls back into
enemy hands.

In late June, the Germans storm
south as far as the Marne river.

In the center of the hastily
assembled Allied defense line,

barring their way to Paris,

German forces once again
find Yankee division.

They meet in a picturesque
sounding place:

Belleau Wood.

The woods were
so battle scarred

that they could barely
dig in because

there were so many dead bodies.

Military historians
Len Kondratiuk

and Jonathan Bratten
make their way to

Yankee division's front line,

while Jeff Gusky meets up with
historian Rob Dalessandro.

The truth of the matter
is that Yankee division

spent thousands of lives

casualties killed in
action or wounded

-to take this piece of ground.
-Right here.

Right here, right
where we're standing.

And this hill was almost
impossible to take

because of the effects
of artillery.

[explosions]

So this is the devil.

A German field artillery piece.

And it all comes down
to this little part right here.

This is called the
recoil mechanism.

And it allows artillery to
be used over and over again

very quickly in
a pin-point fashion.

They were under fire
the whole time.

I mean, this could either
be a fighting position

or a big shell hole.

Rob, I've seen hundreds
and hundreds of American names

in darkness on the walls
of underground cities.

Is this what drove them there?

Exactly.

If you're out in the open
and these guns are raining down

on you, you're finished.

That barrel was a
killer of thousands

and thousand of soldiers.

And artillery really reaches
its primacy

during the first world war.

After two weeks
of hard fighting,

Yankee division and the Allied
forces prevail at Bellau wood,

and begin pushing
the Germans back.

They must have been exhausted
because they advanced

I think about nine miles
during the offensive.

15 kilometers in
heaving machine gun fire.

Artillery, gas, not eating,

and if you're advancing
into gas,

you've got your gas mask on.

The war wasn't over at
that point by any means.

But it was absolutely
a crucial turning point.

The Germans never are
able to make another

large scale impact on
the frontlines.

The Americans begin
to chip away and eventually

break through
pretty spectacularly

in the fall of 1918.

Among the 3000 Yankee division
soldiers killed and wounded

in July 1918 are several whose
names Jeff Gusky and his team

have come to know from
the Chemin Des Dames quarry.

Oh, yes, this is
a guy from Maine.

Leroy Hoskins.

Oh my gosh.

What's so important
about Hoskins?

So you know how we talk
about family connections?

There were three Haskins in
Company F 103, all from Milo.

Two of them were brothers.

Leroy was their nephew.

And Leroy was wounded
in action severely.

It's strange but
in a small town,

he had two uncles
named Hoskins also

who were also enlisted at
approximately the same time.

One of which was killed
in the war.

And of course, one of them,
my grandfather, was wounded.

So two out of three in
one family is quite a number

when you look at the town
of Milo which only had

2000 people at the time.

Harold Lombard with
the automatic rifle squad

is one of the lucky ones.

He made it through
the war unscathed,

returned home and
started a family.

On a quiet street in
Springfield, Vermont,

Jeff Gusky manages to track
down two of this three sons,

David and Harold Lombard Jr.

-Hello.
-Well, Jeff Gusky.

At last we meet.

-Pleasure.
-Hurray.

-It's a pleasure.
-Dave Lombard.

-Good to meet you.
-It's a pleasure.

Harold, Dave, I have
something to show you

that you probably
never knew existed.

A photograph of an inscription
that your dad wrote in 1918.

And this came from where?

This is an underground city.
It was a quarry

prior to World War 1.

Going back to the middle ages.

How does it make you feel?

It... I'm...
it makes me feel

I'm with my father
right there.

That means a lot.

No, it really means a lot.

And it's wonderful of you
to bring these pictures.

It's an honor.

That's the brothers,
right next to each other

on the wall there.

Besides his brother Francis,

Harold had with him
another constant companion.

A New Testament, a pocket
version that he carried

in his pocket
all through the war.

On the leading flyleafs,

he's listed right there

are all the battles that
they fought in, I believe.

And on here...

Today's been a day
I will never forget.

