My Trip to the First World War Battlefield of Verdun

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  • rob63

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    Last month I was fortunate enough to visit the First World War battlefield at Verdun in France. I know there will be plenty of people on INGO that enjoy the photos I took, so here goes. The battlefield encompasses a very large area and a single day was only enough to see the main attractions.

    The Germans attacked the defenses around Verdun in February, 1916. The battle lasted for 10 months, and produced a combined 1 million casualties! Verdun is surrounded to the north and east by a ring of forts of various sizes, the largest and most important being Douaumont.

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    I approached Verdun from the West, driving in on the famous Voie Sacree (Sacred Way) that was the supply line for the French defenders. The first stop was the Citadel located in the city itself. The Citadel is a fortress that was begun in 1624 and contains over 5 miles of underground passages built in the 19[SUP]th [/SUP]century. It served as a shelter and supply depot throughout the battle. Today it contains a museum and a tour of the underground passages, complete with audio-visual effects, that you take while riding in a little car that resembles an amusement park ride.

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    The town itself was severely damaged by artillery fire during the battle. However, it was rebuilt, and today is a small city with a population of about 20,000.

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    Naturally, there are several monuments to the battle in the city. This one is called the Five Defenders of Verdun.

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    The Victory Monument was built in 1929 and is cut into the old wall of the town. The top of the steps give a great view of the hills that surround the city where the fighting took place.

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    Fort Vaux was captured by the Germans in June when the surrounded garrison ran out of water. At one point during the battle the Germans were firing 2,000 shells per hour at the fort! There was also a period in which the fighting continued hand-to-hand inside the fort between the Germans that occupied the upper levels and the French occupying the lower levels.

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    The exterior grounds still show the scars of the intense bombardment.

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    The French commander used carrier pigeons to deliver messages to higher levels after the fort had been surrounded. His final message before they finally surrendered was delivered by a pigeon that was gassed and died shortly after completing its mission. The pigeon was decorated for his gallantry and a plaque commemorates his bravery!

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    This statue of a wounded lion marks the closest point to Verdun reached by the Germans.

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    Nearby is the excellent Fleury Memorial Museum.

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    The small village of Fleury was so completely destroyed that it was never rebuilt. There are small markers that indicate where different buildings were once located. There are at least 8 such villages in the area, along with large areas of land that are considered to not be worth the trouble involved in building anything due to the number of buried artillery shells.

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    The Douaumont Ossuary was built to house the bones of unidentified soldiers. It contains the remains of 130,000 French and Germans. The national cemetery in front of it contains 15,000 graves of identified French soldiers.

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    There are small windows at the bottom of the ossuary that allow you to see the piles of bones!

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    Andre Thome was a local deputy who enlisted in the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] Dragoons and died defending his city, his tomb is across the street from the cemetery.

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    Fort Douaumont was the largest and most important of the forts defending the city. It was left undefended as a result of a variety of disastrous decisions by the French high command and was captured by the Germans without a fight in February at the beginning of the battle. The French launched numerous attempts to recapture it from the Germans throughout the battle, finally succeeding after 9 months.

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    This is the mechanism for raising and lowering the largest of the revolving turrets.

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    A carving made by a German soldier inside the fort.

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    An accidental explosion inside the fort killed 679 German soldiers. The Germans were unable to remove them during the battle, so they were simply entombed inside one of the internal galleries. A memorial chapel was built outside the wall.

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    Charles De Gaulle was one of the soldiers wounded and captured during the fighting to retake Douaumont.

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    The exterior of the fort is quite impressive.

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    The Trench of Bayonets is a memorial to two battalions of French infantry killed by German artillery fire.They became national heroes because they had supposedly been buried alive standing at their posts waiting for an order to attack. It's now accepted that the story is likely a myth, but, in any case, it was the site of a mass grave. The memorial was funded by American banker George F. Rand.

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    The Shelter of the Four Chimneys was captured by the Germans in an attack that began with the firing of 100,000 gas shells and ended with grenades and flamethrowers. There are other bunkers nearby, and throughout the region really, and like so much of the area the landscape remains scarred even after 100 years.

