38 ~— Sunday, November 7, 1999 ~ North Shore News

Regiments of cre

David Wishart Contributing Writer

VERDUN: Come summer, the holiday traffic

north shore news

ea TRAVEL

Evocative memorials mark

. speeds down the auitoroute east of Paris heading for the delights of Burgundy and Riviera sunshine. “Nota few op at Reims, champagne capital of France and and ‘dr rgized Europe, it is easy to forger shat there was ever any-

"Yer not far away are graveyards from the First World War

k te ‘good health and happiness. In today’s

First World War battlegroun

thousand. It was = ghastly, brutal, wasteful conflict, said after- wards to be the war to end all wars. -

The lament by an unknown French mother at Verdun says it all: “To my son, since your eyes have closed mine have

- never ceased to sry.”

If the war of 1914-18 was the most horrific of modern times, Verdun is the battle that has come to symbolize the

where young men barely out of school are buried by the

unimaginable slaughter in rat-infested, sodden trenches as

ypical Belize beckons adventurers

& Global Adventures slide show on ” Belize at the Delbsonk Community Centre —~ Tuesdays Nov 9, 1999,

vp.m. in the Oak Koom.” ;

BELIZE: The scenic and tropi- cal paradise is a place not to be

‘Situated south of Mexico and east of Guatemala, is is 9 try, unparalleled in natural- beauty With’ ‘its :rich- aninial and ‘plant. life, uns coastline, lush rain forest, crystal clear tropical waters, coral reefs and amazing- ly friendly people. 5)

Belize is a country overflowing with tich human history. The Maya, who ruled. the land up until the 12th

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Over the years, many have laid claim

“to this beautiful country. This fascinat- ‘ing cultural mosaic of people includes Mayans,

t Creoles, Garifuna, . Latin Americans, Chinese, East Indians and Lebanese. All have made distinct coniri-

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Plasencia: One of the oldest inhabited villages in Belize. Along its three mile long beachfront are houses and lodges, all nestled under palm trees.

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3898 Ke in front of the Verdun memorial. The site of the most horrific battle of modern times became a nightmare for the French and the Germans.

the horror

French and German armies pounded each other into oblivion.

Shells fell like rain, Maxim machine-guns ripped stomachs to shreds, flame-throwers scorched men alive and as one German salder wrote after just three months of the horror, there would be no end to it “until the lase German and the last Freach hobbled cut of the trenches on crutches to.exter- minate,each other with pocket knives.” .

Yer the battle went on, ¢or a total of 10 months of the year; 1916, going down in history as the grimmest battle in that grim war, perhaps in history itself. So said author Alistair Horne in his epic book The Price of Glory.

See Verdun page 30