I held a Bible that
was in the pocket

of this gentleman's father
when he wrote his inscription

almost 100 years ago.

I was there last
Thursday underground

in France in front
of the inscription

just where he
would have been.

The only inscription with
an exclamation point afterwards

is the one that says, "Home!"

And I can imagine
what a wonderful scene

that must have been

and how grateful
his parents were

and how glad they were
to see Harold

and his brother Francis
finally come home

from the awful, awful war.

-Jeff, welcome to Maine!
-Jonathan.

-Great to see you again, man.
-Good to see you again.

Come on in.

At the Military Historical
Society Museum

in Augusta Main, with the help
of Lieutenant Jonathan Bratten,

past and present are
about to converge again.

I've got something for you.

Great.

This was left
by your grandfather

almost 100 years ago
underground

beneath a farm field in France

where he was for about
six week during World War 1.

Corporal Leroy Hoskins,
Company F.

Can you picture him with his
bayonet carving into the stone.

He was a pretty detailed guy,
so yes I can.

[laughing]

He'd want to make sure
everything was just right

so people would know
he was there.

Yeah.

There's no question
about that.

This is a photo of
my grandfather

right after the war.

He was smart enough to
marry this lady right here

who was my grandmother.

I found out personal stories

that are so human.

For example, one young man

signed his name in
a very particular way.

February 14th, 1918.

George Louis Currier.

Yeah, that's his writing.

[laughing]

-You recognize it?
-Yes, it is.

Because I can tell by
the Gs in his name.

As a matter of fact,
it's really funny because

when I print, I print
just like that.

It's like a shipwrecked
person who wants someone

to know that
they once lived,

and so they put
a note in a bottle,

and decades after that
shipwrecked person is gone

from this earth,
it washes up on shore

and someone finds it.

But one set of inscriptions
is still unaccounted for.

Those mysterious American
Indian carvings.

Are they from the Passamaquoddy?

Or someone else?

North of Verdun in France,

Jeff Gusky follows
a trench line

where Yankee division fought
its final bloody campaign

of World War 1.

In the Meuse Argonne region,

1.2 million American troops,
the largest number of the war,

attack as the allies push
the German to surrender.

The Meuse Argonne offensive
October, November 1918

is the deadliest or
costliest military campaign

in American history.

The casualties are
just enormous.

We lost to both
combat and disease

over 125,000 men.

Jeff's drawn here
by one unit:

the Passamaquoddy Indian squad.

He's looking for evidence
that might connect them

to elusive symbols
carved in the cavern walls.

In the final days of the war,
the squad is attacking

German strongpoints
like this.

I feel like I'm walking on
almost sacred ground.

The last full day of
the war, November 10th, 1918,

the American Yankee division
were in the midst of

a violent battle,
right here.

Pushing the Germans back.

Among them is the
Passamaquoddy chief's son,

Moses Neptune.

I found this letter
written by Moses Neptune

talking about the war and how
everybody's going to church

and how he's sending
most of his money

to his parents.

School children and
all who help.

I have sent $20 to you
and hope you will get it.

I'm going to send $5
to my brother Joe.

All the boys have gone
to hospital with the flu.

Only George Stevens and
I stayed with the company.

Lots of love..."

The family received that letter

two weeks after they
were notified by the military

that their son died.

He was destined to be
the traditional chief,

and perhaps he joined
the military

to go get some
worldly experience.

I'm not sure.

On the last full day
of that war,

he lost his life
and we lost him.

As a family, and as a nation,
Passamaquoddy nation.

Moses Neptune is among
the last of the roughly

10 million soldiers killed
before World War 1 finally ends

on November 11, 1918.

The gunfire stopped,
the killing was over.

The terrible traumatic
injuries would happen no more.

But the scars of 100 years
ago are still with us.

Jeff Gusky knows
the Passamaquoddy

fought valiantly
among these ruins.

Look at this.

But did Moses Neptune
and his brothers

carve these symbols?

