Verdun
May Bank
Holiday Weekend 2004
On the 3rd day of our little
cruise around France, we headed to Verdun ... scene of one of the most
bloody, senseless and prolonged battles of World War I. Never before
or since has there been such a lengthy battle, involving so many men,
situated on such a tiny piece of land. The battle, which lasted from 21
February 1916 until 19 December 1916 caused over an estimated 700,000
casualties (dead, wounded and missing). The battlefield was not even a
square ten kilometres. From a strategic point of view there can be no
justification for these atrocious losses. The battle degenerated into a
matter of prestige of two nations literally for the sake of fighting......
| Check out
http://www.war1418.com/battleverdun/ for a concise history of the
battle, maps and pictures. You can even hear the sounds of the
guns. What a nightmare! Alternatively, if like a good
military read, the Price of Glory by Alistair Horne is a good book and
easy to read. I liked it. Get it at Amazon and earn me
some gift certificates by clicking on the book cover on the right.
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Trench
of Bayonets
When the
battlefield clearance parties began to search the Verdun area after the
war, one party found what appeared to be a mass grave of men from one unit
– the 137th RI (infantry regiment). Reputedly, Father Ratier, an army
chaplain who had been a stretcher bearer with the 137th in 1916, found a
line of some thirty nine bayonets protruding from the ground – each one
marking the location of a body. Here the legend started – a row of men
from the 137th, killed in their jumping off trench by the intense
shelling, which literally buried them alive. The story began to grow –
first it was a platoon of men, then a company, sometimes even a whole
battalion. It soon became an ‘urban myth’ of the day, and it captured the
imagination of an American millionaire, who bought the ground where the
bodies were found and covered them over with a large concrete shelter.
Today it is one of the most visited locations on the whole battlefield.
The facts are that the 137th RI, from the Vendée
region of France, made an attack north of the Ravine de la Dame (also
sometimes called ‘Ravine of Death’) towards Nawe Wood on the 10th/11th
June 1916, suffering heavy casualties. It is more likely that those found
at the Trench of Bayonets were wartime battlefield burials, whose graves
were simply marked with bayonets and rifles. However, it is likely the
truth will never be known.
Entrance of The Trench of Bayonets
The Trench
Walking around this memorial gave me a sense of how dangerous
battlefields are ... even when the battle is long gone ... I tripped up
some concrete stairs and took a decent chunk out of my leg. Ten
months later, the scar is still there as a reminder to look where I am
going and not take the piss out of war memorials.
Fort
Vaux/Douaumont
Time dims the memory and I
cannot quite remember if these pictures were taken at Fort Vaux or
Douaumont. Either way, you wouldn't want to be underground or in
them as shells are landing all around them. Talk about target.
The Price of Glory by
Alastair Horne gives a good narrative about the fall of Fort Douaumont and
the harrowing life of those living in the forts surrounding the fortress
town of Verdun.
Casemate of a turret and a 20mm cannon or machine gun thingie.
Observation turret.
Another observation turret.
Ossuary at Douaumont
In the years following the
war, the British erected a large number of memorials to missing on their
sectors of the old battlefields. The French never followed this example,
and the nearest they have to anything like this is the huge and impressive
Ossuary at Douaumont.
Work began in the early
1920s, but was not finished until 1927, when the Ossuary was inaugurated
on 18th September. Within, the walls were covered with the names of men,
regiments and divisions who fought at Verdun in 1916/17 – many are to
soldiers killed in the fighting whose bodies were lost. This is their only
memorial. Many memorial plaques tell a poignant story – such as the one
which commemorates a small patrol wiped out near Fort Vaux in June 1916.
Within the Ossuary all is
silent – talking is forbidden.
But the Ossuary is not just
a memorial – the very word ‘ossuaire’ in French directly translated means
a ‘charnel house’. For beneath this mammoth building are the bones of more
than 120,000 soldiers who fell at Verdun. Curiously, many can be viewed in
glass fronted cabinets – where the grinning skulls stare out at you in a
macabre fashion. In this respect, it is unique.
The Ossuary and the row upon row of graves.
Inside of the Ossuary and the plaques to those that lost their lives
and whose bodies were never found.
French Tri-Colour viewed from the top of the tower.
Neat rows of graves
Rows of graves.
Is it just me or does this look like something phallic? Not
meaning to be disrespectful but it did bring to mind a saying about the
nature of man and violence. If man can't fuck it, he'll try to kill
it. Anyway ... a memorial to the senseless of the war and generals'
vanities.
The Town Of Verdun
We went into Verdun to see the main fort. Unfortunately, it was
late in the day, their was an hour's wait to get and we decided that we'd
seen enough death and destruction for the day. We retired to a cafe
for a cappuccino.
It's funny how English phone boxes seem to turn up in the most unlikely
of places.
The canal running through town. I love these old boats with the
keels that drop down either side of the boat to keep it steady.
Old buildings.
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Champagne
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