Verdun

We took a day driving around the WW1 battlefield areas of Verdun.

One of the bloodiest battles of the Great War has its grimmest monument in the ossuary at Douaumont (ossuary being a place for bones).
There is a harrowing cinema presentation of the campaign, which claimed nearly a million casualities. With over half of these being fatalities, the area was reduced to a bloody bog, where it became impossible to dig a hole without finding a body.

The view from the tower includes the French National Cemetery

La tranchée des Baïonnettes, where an explosion caused an earth slide that buried a company in their trench. Their upheld bayonets were all that could be seen.

The battle itself was purely between French and German troops, but by 1918 the Germans had been driven back and then the American army joined the French to regain all the territory.

The American Cemetery is large and beautifully kept.

There is a monument to the American campaign of 1918 at Montfaucon. Its triumphalist tone jars in an area so steeped in blood.
The plaque thanks the French army for their services.

The village of Montfaucon was utterly destroyed.