The Belgian Tribe
My grandfather served in the European Theater of Operations during WWII, an experience he rarely talks much about. I’ve only managed to coax one story out of him.
He and a low-ranking officer (granddad was an enlisted man) were travelling by jeep somewhere in Belgium with a cache of much-needed ammunition. Taking a wrong turn on an unpaved road they first became lost, then began to run low on fuel. They sought to ask some locals for help, as the Belgians were highly sympathetic to the Allied effort.
They spied a small hamlet, made up of fewer than a dozen thatched huts, and began walking towards it. They were met halfway by a group of three men dressed mostly in animal skins, all of whom spoke angrily in a language neither of them understood (not French, not German, and certainly not English).
Negotiations proved futile, and one of the three drew a small rusty knife. The Lieutenant drew his .45 sidearm in return and killed the man when he rushed at them as if to attack. This act scared the other two off.
Eventually they repaired the jeep themselves and found their way back to base by the next day. A report was filed, but not much made of it. The following winter the Lieutenant was killed in an artillery barrage, making my grandfather the only known living witness to the event.
Now what’s interesting is what reminded him of the story: we were watching a documentary on the development of language, this one specifically about the Saxon tongue, which thousands of years ago developed into languages like German and English. Granddad remarked how much it sounded like the words he’d heard that day.
Posted in Strange & Unknown
July 24th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
His granddad just needs a nice kick in the nuts.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:12 am
Or perhaps in his nonexistent ovaries? XD
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Don’t kill me.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:14 am
Wait, why did they have to repair the Jeep? They were low on fuel, not damaged.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:59 am
This story reminds me of a twilight zone episode
July 25th, 2008 at 11:10 am
I have read in the Smithsonian magazine that it is thought that Neanderthals and ‘modern man’ coexisted for a time before the Medieval period.
I think it’s just speculation, though.
This pasta has been in the pot a little too long. The creepy has boiled away. D=
July 25th, 2008 at 11:21 am
It was okay, kind of a time warp thing going on. Not very creepy or climactic.
Eh, this pasta was okay.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Weirdly enough there were plenty of places in 1940s Europe (not Belgium mind) where this would be pretty plausible. Take the Asia/Russia border countrys for example. Go out to some of the eastern ’stans and you’ll find villages 50 miles from eachother that can barely communicate with eachother. One of Stalins big dealios was to get all these communties under the Russian yoke, like N Amercian Gvt and the indigenous peoples.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
“all of whom spoke angrily in a language neither of them understood (not French, not German, and certainly not English).”
Side note: Belgians speak French or Dutch (depending on where in Belgium they live), but not German. Except perhaps as a second language.
July 27th, 2008 at 12:47 am
oh god you guys don’t get it
LAST KNOWN SURVIVORS OF A LOST RACE
July 27th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
You know, on the train of thought of “Oh, it couldve been one of those little hidden, out-of-time villages that just didnt evolve like those ones hidden in the amazon” I was suddenly reminded of that episode of Family Guy.
When Peter’s house isnt in the united states, making it its own country.
Now all the creepy from this pasta is gone.
July 27th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
For some reason, this really reminded me of a Lovecraftian Sherlock Holmes anthology I’m reading. One of the stories involves Watson’s time in Afghanistan, and rather reminds me of the overall tone of this one.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:49 am
“This story reminds me of a twilight zone episode”
same
July 29th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Well written, but not really creepy. It kind of reminded me of a TV show that I saw quite a while back (not sure what it was called) where a window opens up into an alternate reality where there are people who look like 19th century farmers. Some guy actually goes through, though, and it turns out that they’re horrible vampire looking cannibals. Or something to that extent.
August 1st, 2008 at 4:31 pm
@zege: they made it work on solar power. sadly, this technology hasn’t been adapted widely yet.
@all: damn LARPers, messing up WWII jeep drivers
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:01 pm
jeep brah!
August 15th, 2008 at 8:25 am
There’s nothing creepy about this story we have many villages with those old tribesmen in Europe.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
…I understand how it’s SUPPOSED to be creepy…b/c it implies that the grandfather met the last survivors of an ancient race yadda blah blah…buuuut…
“…this one specifically about the Saxon tongue, which thousands of years ago developed into languages like German and English. Granddad remarked how much it sounded like the words he’d heard that day.”
…I’m sorry, that part killed the creepy factor for me because all I can think is: Well duh it sounds LIKE the words he heard that day…the Saxon tongue was after all the source of AT LEAST two of the major languages used today (”…into languages LIKE German and English” - note that that’s only two examples). For me, that does not automatically cause me to think “OmFG HE HEARDED DEaD PEEPS!$@%21″ It could’ve been ANY of the multiple languages the stemmed from the original Saxon tongue.
Not as creepy as I’d expected.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
WHO WAS RUSTY KNIFE WIELDER?