The message was handed over to the Musée de Linge in Orbey. This museum is dedicated to the 1915 battle between the French and German armies. A museum employee contacted a German acquaintance to decipher the text.
That text turned out to be about German maneuvers between Bischwihr and Ingersheim, when the Alsace region was still German territory. A soldier of a Prussian infantry regiment sent the canister to one of his superiors to inform headquarters that his platoon was under attack.
“A very exceptional find”, says museum curator Dominique Jardy. There is still some debate about the date. It is not easy to read on the tracing paper. The museum therefore keeps it on July 16, 1910 or 1916. Jardy considers 1916 impossible, however. Further research will follow.
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