I am glad to say I talked a good friend into submitting something for the site. Trevor lives in Swansea and I consider him a good mate, he has an interest in the Great War and Gavrelle and the RND particularly. He had the guts to persevere where others wilted and founded the Gavrelle memorial, and had had a hand in the Mametz wood memorial to the 38th Welsh Div. I am grateful for that as one of my greatgrandfathers fought with them there. Trevor and myself regularly communicate and he comes up with a great deal of interesting material that is too good not to be published so I hope that he will submit more, read on about Verdun and enjoy.
TO VERDUN BY TREVOR TASKER
Wednesday ,21st February 1996,was to be the 80th anniversary of the start of the battle of verdun, so I decided to make a trip to Verdun and walk the 8mile front . As with most things (especially battles), things do not go as planned.
On tuesday 20 th February ,I had to wait in Victoria coach station for 11 hours because of delays due to snow drifts in Kent. When I finally got a coach to France, it had to leave the motorway near Ashford because of a closure due to an accident. Being night time,and with a French driver we got lost and stuck in a snow drift in a Kent country lane.We had to spend the night in the coach until pulled out the next day.
When I finally got to Verdun, I was two days behind schedule and had missed my 21st February walk along the front. The snow in Verdun was 6 inches deep and still snowing heavily ,so I decided to spend a day or two exploring this "city of peace". Apart from the centre of the roads , the snow was everywhere; in between the stones of the walls around the victory monument, and on the shoulders of the soldiers of the monument to the fallen. I also visited the "citadelel souerraine",(out of the snow but not out of the cold). Since 1992 this exibition has been electronically updated with automatically driven (2bench) carts which transports you along the tunnels and galleries, stopping at dramatized holographic scenes. It cost me 30F, (and I was glad I had a torch so I could explore the behind the scenes set-up which is hidden by darkness). in fact these tunnels had too much of the atmosphere of 'cold, damp, and darkness', (but then it was february).
After two days in Verdun,I made my mind up to try a walk on the battlefield whatever the weather conditions. Sunday the 25th ,wa the 80th Anniversery of the capture of Fort Douaumont, so I planned a walk to the fort. I started out at 8am to find that the weather had dramatically turned milder and the 6 inches of snow was now 3 inches of slush.
My first stop was FAUBOURG PAVE NATIONAL CEMETERY, which contains nearly 5000 French graves, mostly from 1914/15 (also 1940). In the north west corner, near the muslim graves are 7RAF graves; 6 bomber crew (1943), and a single pilot (1944). In the centre of the cemetery , around a large cross, lie the 7 unknown 'poilus' who were not chosen for the unknown warrior. The 8th from this group lies under the Arc de Triomphe.
I then walked up the winding D112, that went over the railway and passed a 'motorcross' circuit. The higher I went the deeper the snow got. I finally came to a display board explaining the battlefield. While stopped there I noticed in the trees an old concrete water tower riddled with large holes.
Where the road turns off to Fort Souville, there is a picnic area among the old trenches, which have wooden foot bridges over them for access. This was my first stop; I had to clean away the snow on the picnic bench, but the snow came in handy for cooling the wine. While seated there, a French family drove into this little park, got out, put ski's on and went 'cross country' skiing in the direction of Fort Souville.
Back on the D112, I came across the ANDRE MAGINOT MEMORIAL. Sergeant Maginot's impressive figure, (he was over 6 feet tall) is in the centre, flanked by two comrades using a rifle as a seat. Maginot was crippled for life by an artillery shell on the 9th November 1914. Behind these figures is a wall and what looks like a shield. In 1915 Maginot went back to politics and pushed for a line of forts, a wall to shield France from invasion from the east. The "Maginot line" was constructed 1929-38, but Maginot never saw his dreamas he died in 1932.
Opposite the monument is a display board which explains the forest 'succession'. After the fighting, the Meuse heights became the "nearest thing to a desert in europe" (Horne, 1983, page 348). All the mature forest of oaks and beeches had been blasted away, and could not just be replanted. A succession of stages had to be followed. in the 1930's fast growing fur trees wewre planted to provide canopy protection for the growth of oaks and beeches. This succession process will take 80-100 years.
