War During Winter is a Horrible Thing...

If you're drawn to stories like Wartime Stories, you'll enjoy exploring more from Ballin Studios and Wondery, like my other podcast, Redacted Declassified Mysteries.

Both shows are available early and ad-free on Wondery Plus.

Start your free trial today.

The WNBA playoffs are on the horizon, and Tommy Alters, The Young Man in the Three, takes you deeper into the action.

Join Tommy for exclusive WNBA Insights as he links up with the league's biggest stars and dives deep into WNBA playoff matchups and analysis you won't hear anywhere else.

The Young Man in the Three's WNBA playoff coverage is presented by Quest Nutrition.

From irresistibly crunchy protein chips to rich chocolatey protein bars, these treats make giving in feel so good.

Quest, big on protein, low on sugar, huge on flavor.

Shop Quest on Amazon at amazon.com/slash Quest Nutrition.

And check out all the WNBA action on The Young Man and the Three, wherever you get your podcasts.

Wild Planet is sustainable seafood the way nature provided it because nothing beats wild.

Wild is pole and line-caught, hand-cut, and hand-packed tuna.

It's small fish like sardines and anchovies that are lower on the food chain and help to preserve ocean habitats.

It's less processing and more delicious, clean nutrients, like 33 grams of protein in a serving of Wild Planet Albacore tuna.

What's Wild tastes better and is better for the planet, which is why we ask you to go wild.

Wild caught, wild enjoyed, wild planet.

Wild Planet Premium Canned Seafood is available at major retailers nationwide.

In early February of 1917, international headlines caused unrest as they announced the return of Germany's campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare.

These actions leading to the severing of Germany's diplomatic ties with the United States, a significant turning turning point in what was then known as the Great War.

Hundreds of miles from the escalating war at sea, however, amidst bitter cold temperatures along the lines of the Eastern Front, somewhere amid the forested region of what is now Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus, U-boat warfare was the least of either the German or Russian soldiers' concerns.

While these men certainly suffered under the brutal conditions, the impact of both the war and the abnormal temperatures appears to have affected far more lives than just those of the soldiers.

As such, the already perilous environment these men found themselves in would unfortunately offer more unexpected challenges, as soldiers on both sides would soon find themselves suffering an even worse fate, unaware that they were now being hunted by a common enemy.

I'm Luke Lamana,

and this is Wartime Stories.

The winter was so cold, I felt like crying.

In fact, the only time I...

I didn't actually cry, but

I'd never felt like it before.

Not even under shellfire.

Reinforcements and so on.

Then we came back into the line again at the same place,

just above Beaucourt.

And

this was in February, early February 1917.

And the conditions there were the coldest winter we'd ever had.

Terrible.

The conditions at the uh well, um,

there wasn't really a front line.

There wasn't a continuous trench, uh, but these little holes that we had.

You just couldn't dig anymore.

It was all hard as bricks.

By the winter of 1916 to 1917, the Eastern Front stretched for more than a thousand miles from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.

Despite its monumental scale, the Eastern Front was widely considered to be less vital compared to the fighting taking place on the Western Front, where the war was to eventually be won by men like those British soldiers on the battlefields along the border of France and the German Empire.

As the winter of early 1917 deepened, both German and Russian troops stationed along the mountainous front lines struggled to maintain their will to fight each other, as the miserable conditions proved difficult enough to bear on their their own.

Certainly, the Russian soldiers on the front lines would soon lose any hope of victory, with disheartened soldiers in the rear increasingly abandoning the army as the Russian nation continued to fall into absolute turmoil, characterized by multiple civil wars and revolutions, culminating with Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution later that year.

Those men who remained behind on both sides of the front lines, however, continued to hunker down into their shallow foxholes, doing their best to avoid the regular barrages of machine gun fire, artillery shells, and vicious shrapnel, not to mention poisonous gas and the much more accurate bullets from enemy snipers.

Water-cooled machine guns misfired or failed completely as their water jackets froze solid.

The troops often had to resort to warming their rifles over fires so the weapons would function properly.

Compasses malfunctioned.

causing units, some as large as regiments, to march blindly in circles in the dense woods during blizzards.

Food and supply shortages had plagued the entire region and much of Europe.

