Latest First World War news. See also: See also 'Battlefield Tour', 'Life in Trenches', 'Militaria, Collectables', 'WW1 Leaders & Generals'.
Trip retraces the steps of a historic conflict during a visit to Verdun
92 years after the guns fell silent the ground still speaks about the suffering. Brown-green vegetation carpets the misshapen hills and hollows of the Verdun battlefield. Scattered about are white markers, signposts of villages leveled by war never to be rebuilt. The area has become a destination point for tourists who want to experience military history and for those who just wish to never forget. Its museums, forts, statues and cemeteries mark the epic First World War battle. Nearby is the Verdun Memorial Museum, where visitors look at vintage planes, uniforms, weapons, trench art and the early gas masks. (canadaeast)
Verdun battlefield - US Army Garrison Soldiers gathered
Along the battlefield where so many perished and scars from the fighting remain, soldiers from U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern gathered for a day. Verdun, the World War I battleground that saw 300 days and nights of uninterrupted fighting, served as a solemn backdrop. From February 1916 to December 1916, more than a quarter-million people died or went missing, and almost a half-million were wounded during the trench warfare and artillery barrage that marked the battle. Some villages were shelled in oblivion. The group members toured Ossuaire Douaumont, a memorial built for those lost during the fighting around Verdun. (estripes)
Trucks made the difference at Verdun carnage
From 21 February to 19 December 1916 the French Army endured a battle of attrition of enormous magnitude in the vicinity of the fortress city of Verdun. At the end of the Battle of Verdun, the French emerged victorious, though at a immense cost in human lives and materiel. The logistics support of such a long, costly battle had been very challenging. One of the keys to the French success in stopping the German offensive was the use of a fairly new technology on the battlefield: motor vehicles. Never before had trucks and other motor vehicles played such a large and influential role in military operations. (find--articles)
Shipwreck of a nation - The Road to Verdun
Ian Ousby's The Road to Verdun: France, Nationalism and the First World War leads through France's stormy years of being struck by external disaster and torn apart by dissension. France's tenacious defence of Verdun saved the ship of state in 1916 and produced a national hero in the future Marshal Pétain, famous for his rallying cry "On les aura!": "We'll get them!" But what Pétain achieved then, at 60, he singularly failed to match when recalled to the helm in 1940, aged 84. (guardian)
Verdun: Symbol of suffering - the longest battle of war
The battle of Verdun was the longest battle of war and cost both sides thousands of casualties. It was fought between the Germans and French from 21 February to 18 December 1916. The German 5th Army, under the command of General Erich von Falkenhayn, attacked the bulge in the French front line at Verdun (salient). It began with a 21-hour artillery bombardment all along the 8 mile front. The French desperately tried to defend the area because it was a key fortified frontier zone. France's Field-Marshal Joseph Joffre entrusted the defence of Verdun to General Henri Petain and the Second Army. (bbc)
See also
'Battlefield Tour'
'Life in Trenches'
'Militaria, Collectables'
'WW1 Leaders & Generals'.