World History

Not sure how a hollowed-out trunk can allow for a tree to survive. I'm not questioning the truth of the story, and I am no arborist or tree surgeon--just how the tree healed enough to be standing today. The perspective given by the video is not very useful to appreciate what must be a massive tree and trunk. The "hollows" that the boys used to go in and out seem really modest and scarcely big enough to put a baby in. Perhaps they have partially "healed" or been treated to allow the tree to survive? Again, it is probably the video perspective, but I have 100-year-old oaks that are far more massive near me, and this is thought to be 650 years old? Perhaps there will be some follow-up videos to this one better allowing the viewer to appreciate the tree's trunk and girth.

I join others in wishing the rest of the story for the boys and their lives after the war was known. Marvelous survival story, though.