What little food rations the soldiers did have would freeze along with their water, making it difficult to eat and thus robbing them of even the smallest of comforts.

Chewing the ice to stay hydrated only added to their collective misery.

Those who attempted to remove their boots to provide some relief or to treat their painful trench foot would find it difficult to even put their boots back on, their now increasingly swollen feet.

Weary soldiers spent the long winter nights struggling to stay awake to avoid further frostbite or freezing to death.

As enemy artillery shells rained down around them, any amount of sleep was a luxury at best.

The physiological and psychological impact of these compounding effects of battle stress cannot be overstated.

As if their significant level of suffering was not sufficient, reports in mid-February began making new headlines, Stories far more bizarre than most of the many wartime correspondences dispatched during the conflict.

American newspapers surprised their readers by relaying reports of wolves attacking and consuming Russian and German soldiers along the front lines.

These reports were cited by American papers as originating from Russian officials in Petrograd, now present-day St.

Petersburg.

Many of the stories indicate these attacks occurred in the forested region near the cities of present-day Vilnius and Minsk, along the borders of what is now Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus, respectively.

It would seem that a starving wolf population had run out of options.

With nothing left to hunt, humans became their next target.

Although there is little information aside from what is presented in the various news articles to describe the horrors that these men experienced with regard to the wolf attacks, there appear to be at least several depictions of the incident which summarize a series of repeated wolf attacks rather than a single event.

The leading report indicates that during a hot engagement, possibly as German forces advanced with the intent of pushing the Russians back or overrunning their current position, a large pack of wolves fearlessly dashed out amidst the battle and began devouring the wounded men, some of whom were likely still alive.

The articles depicting this event go on to say that, possibly being surprised by the wolves' sudden appearance, both the Russians and Germans immediately ceased firing at each other and turned their rifles and grenades on the massive wolf wolf pack, with Russians and Germans honorably protecting the wounded men on both sides.

Once they had killed about 50 of the wolves, the remaining wolves scattered.

Now left to awkwardly resume their own battle, it seems that, as similar stories of such truces would indicate, both the Russians and Germans quietly chose to instead recover their wounded and return peacefully to their foxholes to fight another day.

Further news articles seem to indicate that the desperate wolves, though their numbers were depleted, soon returned in full force and began attacking various units, whether during skirmishes or ambushing the men while they took refuge in their foxholes and trenches.

These accounts indicate that the increasingly voracious wolves, no doubt starved and driven mad with hunger, became such a problem that Germans and Russians began making efforts to venture out and kill the wolves with small hunting parties on their side of the front line, or otherwise attempting to poison the animals.

When this failed to drive off the ravenous wolves, the men reportedly had no other choice but to open negotiations with their enemy, possibly sending messengers back and forth between positions to coordinate a ceasefire in those areas affected by the wolf attacks.

Once an agreement was met, the men were then free to venture away from their cold entrenchments without fear of enemy sniper fire or artillery, focusing their efforts entirely on hunting down the wolves before the wolves could do the same to them.

Whether the Germans and Russians inevitably joined their hunting parties together is not improbable, but otherwise left to speculation.

The reports indicate that their hunting efforts would account for hundreds of dead wolves before the ceasefire ended, and the men resumed their dismal war with each other.

Considering the limited information for these accounts depends heavily on only a handful of American newspaper articles published from February through late July of 1917, there is a lingering question that is left to be asked.

Is this story true?

While the answer may be left entirely to our own speculation, it appears that at least a couple contemporary skeptics have made efforts to debunk the story.

As far as contemporary skeptics go, their leading justification seems to be their inability to find correlating Russian records of a wolf truce in various sources.

It should be noted that these skeptics do not list the extent of those sources, which conversely begs the question how much research was done before coming to their conclusion, which dismisses the numerous newspaper reports as false.

There is no other justification or expertise provided for their deductive reasoning.

Contrary to the skepticism, the idea of wolves attacking soldiers during a large-scale war and during one of the harshest winters in a century appears not only true, but highly probable due to those very circumstances.

An understanding of human history living among wolves, and certainly a comparative analysis of historical wolf attacks on humans, particularly accounts which involve a large number of wolves hunting in close proximity, thus violating their usual territorial nature, seems to be the best way to validate much of the story's bizarreness.

