Three go to Verdun

[scrivs]

Last weekend myself, James and Nick travelled to Verdun to explore a few sights from the 1916 battlefield.

I've updated Scrivsland with a report and loads of photos from the first part of our battlefied tour including Forts Vaux and Douaumont.













Loads more commentary and images on Scrivsland

[scrivs]

I have updated the blog with the second instalment of the trip including the Vauban Fortress, the destroyed town of Fleury-devant-Douaumont, the Douaumont Ossuary, Ouvrage de Froideterre and Bois Des Caures.

















Loads more images and commentary on Scrivsland

[fred]

Thanks for sharing all of the photos and words on the blog - I've just read through it all. It sounds like a great trip, and you fitted loads in a couple of days. The photos are very evocative.

The scale of the ossuary is shocking.

If you get chance to host all the photos that would be great.

[James Morris]

It was a really informative trip. Having a background in Dark Ages gaming - where you are so often dealing with very limited information- it was brilliant to be able to go somewhere where you can visualise the battle in so much detail. As Paul says, the forestation of the area makes it harder to 'read' the battlefield nowadays, but we had done a lot of background reading and used the excellent Pen & Sword guidebooks. Having now seen the real thing, I am looking forward to having a go at modelling Fort Vaux in miniature. Big kudos to the French for keeping the site accessible; I can think of other countries where it might have been closed off with red tape. 😀

[Atheling]

Lookslike you all had a great time as well as learning quite a lot about the topography etc.

It was a really informative trip. Having a background in Dark Ages gaming - where you are so often dealing with very limited information

Boy! I know that feeling!

Having now seen the real thing, I am looking forward to having a go at modelling Fort Vaux in miniature.

Now that is something that I will be looking forward to seeing James 

Darrell.

[Driscoles]

even these coloured summer pictures gives one a cold shiver.

[traveller]

Great photos!

Thanks for sharing!

[Atheling]

even these coloured summer pictures gives one a cold shiver.

Yep, it's one of those places I suppose.

How did it feel at the time guys?

Darrell.

[James Morris]

Lookslike you all had a great time as well as learning quite a lot about the topography etc.

Boy! I know that feeling!

Now that is something that I will be looking forward to seeing James 

Darrell.

I'm doing a feasibility study at the moment.  It may not get made! Not decided 100% yet.

[James Morris]

Yep, it's one of those places I suppose.

How did it feel at the time guys?

Darrell.

I can only speak for myself, but it was a mixture of exhilaration and reflection.  It was exciting to see all the sites we'd been reading about for months, and, as I mentioned previously, gripping in a way that Dark Ages battlefields can't match.  Being able to climb into the observation post at the Ouvrage de Froidterre and peer out of the slits at boot level - exactly as some poilu did during the German attack 99 years ago - really brought it to life.  Our picnic spot at R1 / DV4 below Fort Vaux was sobering, sitting in the sunshine while reading the accounts of slaughter from June 1916.  We didn't really get time to walk the cemeteries, but, as someone already said, the scale of the ossuary is shocking (130,000 sets of unidentified bones). 

I'd like to go back and spend more time taking it more slowly sometime.

[Tym]

The whole area is very moving.  Tom and myself went a couple of years ago.  We still talk about the visit.  A good starting point is the Citadel in Verdun itself.  Gives a good background.

[James Morris]

Sadly we didn't get time to go to the Citadel, having elected to get out to Bois des Caures on the Sunday, but I'll certainly do it next time.  Scrivs and I walked around the Citadel one early morning and the scale of the place is something else; you can see how major a centre of operations it was, and how it affected those soldier who passed through (I think that 75% of the French Army was posted to Verdun at some point during the battle).