The Battle of Verdun, Fort Douaumont, the Douaumont Ossuary and the lost village of Fleury.
Today we opened our battlefield experience at the Great French battle of Verdun. No Australians fought here, but this conflict was instrumental in the planning of the Battle of the Somme. Overall, the battle of the Verdun lasted for nearly 10 months, the longest of the Great War and cost France 379,000 casualties, of which 169,000 died. The German cost was equally as staggering, 339,000 casualties and 143,000 dead. Germany's intentions were never to break through here, they were content to sit back and kill Frenchman, in fact to bleed France white. It just didn't turn out that way. Up to 60 million shells were fired during the 10 months, that's 2.3 every second.
Remains of unknown soldiers are found constantly, their remains are kept in a local monument and ossuary. The cemetery has in excess of 16,000 known French graves, and countless bits of soldiers from both sides stored beneath the monument (pictured below).
Today we opened our battlefield experience at the Great French battle of Verdun. No Australians fought here, but this conflict was instrumental in the planning of the Battle of the Somme. Overall, the battle of the Verdun lasted for nearly 10 months, the longest of the Great War and cost France 379,000 casualties, of which 169,000 died. The German cost was equally as staggering, 339,000 casualties and 143,000 dead. Germany's intentions were never to break through here, they were content to sit back and kill Frenchman, in fact to bleed France white. It just didn't turn out that way. Up to 60 million shells were fired during the 10 months, that's 2.3 every second.
Remains of unknown soldiers are found constantly, their remains are kept in a local monument and ossuary. The cemetery has in excess of 16,000 known French graves, and countless bits of soldiers from both sides stored beneath the monument (pictured below).