![]() ![]() The ominous building of the ossuary was built in memory of the 300,000 French soldiers who fell in the defence of Verdun. ![]() ![]() Yes, I will remember Verdun for the rest of my life! Once there, I had an appointment with this dark period of French history. Verdun by the River Meuse © French Moments Maybe because these places carry a strong emotional charge… and then, personally, I am more attracted by beautiful monuments, magnificent landscapes and not by cemeteries!īut last year, I had the opportunity to go to Verdun. Why visit Verdun?Īnd yet, I have long hesitated to discover the sites of the Battle of Verdun. And then, the French have kept November 11 as a public holiday in the national calendar. Tour buses still fill the parking lots of the memorial sites in Verdun as well as in the sites of northern France. The memory was recently maintained by the large-scale media tributes of the commemoration of the 100 years of the war (2014-2018). The site of the former village of Douaumont still bears the scars of the Great War © French Moments Moreover, the land that was no longer suitable for cultivation has been reforested. The terrain is still disturbed and, in some areas, the vegetation has not completely reclaimed its rights. It is clear that the memory of Verdun is still very much alive today.Ī century has passed since the Great War and the traces of the fighting that took place in Verdun have not yet completely disappeared. * Poilu refers to the French soldiers who fought during the First World War. ![]() The old men in their eighties were at the time the last surviving Poilus* in France… And I wondered what would happen to the memory of the First World War and the battle of Verdun after their disappearance. The name of Verdun evokes for me the memory of these veterans of the First World War who came to tell about their war memories in my elementary school. More than a hundred years later, Verdun cannot be forgotten! Located a few kilometres from Verdun, the monument evokes the memory of the soldiers of the terrible battle of Verdun in 1916. However, in March 1917, the Germans made a strategic retreat to the Hindenburg line rather than face the resumption of the Battle of the Somme.A few days before the Armistice of November 11, 1918, I propose you discover a place of memory in Lorraine: the Douaumont Ossuary.At the end of hostilities the British had advanced just seven miles and failed to break the German defence.Fighting was finally suspended after 141 days, as winter was closing in and British commander Gen Douglas Haig decided the offensive should be resumed in February.However, the French had more success and inflicted big losses on German troops. On the first day of the battle alone 19,240 British soldiers were killed capturing just three square miles of territory - the bloodiest day in the history of the British army.In total, there were over one million dead and wounded on all sides, including 420,000 British casualties, about 200,000 from France, and an estimated 465,000 from Germany.The aim was to relieve the French army fighting at Verdun and to weaken the German army.For more than four months the British and French armies engaged the Germans in a brutal battle of attrition on a 15-mile front. One of the bloodiest conflicts of World War One. ![]()
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