Military History

[CagleMtnVol]

 

[GroverCleveland]

Spent yesterday afternoon in the Verdun Memorial and Museum.

I hired a guide for today to cover the battlefield. We will start at Lt. Col. Driant's Monument and bump a bit further north where German and French trenches faced one another before the battle. Then we will tour Ft. Douaumont, the Ossuary, Fleury, Trench of the Bayonets, and Ft. Souville. Ft. Vaux is closed. The are some other forts one can visit in the area, but one enters at one's own risk.

 

[GroverCleveland]

A machine gun emplacement at Fort de Souville. This position covered a ditch along side one of the walls. Souville has not been maintained and one enters at one's risk, so...

 

[GroverCleveland]

Inside Fort de Souville:

 

[GroverCleveland]

The Ossuary at Duoaumont. Roughly 160,000 French troops and 140,000 Germans were killed at Verdun. 130,000 men are estimated to be collected and deposited here. These bones are French and German because they were unknowns.

 

[GroverCleveland]

One of the French military cemeteries at Verdun. 15,000 are buried here.

 

[GroverCleveland]

Sorry I was incorrect about number buried here. They do not add markers. They add remains to a grave, so an estimated 16,000 are buried here. This one contains ten.

 

[hog88]

Inside Fort de Souville:

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Guy in the pic probably remembers the battle....

 

[GroverCleveland]

Guy in the pic probably remembers the battle....

Was too old to fight.

 

[Vtonerider]

Google Image Result for https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Sulphur-Creek-Trestle-1.jpg

 

[GroverCleveland]

Standing in the destroyed village of Fleury with a picture of how it was in 1914.

Large areas of the Verdun battlefield were declared Zone "Rouge" (Red) and unfit for human habitation afterward. Over a dozen villages suffered the same fate as Fleury. The picture does not show just how churned up the ground is. It is literally 100% shell holes. Many are 5-6 ft deep. Any place we went, as soon as one stepped off the road and into the woods, the ground was nothing but shell holes. My guide said it was estimated that the average number of shells used per square meter was six over the entire battlefield.

 

[GroverCleveland]

155mm gun torrent. Fort de Duoaumont.

 

[GroverCleveland]

Top of Fort de Duoaumont. This gives some idea of how the ground is covered in shell holes everywhere on the battlefield. Duoamont was pounded by artillery for ten months, first by the Germans and then by the French after it was captured.

 

[GroverCleveland]

There is at least one thing our government gets right.

This the largest American cemetery in Europe. To be frank, I am sitting in my car with tears. This is very emotional.

 

[GroverCleveland]

Sometimes, one is a Volunteer for longer than life.

 

[GroverCleveland]

The Hawthorne Ridge crater. Think this is one caught on film when it was detonated July 1, 1916.

The back of this image is actually a second crater that resulted when a second mine was dug later and detonated.

 

[GroverCleveland]

The Locknagar Crater. Also detonated July 1, 1916.

 

[GroverCleveland]

One of the more well known memorials of WW1, the Thiepval Memorial to the unknown dead. 300 British and 300 French are buried on each side.

 

[LouderVol]

awesome stuff man. I have always wanted to tour those WW1 battlefields.

 

[OldandStillaVol]

Sometimes, one is a Volunteer for longer than life.

View attachment 783611

More information about Private Workman:

 

[GroverCleveland]

awesome stuff man. I have always wanted to tour those WW1 battlefields.

It has been a great trip. I am by myself and able to stop and see anything along the way. To get a feel for the battlefield. For example, have read plenty about Verdun, but did not realize it was fought in such a hilly area.

Today, I am heading up to Ypres and that will pretty much wind up this trip.

Future trips will do the same kind of thing. Tentatively planning a trip to Gallipoli. Then a trip for Normandy and Waterloo.

 

[GroverCleveland]

On the site of the NewFoundland Memorial. Canada does this right. Canadian university students volunteer for three to four month shifts at the memorial. They provide free guided tours of the site. And they have done their homework. As we walked over the site she had most of her facts dead-on. A few she missed, but we talked through them. She laughed at a couple she missed because she had mixed them up with Vimy Ridge which they alternate with.

The picture does not do her justice. She was a pretty girl as were the others in the visitor center. It was cold, very windy and raining on us the whole time we were out on the site.

When I noted how remarkable it was they were doing this, the girls all smiled and said it was a privilege and they were proud of what Canadian troops did in the War and wanted to honor their sacrifices.

I would be surprised by an American female able to place WW1 in the correct century and bonus points if they could name the major antagonists. If one goes to this area, this Memorial is well worth the visit.

 

[GroverCleveland]

This picture is of the trench from which the Newfoundlanders launched their July 1, 1916 attack. Their furtherest advance was approximately 30 meters, about to the tree with the white post at the bottom. The nearest German defenses were about 150-200 meters away across the field just beyond the tree.

It was over in about twenty minutes. The regiment suffered just over 90% casualties among the assaulting troops.

 

[Ritzwatch]

This picture is of the trench from which the Newfoundlanders launched their July 1, 1916 attack. Their furtherest advance was approximately 30 meters, about to the tree with the white post at the bottom. The nearest German defenses were about 150-200 meters away across the field just beyond the tree.

It was over in about twenty minutes. The regiment suffered just over 90% casualties among the assaulting troops.


View attachment 784350

Thank you for these photos. I have never been to Europe, and if I were to go, it would be to visit these sites.

My grandfather was gassed in WW1. I have his uniform, gas mask, and other paraphernalia from the war. I used to wear a “trench art” ring he made from a French coin, until a child slid it off my finger at a mall and it went missing.

This war was so much unnecessary death, and it led to so much more a generation or so later. It truly is largely “forgotten war” for many Americans.

 

[GroverCleveland]

Thank you for these photos. I have never been to Europe, and if I were to go, it would be to visit these sites.

My grandfather was gassed in WW1. I have his uniform, gas mask, and other paraphernalia from the war. I used to wear a “trench art” ring he made from a French coin, until a child slid it off my finger at a mall and it went missing.

This war was so much unnecessary death, and it led to so much more a generation or so later. It truly is largely “forgotten war” for many Americans.

Yes. I made a post applauding the Canadian university students, virtually all female, and their attitude towards it and the sacrifices of Canadian and NewFoundland troops (NewFoundland did not join Canada until 1949).