Verdun and Douaumont; World War I sites

We’d hopped a train to Meuse, France and then a bus to Verdun. Verdun is the site of World War I action that Lucian studied about in school. The fighting occurred in the hills outside of Verdon and around the town of Douaumont.  We thought we’d visit one battlefield one day and the other the 2^nd day.

We called a taxi and had the driver take us to Fort Douaumont, the furthest point from our hotel, and requested that she pick us up at the Ossuary at 2:30pm. We thought that it would be plenty of time. Well, it wasn’t until 4pm that we were ready to be picked up.

The fort is an underground structure built into a hill; 2 floors high. The fort was hit by armaments several times, causing many deaths inside. One explosion, inside the fort, which has not been explained, killed several hundred soldiers.

The fort is eerie inside, echoing, cold and wet. It is difficult to know how the soldiers survived. The sounds of artillery must have echoed so loud, especially the explosion that occurred inside the fort.

The Ossuary is a memorial to the soldiers who died. A room along the bottom is filled with bones of soldiers, stacked from floor to ceiling, collected from the fields or dug up by farmers. It is said that over 1 million people were killed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verdun

The forest has regrown with trees planted over 100 years ago. The trenches, for the most part, are filled in with mud, and grass. Ammunitions are still in the ground so whole areas are closed off. But mostly the trenches cannot be accessed because there is such thick brush.

We found one trail and I went to where it dead ended above a trench. Lucian went down another trail and we followed, walking along trenches until we reached the trench area filled in with mud, plants and live ammunition. But it was strange walking where so many soldiers fought and died so many years ago, and for so little reason.

We went thru the Memorial at Verdon where we saw many items from the war and films from the era. What was sad was the propaganda that people believed about their own country and distrust of other people led to so many deaths and so much destruction. And, unfortunately, it happens over and over again.