Verdun (9/10/17)

We hired a private guide for a trip to Verdun from Paris.  Verdun is the site of a 300 day battle in World War I. I read about it while researching last year's trip and we wanted to include it this year. Mike and I both love history so we were really looking forward to this. I actually wish we had stayed closer, possibly in Reims, so we could have had more time.  It was a 12 hour day as it was, and we could have spent another few hours for sure.

Neither side really attained victory here, but the French Army's tenacity really kept the German forces at Verdun engaged so they couldn't be re-directed to other battlefronts.  There was also really no other line of defense between the Germans and Paris.  

We stopped off at a monument in the countryside and as we drove away we saw a poor abandoned dog with a muzzle on. The poor thing looked like it was half-starved and I couldn't imagine what sort of monster would abandon a dog without any means of eating! We stopped and tried to coax it to us but it was too afraid to come near.  Another car had also stopped and the lady had called the local police who were coming out to see if they could catch the dog and free it from the muzzle.  We couldn't wait for the police but the people in the other car were going to stay until they came. The thought of that poor dog haunted me the rest of the day. 

We drove on and visited the Verdun Memorial which was an excellent presentation of information about the battle, the soldiers and the aftermath.  There was so much shelling that several small towns were completely obliterated.  Blown off the face of the earth forever.  The unexplored ordinance was still being found pretty regularly as little as 20 years ago.  The area is still full of trenches and shell craters though the grass and trees were replanted and it is green there now.  Photos after the war show it looking like the surface of the moon- no trees or anything, just the craters. There were pictures of the soldiers and some video showing the shell shock that affected so many of them. Very, very sad. 

Next stop was the Ossuary.  The collected bone fragments of approximately 130,000 soldiers are enclosed in the Ossuary and another 70,000 soldiers are buried out in front of the monument. There is an area inside dedicated to the soldiers from each surrounding area with their names inscribed.  

Fort Douaumont was next.  One of the few defensive forts in the area, it was at times occupied by the French or the Germans, and sometimes by both at the same time! The fort itself was almost completely buried by the dirt being thrown up by the thousands of shells exploding around it. 

We also managed to find a small section of the remaining trenches nearby.  

All in all, it was a sobering but truly interesting day. Definitely something we will always remember.

                                              Fort Douaumont

                                                        Verdun Ossuary