My Trip to the First World War Battlefield of Verdun

[Bigtanker]

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.

This.

It's called Blueprint for Armageddon. It's 6 parts, each one is 4 hours. I've listened to it 3 times now. It's fascinating but terrifying at the same time.

The facts of the battles he lists are astounding. I don't remember the exact numbers but at Passchendaele, there were something like 500,000 rounds of artillery fired a week, for months on end until there was absolutely nothing left. The sheer number of casualties is almost unimaginable. 30,000 in a day wasn't unheard of.

I do remember Verdun being discussed in detail also. I'd love to your these places at some point in my life. Thanks for posting these.

 

[rob63]

This.

It's called Blueprint for Armageddon. It's 6 parts, each one is 4 hours. I've listened to it 3 times now. It's fascinating but terrifying at the same time.

The facts of the battles he lists are astounding. I don't remember the exact numbers but at Passchendaele, there were something like 500,000 rounds of artillery fired a week, for months on end until there was absolutely nothing left. The sheer number of casualties is almost unimaginable. 30,000 in a day wasn't unheard of.

I do remember Verdun being discussed in detail also. I'd love to your these places at some point in my life. Thanks for posting these.

I visited Passchendaele a couple of years ago while staying in Ieper (Ypres) and created a thread about it.

I'm pretty lucky in that my wife is fine with staying at some medium size city in Europe where she can experience the local culture, see the architecture, drink some wine, etc. without really caring where exactly it is at. Consequently, I can pick a place where it is easy to rent a car and go visit battlefields. We stayed in Reims this trip, which is a really neat place to visit in itself, but is also close to Verdun.

I hope to visit the Somme battlefields, which are also in Sylvain's turf, in a couple of years.

The cathedral in Reims is magnificent, and it also still shows the scars of artillery shells from WWI.

 

[Sylvain]

I visited Passchendaele a couple of years ago while staying in Ieper (Ypres) and created a thread about it.

I'm pretty lucky in that my wife is fine with staying at some medium size city in Europe where she can experience the local culture, see the architecture, drink some wine, etc. without really caring where exactly it is at. Consequently, I can pick a place where it is easy to rent a car and go visit battlefields. We stayed in Reims this trip, which is a really neat place to visit in itself, but is also close to Verdun.

I hope to visit the Somme battlefields, which are also in Sylvain's turf, in a couple of years.

The cathedral in Reims is magnificent, and it also still shows the scars of artillery shells from WWI.

Didn't you also go to Caen and to the D-Day beaches?

I'm more familiar with the history of WW2, especially the Battle of Normandy than I am with WW1.

I visited the Meuse Argonne American Cemetery some years ago.It's the largest WW1 American cemetery in Europe with over 14, 000 graves.

Here, especially in Normandy, you can't go anywhere without seeing something that reminds you of WW2.

One of our local court houses still shows traces of combat.

 

[rob63]

Didn't you also go to Caen and to the D-Day beaches?

I'm more familiar with the history of WW2, especially the Battle of Normandy than I am with WW1.

I visited the Meuse Argonne American Cemetery some years ago.It's the largest WW1 American cemetery in Europe with over 14, 000 graves.

Here, especially in Normandy, you can't go anywhere without seeing something that reminds you of WW2.

One of our local court houses still shows traces of combat.

Yes, I did, went to Waterloo as well. I really hope to get back to Normandy. I went to the American beaches, but didn't have time for the British beaches and I want to see Mont. St. Michel too.

That court house is astonishing!

 

[Crittersdad]

Thank you for sharing these pictures

 

[Bigtanker]

I visited Passchendaele a couple of years ago while staying in Ieper (Ypres) and created a thread about it.

I'm pretty lucky in that my wife is fine with staying at some medium size city in Europe where she can experience the local culture, see the architecture, drink some wine, etc. without really caring where exactly it is at. Consequently, I can pick a place where it is easy to rent a car and go visit battlefields. We stayed in Reims this trip, which is a really neat place to visit in itself, but is also close to Verdun.

I hope to visit the Somme battlefields, which are also in Sylvain's turf, in a couple of years.

The cathedral in Reims is magnificent, and it also still shows the scars of artillery shells from WWI.

Oh yes. I remember that thread now.

 

[Sylvain]

Yes, I did, went to Waterloo as well. I really hope to get back to Normandy. I went to the American beaches, but didn't have time for the British beaches and I want to see Mont. St. Michel too.

That court house is astonishing!

The Mont Saint Michel is a beautiful site!

The court house was built in the 16th century, it still has original interiors.

It more like a palace, it was not originally a court house.It has been used as a court house only for the last 230 years.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

The Mont Saint Michel is a beautiful site!

The court house was built in the 16th century, it still has original interiors.

It more like a palace, it was not originally a court house.It has been used as a court house only for the last 230 years.

"Only" the last 230 years. Old has a completely different meaning in Europe than it does here.

 

[Sylvain]

"Only" the last 230 years. Old has a completely different meaning in Europe than it does here.

That's true.We don't use the same scale.

230 years ago that's still fairly modern history for us.
That court house used to be the parliament of Normandy.
The Duchy of Normandy (which is like our state/province) was created in 911, that's 865 years before the US Declaration of Independence was signed.

