Over 700,Ci

"

died at Verdun

From page 38

As the Canadians remem-
ber Vimy Ridge and the
British the Somme, so the
French will never forget
Verdun. At least 700,000
men, French and German.
fell as the two armies strug-
gled on a battlefield with the
highest density of dead in
the inglorious history of war-
fare.

. Both sides were spoiling
fora fight in 1914, Young
men sang lustily as they
marched to the front, the
French in blue and red
(ignoring the introduction of
khaki in the Boer War) then
were shot to ribbons by hor-
rifically accurate German
machine-guns.

Euphoria gave way to
stubborn trench wartare and
in 1916 the Germans decid-
ed to attack Verdun and its
forts, the strategy being chat
its capture would be a mortal
biow to France. Huge guns
were brought up, such as the
Big Bertha, which: fired a
shell of 93 kg a distance of
14 km.

The forts of Duaumont
and Vaux were pounded day
and night. Men were blown
to pieces, buried alive and
driven insane. When the
skeliing stopped German
infantry ran forward with
grenades, bayonets and their
new flame-throwers.

French army doctrine was

. always to counter-attack,
which they always did and
usually with tremendous
casualties: But it shocked the
Germans, whose plan to

- bleed France dry in the

- defence of Verdun gradually
‘became a nightmare they had
to live with as well.

/The town of Verdun was
all but destroyed, and a short

_» distahce away entire villages

~ were blown off the map.
Every tree disappeared and
- the land was pock-marked by
_. the shells of more than 1,200
“~ Gertaan guns concentrated
on a front of just cight miles.
-; When the Big Berthas
-cweie fired they broke win-
-<. .dows two miles away, but
_ just as feared by the poilus ;
_. {the French soldiers had no
_ Option but to grow beards)
“were mine-throwers, which
fired canisters filled with 100
ibs. of high explosives that
. tumbled in the air and
’ brought death by slow-
mation. :
\. The order was given

: never to retreat. One young
Officer, almost surrounded
and down toa few.men, did
withdraw. After a brief court
martial he faced a firing
squad of his own men, who

poins that neither could win
the war.

After this che British and
the Americans plaved the
decisive roles, although the
British went to the Somme
having learned nothing and
lost 60,000 men on the first
day.

The name Verdun has
passed into French history.
As Alistair Horne says, it is 2
household legend for bravery
and suffering; 300,000
French soldiers died a:
Verdun, many of them with-
out a grave,

The shattered forts are a
shrine, and nearby a huge,
ugly memorial stands over
the bones of countless
unknown soldiers.

What I found more
evocative of the struggle is a
nearby trench in which a line
of French soldiers waiting to
attack was buried alive by an
exploding German shell.
Today the tips of their bayo-
nets stil marks their resting
place.

Then there is the cartier
pigeon of Fort Vaux.

As the Germans closed in
the French commander sent
off this immortal message:
“We are still holding. Bur —
relief is imperative — this is
my last pigeon.” The bird
was launched, but disorient-
ed by a gas attack, returned
to the fort.

Several times it tried but
failed to get through. Then
the pigeon took off again
and fluttered through the
hell of gunfire, smoke and
gas and made it to Verdun,
delivered its message, and fell
dead. It was given the
Legion d’Henour, stuffed
and now has a revered place
in a Paris muscum.

Was Verdun all in vain?

Eight years after the tow-
ering memoria} was built the

countries were at war again. _

It produced a gripping epi-
taph by a Frenchman, jean
Dutourd, who, deploring the
wavering convictions of his
countrymen in 1940, said:
“War is less costly than servi-
tude. The choice is always
between Verdun and
Dachau.”

Join Tom & Irene Rose for an overnight in faleudous

Sunday, November 7, 1999 - North Shore News — 39

north shore news

a

-

B Mami ty Nick and
Corinna Selby, Lonely
Planet, 258 pp., $24.50
Second edition.

W Mumbai (Bombay) by
David Collins, Lonely
Planet, 258 pp., $23.50
First edition.

Brussels, Bruges &

Antwerp by Lesnne Logan,
Geert Cole and Rence
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pp., $23.50 First edition.

The three latest publica-
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David Collins’ overview of
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tion on Bollywood — the cen-
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While Loncly Planet has
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did their duty, on his order,
with tears in their cyes.
Verdun’s forts did fall,
but the batile was not lost.
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