'Island of Death' battles remembered

dimidrone

The “Island of Death” was the battlefield site on the left bank of the Daugava River across from Ikskile where Latvia’s first battalions of riflemen (about 8000 volunteers recruited into the 12th Imperial Army of Russia) saw protracted fighting and died in the hundreds as they held off a 1916 German onslaught toward Riga that lasted many months.

What used to be a Daugmale county peninsula jutting into the river near a strategically important temporary bridge can now only be reached by boat, since the Riga hydroelectric dam flooded the isthmus. But in 1916 the German forces could have been poised to threaten Riga from this very spot.

NBS Colonel Janis Hartmanis, author of a just-published monograph, (funded under local Ķekava district government auspices), about the Latvian riflemen’s battles at the Island of Death, describes the scene as having been “daily shooting, artillery from both sides, because the Germans were in positions raised above the relief and the whole defense was quite complicated.”

The Island of Death was also notorious as one of the first sites where chemical weapons were ever deployed, killing almost one-and-a-half thousand men. In fact, its name is said to have been given by the Latvian riflemen who were urgently called in to replace the fallen gassed soldiers.

President Janis Čakste presided over the unveiling of the monument, designed by sculptor Eižens Laube, on July 27, 1924. It was the fledgling nation's first memorial to its freedom fighting soldiers.The tragic battles were also immortalized by poet Aleksandrs Čaks in his poem “Mūžības skartie” (“By eternity touched”), written during the 1930s.

OddjobSurveyor

Semper cogitabo bellorum.

Blériot53

Quite a remote spot for a monument, DMD. Great views from the drone.

DowntownRDB

That's a really nice memorial for the many fallen soldiers. Nicely filmed Dimi.

Military history teaches us about honor, sacrifice, and the inevitability of conflict. What we have failed to learn from it is how to completely avoid world conflict.

Depp

Lovely landscape with a terrible past.

DAFlys

What an unusual monument. Nicely filmed DMI.

dimidrone

OddjobSurveyor Posted at 5-16 10:27
Semper cogitabo bellorum.

Bellum numquam mutat

A J

Thanks for the background info - really adds to the video

Codgerzh2

What a lovely place who would have thought it had seen major battles-nice video

BetterBizTech

It's abeautiful Islandfor an Island of death. Sad about the history though.

dimidrone

Blériot53 Posted at 5-16 11:06
Quite a remote spot for a monument, DMD. Great views from the drone.

Yes, it is. AS you can see, its captured by nature more and more and with every year. Some guys who have boats goes there, also from time to time it's possible to get to rare excursion, but mostly it's abandoned

Blériot53

dimidrone Posted at 5-18 00:54
Yes, it is. AS you can see, its captured by nature more and more and with every year. Some guys who have boats goes there, also from time to time it's possible to get to rare excursion, but mostly it's abandoned

Abandoned, but not forgotten

dimidrone

Blériot53 Posted at 5-18 00:58
Abandoned, but not forgotten

Yes!

Blériot53

dimidrone Posted at 5-19 01:12
Yes!

dimidrone

DowntownRDB Posted at 5-16 14:00
That's a really nice memorial for the many fallen soldiers. Nicely filmed Dimi.

Military history teaches us about honor, sacrifice, and the inevitability of conflict. What we have failed to learn from it is how to completely avoid world conflict.

Thanks. Yes, I'm dreaming about time when there will be no conflicts.

DowntownRDB

dimidrone Posted at 5-19 23:14
Thanks. Yes, I'm dreaming about time when there will be no conflicts.

You're very welcome Dimi. Keep up the great work and I hope you have a wonderful week.

dimidrone

Depp Posted at 5-16 21:35
Lovely landscape with a terrible past.

Totally agreed...

2sticks

Nice aerial of this monument in its setting. Those that perished must always be remembered.

Montfrooij

Very nice video!