While wolves may not possess the intellect to declare war on humans, and seemingly they do not possess the emotional capacity for contempt, over the centuries it appears that mankind has nonetheless declared war on wolves, both out of a means of self-defense and when competing for various resources.

If these stories seem outlandish, it may be due to our contemporary perception of the world living in the 21st century.

So saying, lest we forget the history of human existence, despite our intellectual advantages, mankind has no less faced a constant struggle to survive against the many unforgiving forces of nature.

During these past millennia, our aggregation into well-protected communities and the accoutrements of modern civilization have seemingly robbed us of the many survival skills and sharpened instincts we once needed to remain alive.

Indeed, for some time now it has seemed that we are far more likely to be murdered by a fellow human rather than a predatory animal, this threat of an early and violent death being far more certain for those of our soldiers engaged in war.

While modern comforts may protect us from the once inescapable forces of nature, and while we may have largely remained the apex species in most environments over time, on occasion humans have unexpectedly found themselves on the receiving end of animal predation by becoming the hunted rather than the hunter.

Men fighting in wars, who thus find themselves far from home in unfamiliar and often unforgiving environments, stranded on the open ocean, or in the vast wilderness of foreign landscapes, appear to be no exception.

Quite the opposite, it would seem.

In any case, as we expect soldiers to be routinely exposed to dangerous conditions, uncommon stories of predatory animals attacking them understandably provokes a great amount of intrigue, such as the reported tiger attacks during the Vietnam War, as well as those shark and crocodile encounters reported during World War II.

If you're shopping while working, eating, or even listening to this podcast, then you know and love the thrill of a deal.

But are you getting the deal and cash back?

Racketon shoppers do.

They get the brands they love, savings, and cash back, and you can get it too.

Start getting cash back at your favorite stores like Target, Sephora, and even Expedia.

Stack sales on top of cash back and feel what it's like to know you're maximizing the savings.

It's easy to use and you get your cash back sent to you through PayPal or check.

The idea is simple.

Stores pay Racketon for sending them shoppers, and Racketon shares the money with you as cashback.

Download the free Racketon app or go to Racketon.com to start saving today.

It's the most rewarding way to shop.

That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N, Racketon.com.

It's here, your long-awaited PTO.

You pack up, grab your sunscreen, walk walk out the door, and stick the key under the mat.

Just one problem.

You're being safe, ish.

You know, safe-ish?

It's those little tricks that don't actually keep us safe, like the key under the mat or the old leaving the lights on routine.

For true peace of mind, sit back and let ADT's technicians install a security system customized for your home with features like 24-7 monitoring and cameras you can check from your phone.

So go ahead, break in those new flip-flops.

And whatever you do, don't settle for safe-ish.

Visit ADT.com to find out more.

According to R.P.

Stalarza, in his paper titled Wolves, Humans and the Democratization of Poland, wolves and humans have competed for resources and for the position of top predator, at least since humans became efficient enough hunters to stop being mistaken for easy prey themselves.

In Europe, the winner of this competition was was not clear until the 19th century, when industrialization, the agrarian revolution, and the resulting population boom allowed humans to tip the scale in their favor.

If not for humans, wolves would likely remain a top predator throughout much of the northern hemisphere due not only to their high intelligence but their social behavior.

However, the predation of humans by wolves has become a highly rare occurrence in recent years, certainly in the more developed regions of the world.

One of the most obvious reasons is that we have long learned to trust our instincts and avoid placing ourselves into dangerous environments.

In addition, following Stellars' train of thought, hunting wild game has largely become a recreational activity for humans, rather than a necessity.

Instead of foraging and tracking down prey, we now hunt for rations in the far safer environment of our local grocers.

We certainly avoid swimming in shark-infested waters when we can help it, and we scarcely venture out into unfamiliar stretches of wilderness alone, or without adequate protection.

But there have always been those among us, including our soldiers, who are not so privileged as to always have that choice, and so invariably they find themselves thrust into increasingly perilous environments.

It could be said that more recent stories of wolves attacking humans, and certainly soldiers, are therefore the result of an unfortunate culmination of otherwise abnormal circumstances.

The wolves are starved, suffering from rabies, or otherwise provoked by incautious individuals.

