Right around Independence Day , an astonishing story drop dead around : historiansdiscover a soldier ’s cameraat the web site of the Battle of the Bulge . Theydevelop the 70 - year - old filmand find grainy but gripping images taken by a soldier just before he was killed . It ’s an engrossing tale — but it ’s false : the photos came froma book release in 2005 .
The story had all the hallmarks of a spectacular and heroic warfare story . Infantry rifleman Louis J. Archambeau ’s regiment found themselves in the thick of the Battle of the Bulge , the story goes , and they essay sanctuary in a foxhole . Archambeau die there — he was declared Missing In Action on December 26th , 1944 , his body not found until February . His photographic camera , the account goes , was untouched for 70 years , until it was see by metal - sensor - wielding historians in the foxhole where Archambeau provide it .
Louis J. Archambeau did , in fact , serve during WWII , as confirm byhis list in the World War II Registry . He was killed in action , and is buried in a U.S. military cemetery in Luxembourg .
Archambeau ’s great - nepheweven has a picture of Louis ’s grave :
But while it seems true thatmilitary historian Mark Andersonactuallydiscovered a camerain the Sir Henry Wood outside Luxembourg , net sleuths acknowledge some of the supposedly never - before - seen photos . At least two of them appear ( in much gamey timber ) at the U.S. Wartime Archives , and were also write inImages of War : Battle of the Bulge by Andrew Rawson .
So where did the true story go off the rails and grow into a hoax ? Nobody ’s really certain . Louis ’s great - nephewmaintainsthat Mark Anderson did indeed discover an give up camera , and that it did indeed check unexploited film . But Anderson was n’t present in the darkroom when the film was developed , nor did he see negatives or print . Somewhere along the way , muzzy version of once - clear , previously - published photos got included in the trove , and then the whole affair pass viral .
Louis J. Archambeau died in battle and was present the Purple Heart . A WWII - earned run average camera was discovered in a playing area in Luxembourg . There are wide of the mark gaps in this news report — gap the internet filled in with hoax .
debunked
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