My next stop was the MEMORIAL MUSEUM OF VERDUN which is on the site of the old fleury rail station. In this museum they had a model of fort Douaumont, and this 3 dimentional representation, supplemented the plans and photogrpahs I had seen of the fort, which showed the spiked railings around the fort. These railings do not show up on aerial photographs, and are often left out of plans and illustrations of the fort. Back on the road, I passed the site of Fluery village, one of 9 'lost' villages of the battle of Verdun, (never re-built). Fluery was the most fought over village, and not one brick remains. The site is considerably lower than the road, and had been used as a toboggan ramp.
At the dominant Douaumont Ossuaire, (it had appeared on the skyline since the Maginot Memorial), I had another stop for a rest. I sat down for a quiet reflection, only to be stortled by the 'victory bell' ringing out, dead on midday. Besides the bell this Ossuaire contains a search light which (like Notre dame de Lorette near Arras ), sweeps the battlefield at night, symbolically searching for all of the missing soldiers of the battlefield. In front of the Ossuaire is the massive National cemetery containing 14,637 graves. in the 1937 film "J'accuse"Abel Gance shot a scene in this cemetery; where the dead rise up, to explore the present day France; to see if their sacrifice was worth it. This cemetery is missing one grave; that of Marshall Petain who wished to be buried here with his men, but due to his disgrace in WW2, this wish was not granted. Out of all the Generals of the Great War, Petain cared about his men, and tried to keep casualties to a minimum. Nigel Jones in his jounalistic style expresses it well: "Like a peasant he{Petain} was, he hoarded his soldiers lives as though they were so many sous saved up for a rainy day-no wonder the poilus loved him, (Jones,1983 page 70).
Petain was summoned to Verdun just after the fall of Fort Douaumont, (which reminds me to continue the walk to my destination). petains old regiment the 33rd was also sent to Verdun, and at the end of February was sent to the front at Douaumont, en route there were casualties, including a young captain, Charles de Gaulle, who was wounded and taken prisoner near Fort Douaumont.
Down this road I passed two strong points. 'Abri Adalbert' is on the north side of the road, and on trench maps it is on the south side. The new road does not follow the route of the old road.
I finally arrived at FORT DOUAUMONT. There were a few cars clustered in the small patch of car park not snowbound. I paid my 15F entrance fee and was given a typed guide for my tour of the fort. Because of the percolating melting snow from above, the fort had gone from being damp to being 'awash' . This gave the impression of being on a sinking submarine. The fort is very 'empty' until you come to the dead end in the NW corner, to the entombed German memorial, to the disaster of 8th May 1916 when there was an accidental explosion and fire in the fort, which killed 650 Germans, there was nowhere to bury the dead ,so a whole section of the fort was bricked up. This regularly visited German memorial is a reminder that Frot Douaumont and Verdun, has great symbolic and cultural significance to the Germans as well as the French.
The fort has two levels, and on the stairs between the floors,even with my well treaded walking boots , the cascading water made made the bottom end very slippery resulting in a fall.. I ended up with a few bruises and got very wet. After drying off my trousers on the heater in the entrance/shop of the fort I made my way outside to the top of the fort, which is covered in shell holes and rusting gun and observation turrets. Even with the surrounding forest, the dominating position of Fort Douaumont can be appreciated. I was glad I finally made it to (and out of) Fort Douaumont on the 80th anniversary of that momentous day, when the fort was captured, and the history of europe came close to another watershed episode; "Le 25 fevrier [1916] est une date particulierement sombre pour la defence franaise. Ce jour-la, le fort de Douaumont tombe...." , (BUFFETAUT, 1993,page 40).
Instead of doing a complete back track along the road, I took advantage of being on foot, and cut through the trees, on a short cut to the Tranchee des Baionnetes. I followed 'London trench' which was constructed in October 1916, using concrete poles and panels for protection. Traces of the poles and panels can still be seen, however, I noticed that the further away from the road, the less evidence of the concrete, which made me wonder if they were from the original construction.