As modern conservation efforts would indicate, in some areas of the world, primarily North America, we now nobly fight to conserve endangered wolf populations, those which had, up until the mid to late 20th century, been freely exterminated, either out of irrational fear or certainly for our own safety and protection of livestock.

While many of us may have the luxury of ascending Maslow's hierarchy, with our needs for survival and safety met through our access to modern conveniences, our view of the world is not universally shared by those humans living in harsher, less developed regions over the centuries, and certainly even today.

It should thus be stated here that despite our modern appreciation of these beautiful animals, the hunting of wolves is still legal.

in many regions of Europe, Russia, and across Asia.

As with North America, the modern-day justifications for the hunting of wolves, and more specifically the culling of wolf populations, remains a controversial issue as humans seek to protect themselves and their vital livestock while living in relative harmony with both local wolf populations and the greater environment.

However, despite our more contemporary sense of compassion for wolves, Those humans living in wolf-inhabited regions across the Eurasian continent over the last several centuries clearly held far less favorable opinions towards these predators, and for good reason.

Wolf attacks on humans were not always uncommon.

International headlines in 2017 reported that a number of wolves had been spotted in the forests surrounding the city of Paris.

This news might seem unexceptional, if not for the fact that wolves had apparently been eliminated from the country of France in the 1930s, completely wiped out of existence by farmers and hunters.

Europe's recorded history indicates that wolves had long been a thriving species on the continent, and for those unfortunate European citizens who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, Eurasian wolves had, under various conditions, occasionally considered humans to be a convenient source of food.

European history recounts thousands of predatory, rabid, and otherwise unprovoked wolf attacks on humans, from the more mundane stories of individual attacks to the now fabled accounts of man-eating wolves who killed so many humans, either alone or as leaders of their packs, that they were given memorable titles: the Great Courteaux and the Wolves of Paris in the 1430s, the Wolf of Ansbach in 1685, the Wolf of Soissons and the Beast of Gevaudon in the 1760s, the Wolf of Jessinge in the 1820s, and the Wolves of Turcu in the 1880s.

As the European continent plunged into the First World War, wolves were no less notorious during the conflict.

Looking to refresh the style in your home?

Here at Mathis Home, we can help you find exactly what you need during our spring style event.

Whether you're looking for a rustic farmhouse, classic, or modern and eclectic, we have all the latest looks that will leave your home feeling brand new.

Whatever your style, we can help you find it at the lowest price.

Because not only do we want you to feel good in your home, we know that to earn your business, our prices have to be the best.

So come to the spring style event at your furniture superstore, Mathis Home.

Do you experience excessive bouts of money stress?

Do you avoid your bank balance like it's a text from an ex?

Do you feel guilt in second guessing about your spending?

If you answered yes, you may be suffering from financial funk.

YNAB, spelled YNAB, is a life-changing app designed to cure financial funk with a simple method that offers total control of your money.

The average YNAB user reports saving close to $600 in their first month and $6,000 in their first year.

Side effects may include less financial stress, getting better sleep, and eliminating arguments about money.

Warning, using YNAB may be habit forming.

Before starting, ask your wallet if adding more joy to every day and every dollar is right for you.

Wondery listeners can claim a one-month free trial with no credit card required at www.ynab.com.

Make sure to select podcasts in the sign-up survey so they know we sent you.

Life is short.

Spend it well with YNAB.

Early one morning in mid-January of 1915, a massive earthquake shook the mountainous Abruzzo region of Italy.

In the town of Pescina, 3,500 of the town's 5,000 residents died in a matter of 30 seconds, crushed by the sudden collapse of their homes.

Reporting of the various rescue and relief efforts invariably included reports of wolves, which had come down from the surrounding mountains in search of not only loose sheep, but the wounded residents and decomposing bodies buried in the rubble.

The frenzied wolves were even attempting to attack vehicles that passed by them on the roads.

Surviving residents and possibly rescue workers organized hunting parties to eliminate the now fearless wolves.

They likewise killed over 100 local dogs that had also been caught scavenging the corpses among the ruins.

As Russian and German troops fighting along the Eastern Front two years later would inevitably realize, The combination of the large-scale war, in conjunction with uncommonly brutal temperatures, may have, like the uncommon Italian earthquake, created compromising conditions for the region's wolf population.

