The programming for this virtual reality application is based on a 3D modelling process and animations with sound that give a human face to these three episodes in the history of the Verdun battlefield.Īs an addition and extension to the Verdun Memorial these virtual reality devices offer an overall interpretation of the Verdun battlefield and of its evolution over time. Then, as the images go by, the visitor will be plunged into the hell that was the shelling of the Battle of Verdun during the autumn of 1916, and immersed in a devastated lunar landscape, ruined villages, the shattered and burnt forests.Īnd to bring this journey through time to an end, the visitor will witness the monumentalisation that took place on the Verdun battlefield after the First World War in the 1920s, of which the construction of the Douaumont Ossuary, in the middle of a landscape left to run wild, is the most symbolic. In the first sequences, the visitor will be able to wander through the countryside as it might have been in the early 20th century: a landscape marked by the military imprint of the fortifications. If you’d love to explore this incredible landscape and understand the French experience of war, please get in touch today to discuss your private tour to Verdun.From an observation balloon, the visitor will see how the Verdun battlefield changed during three periods: in August 1914 just a few days after the order for general mobilisation was given, the 23 October 1916, and then in the 1920s at the time of the construction of the Douaumont Ossuary. You can stay in a room overlooking the River Meuse, and its location means you can easily stroll around town to explore and eat out. It contains the unidentified remains of 130,000 French and German soldiers. The main memorial in the area is the Douaumont Ossuary. No Australians fought at Verdun, but it still played a role in Australia’s WWI experience. Sophie’s Great War Tours stays at Les Jardins du Mess, a lovely modern hotel with fantastic facilities. That site is Verdun, where one of the worst battles in the history of mankind played out. If France could no longer fight, Britain too would be unable to continue the fighting and Germany would become victors. It holds the bones of thousands of unknown casualties of the Battle of Verdun (Wikimedia Commons) France’s dogged resistance, coupled with the Battle of the Somme requiring a redistribution of troops by Imperial Germany, turned Verdun into a brutal stalemate. The Battle of Verdun, 21 February-15 December 1916, was the German Army’s plan to destroy the French Army, to “bleed her white”. Image: The opening of the Douaumont Ossuary. The Colonel’s command post and memorial are accessible. During the Second World War, the French Resistance used the buildings here as hideouts.īois des Caures: See where Colonel Driant and his troops held out for many hours before being overwhelmed. Inside the commandant’s house and living quarters the traces of wall decorations can still be seen, with decorative borders towards the tops of some walls. There are the remains of living quarters, a shop and other buildings created for entertainment. Its purpose was to create somewhere for German troops to relax and try to forget the war when they were rotated out of the line. It is a German experimental concrete camp, almost a mini village. Today you can see the battered landscape and the white posts that are laid on the site of where houses once were.Ĭamp Marguerre: Is unlike anything you will have seen on the other First World War battlefields of Europe. The Construction of Memory in Interwar France (in English) University of Chicago Press. Gallery Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mmorial de Verdun. You will end your journey in Alsace, on the border with Germany. The Douaumont ossuary is a memorial containing the remains of soldiers who died on the battlefield during the Battle of Verdun in World War I. You will then drive your way south-east to the Verdun area and the surrounding WWI sites. By May 1916, the houses and shops were in ruins, and throughout the summer months the village changed hands 16 times. The first ossuary dates from 1919, the current monument dates from 1932. In 13 days, this tour will take you from Paris to the Somme region, and on to Lille at the Belgium border. Today you can walk through the fort’s tunnels and see living conditions.ĭestroyed Village - Fleury: Before the war, the village of Fleury was home to around 400 people. One German soldier found an open entrance, got in and captured the men inside with ease. The Germans assumed that there would be a bitter fight for the fort, but only a tiny number of the French were left to defend it. The village that once sat on top of the hill was blown from existence by mining and counter-mining activity.įort Douaumont: One of a series of forts constructed after the Franco-Prussian War. Butte de Vauquois: This image captures perfectly what I describe as a physical battlefield.
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