War bombardment weakened trees so rain and wind later felled them onto troops.

Evidence

25 Americans were killed by falling trees during a World War II campaign; while bombardment had reduced the stability of many trees, subsequent very heavy rains and wind were the proximate agents of mortality (Morison, 1950; Hough and Crown, 1952). — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 416

Categorization

• CANDY: A startling, readily-shareable oddity — troops killed by falling trees after bombardment in WWII.
• ADDENDUM: Fits the On Sacrifice and disturbance-as-grief thread obliquely: rare, dramatic deaths attributed to proximate weather, masking an anthropogenic disturbance a decade in the making.
• XREF: connects to: War degrades landscapes before any fighting actually occurs there — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 28

Broader Connections

• War degrades landscapes before any fighting actually occurs there #expands (0.85) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 28