The Trench of Bayonets, commemorates an incident that occurred in June 1916, when the 3rd company of the 137th Regiment were killed in their trenches and buried by artillery, so that only the tops of their rifles and bayonets were showing above the ground. In 1919 an American banker, George Rand, visited the battlefield and was impressed by this phenomenon, and provided money to construct a memorial shield over the site to protect it against the elements and souvinir hunting tourists. The originality of the bayonets has always been debated. Karel Margry who updated "Before Endeavours fade" said "Today [1994] there are a few bayonets or reifles visible, in fact every time I visit the monument I see a difference". When I visited the site, (25/2/96), there was not one bayoney visible, (just one 2in rusty stump),- so if any bayonets appear after this date, they are definately not the originals. Dr.Jay Winter does not believe the site is the correct one, and should be 30 meters away, because the slope of the original site was too steep for the memorial (Winter, 1995,) I would have to consult some trench maps of the area before I could comment on this.
On the walk back up the ravine road, I heard a car comming towards me sideways on. The car managed to straighten out, but not before I had been plastered with slush from the back of my legs to my glasses. This was the second time in an hour I had endedup with wet underpants!!.
Passed the Ossuaire I came across what was left of Thiaumont Ouvage. The forts around Verdun were lnked by a series of strong points. This was one of the most fought over. " Ouvrage de Thiaumont was somewhere between a large bunker and a small fort, but mounting no artillery, the importance of this ouvrage was its uniquely commanding position. It sat on a geographical crossroads" (Horne,1983,p273). Even though the site was half covered with snow, it is hard to distinguish the dividing line between concrete and earth. Layers of concrete have been blasted away leaving twisted iron rods which menacingly claw the air. All the 'holes' have 'Danger, keep out' signs posted over them. On my visit, the shell holes were knee deep in water and slush. This site is one of the most intimidating of the whole Verdun Battlefield.
Omn the edge of the 'smudged' Thiaumont landscape, stands a small monument to 'Marshal de Lattre de Tassigny'. Besides serving in the second world war and indo china, he also helped defend Thiaumont, when a youg officer. He was even given the same trench line in june 1916 when nearby ' trench of bayonets' was formed. Despite his long name, streets are still named after him.
I took the D913b back to Verdun,being on foot I took a side track out of the forest and found myself in open farmland which reminded me of the Somme. The walk to Fort Douaumont had taken me 8hours, but I was glad that I had made this 80th Anniversary pilgrimage. " Douaumont was considered the most powerful fortress in the world. It's fall brought agony to the allies and set off a wave of public celebrations in Germany. Douaumont probably represents, along with the First and Second battles of the Marne, one of the three greatest threats to the French army administered by the Germans during the entire war", (Fisher, 1976,p 267)
I started this article with my delay due to weather problems. The climate/weather(as well as the geography), played an influential role in the long battle of Verdun. The battle was supposed to start on the 12th of February but was postponed until the 21st because of snow storms and fog. In 1996 a drastic thaw occured on the 25th , but in 1916 it occured on the 28th and changed the battlefield from frozen ground to thick mud, slowing down the Germans momentum; a momentum that had covered over 5 miles in just a few days, and included the capture of Fort Douaumont. The area around Verdun has it's own micro-climate, whci "must be one of the most raiiest, foogiest and nastiest in all France", (Horne 1983, p55). The battle lasted from February to December 1916, and went through the extremes of the seasons. From Winter nights ; well below 0 C, to long hot summer days, of thirst, surrounded by putrid corpses and raging dysentry. In my February visit, i experienced the cold, wet and mist of Verdun. I was lucky it was not the season for the infamous meuse mosquito, which gets a mention in both the Holts guide, (1995) and Nigel jones War Walk (1983).
References.
BUFFETAUT, Y, (1993), LES BATAILLES DE VERDUN, Jule Tallandier, paris
COOMBS,R (1994), BEFORE ENVEAVOURS FADE, (7Th Edition), After the battle publication, London. (updated by Karel Margry)
HOLT,T&V, (1995) BATLEFIELDS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR. Pavillion Books, London.
FISHER,C.(1976) "THE MILL ON THE MEUSE,VERDUN 1916," HISTORY TODAY, vol 26, no5 ,(p 283-294).
HORNE,A (1983) THE PRICE OF GLORY: VERDUN 1916. Penguin. London
JONES, N.H. (1983), THE WAR WALK, Robert Hale, London
WINTER .J. (1995) SITES OF MEMORY, SITES OF MOURNING, Cambridge university press, Cambridge. (The trench of the bayonets, p99-102).
Copyright Trevor Tasker 1996.