In school we learn that "modern history" starts after the end of the middle ages (15th century) and goes to 1789, then it's the "contemporary history", from 1789 to today.


So we don't have the same definition of what's "modern" or old.

I heard an American one time say he had some "very very old" coins ... I imagined it was from like the Roman Empire.Turns out it was from the 1960's or something like that.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

That's true.We don't use the same scale.

230 years ago that's still fairly modern history for us.
That court house used to be the parliament of Normandy.
The Duchy of Normandy (which is like our state/province) was created in 911, that's 865 years before the US Declaration of Independence was signed.

In school we learn that "modern history" starts after the end of the middle ages (15th century) and goes to 1789, then it's the "contemporary history", from 1789 to today.


So we don't have the same definition of what's "modern" or old.

I heard an American one time say he had some "very very old" coins ... I imagined it was from like the Roman Empire.Turns out it was from the 1960's or something like that.

Going by that scale, I would be a very very old man! My oldest coin is a silver dollar from 1879 that was given to me by my grandfather. That's the year he was born.

 

[Tactically Fat]

How's the saying go? To an American, 100 years is a long time. To a European, 100 miles is a long way. Something like that.

 

[Alamo]

... To a European, 100 miles is a long way. Something like that.

I found this to be true. It was hard to explain to a European the scale of America, especially driving, if they hadn't already visited. I was in Schinnen (Netherlands) one time and asked Dutchman if he "was from around here?" "OH NO! I am from Nagelbeek!" Which is about a quarter-mile away, but the way he said it, it was like the other side of the planet. Northern Germans think going to Bavaria for holiday is a major land trip (about four hour drive Frankfort to Munich, except in August) requiring much planning and you stay three weeks or a month. Americans stationed there thought of it as a weekend trip, leave Friday night, back Sunday night.

 

[Tactically Fat]

I found this to be true. It was hard to explain to a European the scale of America, especially driving, if they hadn't already visited. I was in Schinnen (Netherlands) one time and asked Dutchman if he "was from around here?" "OH NO! I am from Nagelbeek!" Which is about a quarter-mile away, but the way he said it, it was like the other side of the planet. Northern Germans think going to Bavaria for holiday is a major land trip (about four hour drive Frankfort to Munich, except in August) requiring much planning and you stay three weeks or a month. Americans stationed there thought of it as a weekend trip, leave Friday night, back Sunday night.

When my wife was in HS, she spent a month in Italy as some kind of cultural exchange thing. It wasn't an actual exchange student - as school was out of session in both places. Anyhow - her host family had planned like a 100 mile trip to go visit family or something. It was a huge ordeal. Dad closed his auto shop early, all the kids had to be home to nap, etc.

All this hubbub and my wife just didn't really understand the big deal. At that time she was driving from Poneto, IN (booming metropolis!) down to Muncie and back a few times a week for club volleyball. About an 85 mile round trip.

 

[STAGE 2]

Great pics! Western Europe has always been on my bucket list.

 

[Brad69]

Europe = meh ! It’s OK everyone should visit a few times too many Americans never leave the area they live in and it hurts their perspective of the world and life.

BTW
Does Sylvain speak “Flemish” or French?

 

[Sylvain]

Europe = meh ! It’s OK everyone should visit a few times too many Americans never leave the area they live in and it hurts their perspective of the world and life.

BTW
Does Sylvain speak “Flemish” or French?

I don't speak Flemish, when I go to Belgium where some people speak French and other Flemish, I speak either French or English.
And a bit of German.
If you understand a bit of German and English you might understand some Flemish (Flemish is close enough to Dutch).
I do speak French.

Basically if you speak English with a German accent you speak Dutch ...

In Europe it's easy to cross a border without noticing and find yourself in the need to speak another language.

I got lost one time while travelling in Beligum, I went to a village and wondered why everybody was speaking German ... turns out I had crossed into Germany.

Here's the border between Belgium and France in a small village.
That's a French Custom's car parked in that driveway.

 

[Brad69]

If you speak English and French you are go anywhere outside the eastern bloc countries!
I didn’t know if you spoke Flemish or how common that is outside of Belgians.
I know the Belgians sometimes switch between the two languages during conversations.


I think I am going to put Russia on my bucket list a tour of Stalingrad sounds fun!

 

[Sylvain]

If you speak English and French you are go anywhere outside the eastern bloc countries!
I didn’t know if you spoke Flemish or how common that is outside of Belgians.
I know the Belgians sometimes switch between the two languages during conversations.


I think I am going to put Russia on my bucket list a tour of Stalingrad sounds fun!

From what I understand Flemish is only spoken in Belgian but it's very close to Dutch.

French used to be very popular in Russia during the 18th and 19th century, the nobility spoke more French than Russian.
It's still one of the most popular foreign languages after English there.

I try not to switch languages in a conversation unless everybody around speaks and understands the different languages.
Otherwise it's a bit rude for folks who can only follow one language, unless you translate for them.

 

[Sylvain]

[video=youtube;YNIBE64CAgs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNIBE64CAgs[/video]