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    Unfortunately, I didn't have time to see everything in a single day. I really needed two more days to see all of the things associated with the battle of Verdun and the nearby Meuse-Argonne battlefield. I hope to go back someday and catch the things I missed this time.
     
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    Sylvain

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    Thank you for the pictures and the history lesson!

    "On ne passe pas!" (they shall not pass!) was the motto of the French army during the battle of Verdun, later used for the Maginot Line as wel.

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    Tactically Fat

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    We here in the USA, especially those of us who are younger than Boomers, simply do not learn much about WWI - especially early WWI / pre US involvement.

    War is Hell - and WWI battles were incomprehensible in size, duration, scope, and casualties involved.

    If any of you listen to podcasts at all, I urge you to seek out and download the 4-5 episodes of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History where he walks through WWI. Probably about 15 hours worth of audio. I believe the titles are Prelude to Armageddon. Definitely worth the listen. I know that I learned a ton. (Titled Prelude to Armageddon because those pesky Germans did it all over again in 20 years - spurred on by both creeping Marxism coming in from the East as well as their overall treatment / conditions of the WWI surrender)

    Absolutely positively fascinating.
     

    Alamo

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    Yes very nice, I'm glad you got to visit and thanks for posting.

    I have seen maps of France showing to this day large areas that are off-limits to people because there is so much unexploded ordnance from WW I in the ground.

    One of the pictures shows a memorial with the inscription "A la memoire des soldats Francais Qui dorment debout le Fusil en main dans cette tranchee. Leurs freres d'Amerique." [Sorry Sylvain, I can't find on my keyboard all the French diacritical marks that are supposed to be there.] In English it means "To the memory of the French soldiers who sleep standing with their rifles in hand. Your brothers from America."

    The more stirring story is that a French rifle company was waiting in trench before an attack, rifles on the parapet, a German artillery barrage buried them alive, and were not discovered until after the war when a French colonel visiting an area he had fought in noticed the tips of their bayonets sticking up out of the ground. A more sober explanation is that the French company was in fact killed en masse by shell or gas, but were simply buried in an available trench with their bayonets used to show the location. Either way a memorial to them was built, designed by a French architect and funded by an wealthy American.

    One source: Battledetective Case Files
     

    Sylvain

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    Great pics and history lesson. I know an huge amount of information on WW2 but very little of pre US WW1.

    It's interesting to know a bit about WW1 to truelly understand WW2.
    A lot of officers in either side were WW1 veterans, including Hitler himself.
    A lot of officers used WW1 tactics during WW2 (war of position vs war of naneuvre etc).

    Very cool Rob! Thanks so much for sharing! And yes, Sylvain has some competition now. ;)

    I do.He's even coming to my turf to do it!
     

    gregkl

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    It's interesting to know a bit about WW1 to truelly understand WW2.
    A lot of officers in either side were WW1 veterans, including Hitler himself.
    A lot of officers used WW1 tactics during WW2 (war of position vs war of naneuvre etc).



    I do.He's even coming to my turf to do it!

    My grandfather was a German officer in both WWI and WWII.

    Excellent pictures and descriptions! Thanks Rob!
     

    rob63

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    It's interesting to know a bit about WW1 to truelly understand WW2.
    A lot of officers in either side were WW1 veterans, including Hitler himself.
    A lot of officers used WW1 tactics during WW2 (war of position vs war of naneuvre etc).

    I honestly don't think it is possible to even begin to understand what happened in France in 1940 without first understanding Verdun.

    I do. He's even coming to my turf to do it!
    LOL!

    Thanks to everyone for the kind comments! I'm happy to be able to share this with others that find it interesting. Pretty much everyone else I know couldn't care less.
     

    Trigger Time

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    I honestly don't think it is possible to even begin to understand what happened in France in 1940 without first understanding Verdun.

    LOL!

    Thanks to everyone for the kind comments! I'm happy to be able to share this with others that find it interesting. Pretty much everyone else I know couldn't care less.
    Yeah thats how most of my close friends or family feel about my colle ting and interests lol. They could give a crap less
     
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