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SELF-DRIVE TOURS OF THE
VERDUN
BATTLEFIELD
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...everywhere, bodies without heads, heads without bodies, pieces of people, the earth and us one slimy seamless entity of the barely living and the dead… the wretched stench of rotting humanity.
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Of all the battlefields of the Western Front, Verdun is quite simply the most sinister and profoundly saddest place I have ever visited.
It was here in the February of 1916 that the German army launched a major offensive against France's fortress town of Verdun, knowing that she would fight to the bitter end to defend this historic citadel. It was believed that the French General Staff would be compelled to commit every man they had, and that 'the forces of France will bleed to death' in defence of Verdun.
By comparison to Ypres and the Somme, the Verdun battlefield is slightly smaller; extending like a half crescent around the hilly north-east and east of the town, with the River Meuse cutting through the centre.
The battle started on 21 February 1916, and for the next ten months the German and French armies became locked in a conflict of almost unimaginable intensity and savagery as each side fought valiantly to gain the upper hand.
The battlefield of Verdun has the tragic record of having the highest number of deaths per square metre than any other
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appalling: the unbelievable horrors of their martyrdom.…
An eye-witness: ...One soldier was going insane with thirst and drank from a pond covered with a greenish layer near Le Mort-Homme. A corpse was afloat in it; his black countenance face down in the water and his abdomen swollen as if he had been filling himself up with water for days now.
..the battalion consists of 800 men - the battalion that we are here to replace lost 800 men…
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SELF-DRIVE TOURS TO THE
VERDUN
BATTLEFIELD
The Verdun battlefield lies to the north-east of town of Verdun, which is located approx. 150 miles east of Paris on the Autoroute A4.
Somme Battlefield Tours Ltd will arrange your tour of the Verdun battlefield by providing:
accommodation at Verdun's premier 3-star hotel situated in the centre of the town adjacent to the banks of the River Meuse.
The services (optional) of a personal guide to take you on a conducted tour of the battlefield.
Eurotunnel or ferry channel crossing.
Plans/maps etc of the battlefield and town.
A copy of Alistair Horne's superb book 'The Price of Glory' (the ideal 'guide').
For map of the Verdun battlefield click here (contains pictures which some may find disturbing)
For details of the hotel used for tours click here
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battlefield in modern history, a fact that invades one's consciousness as one walks across the shell-pocked battlefield today. By the end of the fighting in 1918 it is estimated that more than 420,000 French and German soldiers were killed and a further 800,000 seriously wounded at Verdun.
Unlike other WW1 battlefields, Verdun has been left as it was after the suffering eventually came to an end in 1918, a chilling visual reminder experienced by visitors to the battlefield today.
To gain some insight into the what it was like for those committed to the inferno of Verdun one has only to briefly touch upon some of the first hand accounts of those who were there:
A French Lieutenant reports: ...Firstly, companies of skeletons passed, sometimes commanded by a wounded officer, leaning on a stick. All marched, or rather: moved forwards with tiny steps, zigzagging as if drugged. […] It seemed as if these speechless faces cried over something
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