While the contributing factors to such vicious behaviors towards humans vary from one occurrence to another, several of these large-scale wolf encounters, including one as recent as 2012, indicate that wolves will resort to attacking humans when their usual food supply is significantly compromised.

It might also be speculated that, as during World War I and World War II, the convenient availability of hundreds of human corpses, both soldiers and civilians, may have otherwise contributed to, if not instigated, these attacks.

During the war, when soldiers died from their injuries or merely due to the harsh conditions, their bodies would normally be buried as the front lines moved forward.

However, as winter approached, the ground froze and became impossible to dig.

The bodies remained exposed, littered across the various battlefields of the region.

As species of wolves inhabiting these regions of Europe and Russia are notably larger than most, their diet demands for a larger consumption of meat.

They are known to consume as much as six to seven pounds per day.

The war undoubtedly caused a great amount of disruption to the local environment, scattering the wolves' usual game, and leaving them desperate to satisfy their large appetite by scavenging the human corpses.

Without those corpses, humans would have otherwise remained an infrequent source of prey.

To make matters worse, the war itself had conversely created the opportunity for unfettered growth of the wolf population in the years leading up to 1917, as the men in those regions were no longer hunting them.

In his book, Wolves in Russia, a compiled dissertation of 50 years of research on Eurasian wolves, Will N.

Graves states that during the 20th 20th century, the greatest number of wolves in Russia occurred during World War I and World War II, when men were called off to war.

The general populace of Russia has few firearms, he continues.

In the absence of men and without firearms, the wolf population grew quickly, as much as 30% per year.

With respect to the attacks on the Eastern Front in 1917, it is unknown whether the frozen and decomposing bodies were simply not enough to satisfy the hunger of a growing number of wolves.

However, it otherwise seems that wolves do prefer a fresh meal as much as humans might if they can find it, or so Will Graves indicates in his book.

In addition, he writes that wolves sometimes indulge in the erratic behavior of surplus killing, running havoc through herds of animals, possibly even through groups of humans, indiscriminately killing every living thing they can find, even if it is more than they can eat, thus leaving the surplus carcasses behind.

Keeping all of this in mind, the growing wolf population, the miserable weather, and the wolves' particular preferences for fresh meat, most unfortunately for those troops hunkered down into their shallow foxholes, it seems a growing taste for human flesh soon gave these wolves an uncontrollable urge to find living prey.

Although many of the Russian and German soldiers on the Eastern Front may or may not have been wary of a potential threat of wolves, and whether or not the harsh winter was a leading factor, further research would indicate that these were not the only accounts of wolves attacking living humans during the war.

As illustrated by a published French lithograph printed in Paris in October of 1914, attacks on soldiers had been documented as early as the first few months of the war.

This particular lithograph print was part of a larger series titled Lugronguer, or The Great War, which were created throughout the war, meant to be sold as a collectible set, with this one being titled In the Woods of Augustof, a Russian medic defends wounded German soldiers against furious wolf attacks.

Possibly due to France's notorious history of wolf encounters, the French publishers wasted no time in creating depictions of wolves preying on dead and wounded soldiers.

This depiction was created from the testimony of an unknown German soldier who was wounded during the Battle of Augustov in 1914 in northeast Poland.

Being nursed back to health in Russia, he recounted the following story of an enemy soldier's act of humanity in saving him.

During the combat, a pack of wolves circled the battlefield continuously, dashing to the dead and wounded, devouring them.

At one point, we heard gunshots.

It was a Russian medic.

He fired constantly on a pack of wolves that was attacking one of our comrades.

Many of us were thus saved from a terrible death.

Evidently, the lithograph is noted by art historians for its candid reporting, as the caption goes on to condemn the German army for leaving their wounded men behind to suffer such a cruel death.

While France and other European nations progressively eliminated their regional wolf populations through the early 20th century, whether modern environmentalists would find it was wholly unnecessary or not, the same does not appear to be true.

for the far more vast country of Russia.

Unfortunately for the citizens of the bucolic districts surrounding the city of Kirov, a number of man-eating wolf attacks would take place during World War II and over several years following the end of the conflict from 1944 until 1953.

The attacks resulted in the deaths of 22 children and teenagers between the ages of 3 and 17.