It's a mystery that's
been waiting to be solved

for 100 years.

I was able to go into
the caves in France.

When you get down there,
there's just carvings

all over the walls.

Military Historian
Jonathan Bratten

has come to find out
if Jeff's photos contain

details only a
Passamaquoddy tribal member

can identify.

And is this type
of headdress...

At the time period, this
would be the type of headdress.

Our traditional headdress is
shaped a little bit different,

but in the late 1800s,
a lot of men

joined the Wild West show

and they came back with
these Sioux head bonnets.

Wow.

You can see the profile.

To me it looks like
one of the soldiers.

And then he's got the headdress
sort of radiating out.

Yeah.

If I saw this earlier,
I could've showed you

some paintings of
the exact same thing.

We have lines
radiating out of them

to show the
spiritual connection.

But it's this image
of a simple object

which turns out
to conceal hidden meaning.

Can you see the outline?

Do you think it's a canoe?

Oh! Oh, yeah, yeah.

I was focusing on those symbols.

The crucial clue is
invisible to anyone

who's not Passamaquoddy.

I don't know if you
see that, but you can see

it's almost like
a German swastika?

For us, it's been a
cultural symbol

for 1000s and 1000s
of years, and

it means peace
and friendship.

The images of a culture

are important than an
individual's initials or names.

Yeah.

Yeah, these are powerful.

Powerful symbols
that they were there.

Finally, the connection
Jeff Gusky and his team

have been searching for.

[drumming]

[chanting]

Thanks in part to
Jeff Gusky's images,

the courage shown by
the Passamaquoddy soldiers

who carved them is finally
being recognized.

In July 2016
at the community hall,

some 300 tribal members gather
for a special ceremony.

Many are veterans, proudly
wearing their uniforms.

Passamaquoddy people
have been involved

in wars since time immemorial
protecting our homeland.

Today we will be honoring
Samuel Dana, George Stevens Sr.,

Moses Neptune,
Henry Sockbeson,

David Sopiel,
and Charles Lola.

[chanting, drumming]

During World War 1,
when the soldiers

were wounded or killed,

they didn't receive
the recognition

that other soldiers received

because they weren't citizens.

Almost 100 years later,

that wrong is finally
being put right.

Medals will be presented
by Lieutenant Bratten

and Linda Allen.

The families of the six
Passamaquoddy soldiers

wounded or killed in action

while fighting
with Yankee division

are receiving the honors
denied to them

during their lifetime.

On behalf of the Maine Army
National Guard,

and the bureau of
Veteran Services,

we present the gold star
honorable service medal

to the family of
Moses W. Neptune.

Moses was the son of the
tribal chief William Neptune.

So let it not be said that
the Passamaquoddy did not

send their best to war
in defense of their nation,

and their country.

To come face to face with
their family members

after seeing what
they've done in France,

you can't put it
into words the type of

feelings that you have.

-Thank you.
-Thank you.

Your father, David T. Sopiel,

was wounded outside
the woods of Ypres, France,

on July 22nd, 1918.

His actions were critical
in winning the battle

of Chateau-Thierry.

I think when they carved
their names and their

symbols of their culture
and heritage

on the walls at
the Chemin Des Dames,

it was asking
to remember us.

And I think that's
what we're doing now,

and it's what we must
continue to do in the future.

For the tribe, it's
completing the circle.

The circle that we know, things
will be right eventually.

Even for the warriors
of World War 1.

[drumming, chanting]

Far from the celebrations,

Jeff Gusky can
still feel proud.

His photographs have
helped bring

an ancient injustice to light.

It spurs him to continue.

These young men who
wrote their names

on the walls of the
Underground Cities

almost 100 years ago
have family members

that are still alive.

And I realize now that
the work is just beginning.

It's important
to realize that

great historical events
are not fought by masses.

They're fought by
individuals.

And the stories of every
individual is what

makes up that story.

This is so beautiful.

Looks like a guy
from New Hampshire.

There are hundreds
of stories left to be told.