First constructed in 1885, Fort Douaumont was the most important stronghold among 38 hilltop fortifications built to protect Verdun after Germany’s 1871 annexation of this area. In the Verdun Memorial Museum, I learned that the vast majority of WWI casualties weren’t hit by machine gun bullets, but by shrapnel - every time an artillery shell exploded, jagged bits of the shell’s casing sprayed like buckshot.Īnother key sight for visitors is Fort Douaumont. It works to pair German and French artifacts - for example, you’ll see a circa 1916 German rucksack completely loaded up right next to a French one. The museum is rich in artifacts and delivers gripping exhibits about the battle (with lots of information in English). ![]() To get a good overview, start at the Verdun Memorial Museum. You can ride through the eerie moguls left by the incessant shelling, pause at melted-sugar-cube forts, ponder plaques marking spots where towns once existed, and visit a vast cemetery. From here (with a tour, rental car, shuttle bus, or taxi) it’s possible to see the most important sights and appreciate the horrific scale of the battle in as little as three hours. A string of battlefields lines an eight-mile stretch of road outside the town of Verdun. Plenty of rusty battle remnants and memorials to the carnage are still accessible. Today, it is buried under thick forests - all new growth - and the soldiers’ vast network of communication trenches is overgrown and haunted by their ghosts. Perhaps the most powerful WWI sightseeing experience a traveler can have is at the battlefields of Verdun, where, in 1916, roughly 300,000 lives were lost in what is called the “Battle of 300 Days and Nights.” The battle left a barren, lunar landscape. One among many lost in the morass of the Somme and Verdun.The year 2018 will mark the centennial of the conclusion of World War I, the war that was billed as “the war to end all wars.” While there are no more survivors to tell us their stories, WWI sights and memorials scattered around Europe do their best to keep the devastation from fading from memory. 29, 1916 to Raymond’s father: “there is no hope of his being alive.” Harris, Lieutenant, 1st Canadian Division, HQ, BEF France wrote on Oct. They are fed up with fighting and throw their hands up without a fight.” I would like to know what the Hun big bugs think. They must be short when they put their sailors into land battles. The weather may save his luck but from what I see will not hinder much. 4, 1916: “The war still goes on with much gusto and Fritz still goes luck. Penniman was lost at the Somme, officially reported missing Oct. Royal Canadian Regiment, Seventh Brigade, Third Division, BEF. One of those witnesses was Lieutenant Ray Penniman, Military Cross, Co. They Shall Not Pass | 1916 sheds light on the personal side of the conflict. Nearly all of the objects and documents are being exhibited for the first time in the Museum’s history. Noteworthy objects on exhibit include a British Vickers machine gun, a Verdun commemorative flag, German uniforms from regiments at both battles and a French infantry folding bicycle. This special centennial exhibition draws on the extensive collection of the Museum and Memorial to show the immense scope of the 1916 Western Front battles and other areas of action. ![]() On June 23, French General Robert Nivelle exhorted his men to hold: vous ne les laisserrez pas passer (you shall not let them pass).The shortened adopted French battle cry then and forever after the 1916 battle was on ne passe pas or ils ne passeront pas (they shall not pass). ![]() 21, 1916 and lasting until the French counter offensive on Dec. In September 1914, the British Expeditionary Force was not involved in the battles of Picardy and Albert so it is not as well recorded or reported.Īlthough fighting around the ancient fortress city of Verdun started in 1914 and continued until 1918, the massive German offensive beginning on Feb. The Battle of the Somme in 1916 was actually the second Battle of the Somme. All aptly describe the two pivotal battles of 1916, the Somme and Verdun.Īn attack along a front of 18 miles from Maricourt, north of the River Somme, to Gommecourt by British and French forces was meant to break the Western Front stalemate. Mud and mayhem, death and destruction, staggering unnecessary losses.
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