It would seem, like those preceding wolves during World War I, the war itself gave rise to a dramatically increasing wolf population as fighting-aged men, along with their rifles, were conscripted into the Soviet Army.

No less a contributing factor was the sheer number of human corpses made available to the wolves.

While the number of civilian deaths reported by the Soviet Union has been cited in research articles as being intentionally understated at around 7 million, A Soviet research committee established in 1989 concluded that a more accurate figure was between 26 to 27 million.

That number alone is heart-stopping to consider.

While it may otherwise be difficult to determine why wolf attacks occurred so heavily in the region of Kirovsky Oblast,

and whether or not similar attacks went unreported in other regions, the various reported massacres during World War II, the Holocaust, and the otherwise intentional or unintentional killing killing of civilians, and of course soldiers, across Northern Europe and Russia during the war, would likely have contributed to the wolf's diet and thus their inconsistent behavior towards humans.

Based on his research into Russian wolves, Wilgraves further notes in his book that during this period in the late 1940s, due to these and other wolf attacks, the Soviet Union commissioned a study to be carried out by a Russian biologist, Petr Alexandrovich Mantaifel.

At the time of his appointment to the study, Mantaifel evidently held a highly skeptical opinion towards the idea of wolves preying on humans, with his only exception being the irregular behavior of rabid wolves.

His findings were published in a report in November of 1947.

Much to his surprise, he uncovered numerous attacks, including those perpetrated by entirely healthy animals.

According to Graves, the Soviet authorities immediately buried this report, preventing it from reaching the wider public.

The reason for this conspiracy being that, following World War II, the Soviet government was reluctant to give its wider population any reason to fear wolves and thus demand to be well-armed, potentially giving the citizenry the power to overthrow their communist government should another revolution occur.

In closing, many of us will likely never find ourselves encountering a wolf, and certainly most wolves will likely go to lengths to avoid contact with us.

However, should we unexpectedly find ourselves in a threatening situation or in the company of overtly intrusive wolves, here are some useful tips to avoid a potentially dangerous situation.

published on the Finnish website Large Carnivores.

First, attempt to leave.

Avoid running away, even if that is your first instinct.

If you have no way out of the situation, climb on top of some high object, such as a rock, or, if you are close to a populated area, on top of a building.

You could also climb into a tree.

If the wolf continues to behave in a threatening manner, and you cannot leave the situation, avoid direct contact with the wolf, and try to remain as calm and fearless as possible.

You should always try to leave the situation any way you can, or get the wolf to leave you alone.

If the wolf attacks or bites you, shout loudly.

Try to make yourself look as big as possible and wave your hands in a threatening manner.

Do not give up.

You must either scare or fight the wolf off so that it will abandon the attack.

When a wolf faces fierce resistance, it will retreat.

Of course, this only applies to healthy wolves.

Wolves with rabies will probably just keep attacking.

If you come across a wolf that is acting aggressively, notify emergency services immediately.

If the wolf acts in a non-threatening manner, report your sighting to the local Wildlife Management Association.

Wartime Stories is created and hosted by me, Luke Lamana.

Executive produced by Mr.

Ballin, Nick Witters, and Zach Levitt.

Written by Jake Howard and myself.

Audio editing and sound design by me, Luke Lamana, and Alex Carpenter.

Additional editing by Davin Intag and Jordan Stidham.

Research by me, Jake Howard, Evan Beamer, and Camille Callahan.

Mixed and mastered by Brendan Kane.

Production supervision by Jeremy Bone.

Production coordination by Avery Siegel.

Additional production support by Brooklyn Gooden.

Artwork by Jessica Klogson-Kiner, Robin Vane, and Picada.

If you'd like to get in touch or share your own story, you can email me at info at wartime stories.com.

Thank you so much for listening to Wartime Stories.

And if you'd like to believe you are something of a storytelling connoisseur, then you need to check out Mr.

Balin's podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.

Each week, Mr.

Balin weaves gripping tales of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, diving into true crime, unsolved mysteries, and paranormal events that keep you on the edge of your seat.

Mr.

Balin's podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, is available on all podcast platforms, and it is free, just like ours.

There are hundreds of episodes available to binge right now with new episodes twice a week.

Go listen to the Mr.

Balin podcast today.