The Battle of Verdun was fought between February and December 1916. More than 300.000 Soldiers lost their lives during this gruesome battle. Music: UNKNOWN SOLDIER
Largest battle of the Great War was the Somme. Then everything before and after? I don't know I feel like there's several heavy contenders. The present situation in Ukraine is an actual war, not just a single battlefield.
My grandfather was at Verdun he survived although seriously injured, loss of the right eye, shrapnel from mortar shelling. His elder brother called Julien Porisse, was killed on the 30th October 1916 at Thiaumont, in the Meuse, from injuries. There’s a photograph of both of them at Christmas 1915 in uniform wearing their helmets and the darkness around their eyes stands out clearly. They looked haggard, on leave in Paris
My great grandfather survived the titanic and later fought in ww1 as a British rifleman in the 30th Lancaster regiment I think and survived with some minor injuries he fought alone 1914-1918
Thanks for this. Gave a great perspective of how massive the shell holes are all over. A war so horrible still shows till this day. Biggest Graveyard in Europe. RIP to all those men seeing some of the worst fighting in human history.
@@Danvie777 mine craters, there are shell craters that are big. 400mm, 420mm, 380mm however those were used to hit the forts, the 280mm was used to bombard Verdun itself so you won't see it's impact craters. The hill Vauquois seen is away from Verdun battlefield and are mine craters.
I visited the Verdun battlefield this past August. I had read "The Price of Glory" back in 1963 and had to wait 59 years to see the forts and the Ossuary for myself. Walking across the top of Fort Douamont really showed the incredible violence of the battle. My trip included a visit to the Liege and Maastricht forts and to the Maginot Line Ouvrage Schonenberg. Every historian should see these monuments for themselves.
hope you visited the different fortresses around Liege (Chartreusse) en the fortress of Eben Emael: I live in Maastricht myself and the history around us is still so present.
As my father was posted on a nearby air force base in the 1960s, I visited there with my parents. I recall the monument on Douaumont Ridge and then glancing at what was left of the village of Fleury devant Douaumont, the place had an eerie atmosphere, as if the souls of those who gave their are bot
I lived in the Somme, and the landscape of the front is a little less marked but the front line is distinguishable for dozens and dozens of kilometrers, today we see wheat fields or other fields separated by the ridges of the front lines. Few trees have grown here and there but you can guess that these lands got bombarded heavily
"more than 300,000 soldiers died at Verdun" The shear magnitude of that number is baffling. 300,000 men died taking what? A few miles of land in either direction. Less men died taking Normandy, and they ended up gaining a foothold on the continent which allowed them to go onto to win the war. This battle killed 300,000 men just so the lines could go unchanged. The waste of life is astonishing. It's no wonder how Hitler and other men who fought in this war came to be. I firmly believe that their hatred was overshadowed the horrors they witnessed and experienced. If anything, those horrors enabled their hatred.
The whole cause of this War is stupid, a useless sacrifice, it was not freedom against angainst dictatorship, it was fat guys from both sides sending thousands of poor men dying for a few miles of terrain, it was not an ideological War, just a meaningless blood and mud bath, and the soldiers from both sides were sent to hell
The aim was not to gain anything here. It was "designed" to be a meatgrinder by the french. The german knew these. They also knew that the french would try to hold it matter what. And they used this knowledge to simply kill as much french as possible. The goal was never to concer Verdun. They wanted to "bleed out" the french army. This whole battle is a warcrime. Like all the western front would be a war crime today
It's incromprehensible to grasp the lives lost on that field. Bakers, factory workers, artisans, farmers, sons, fathers, husbands, men, boys... Lest we forget.
Verdun is a great example of a pointless bloodbath with little gains on both sides that achieved almost nothing at the end of it all, when it was all finished.
I’ve been to that very cemetery, crazy how the landscape still is filled with craters from shelling and you still see the old trenchlines stretching everywhere. Still plenty of relics laying around aswell, found a stripperclip just laying on a path.
I have traveled the world looking at Battlefields and there is none like Verdun The Evil and the loss is still there I cant put it into words but its different
@@jackthepirate9233 We live in times when our countries are connected like never before. We must maintain this friendship and help others. My great-grandfather died at an old age. What about urs?
Both sets of my grandparents have family that have farms that were on the Eastern Front in WW1. In some areas you can still what remains of the trenches (just dips in the earth now). Back in the 1970s, one of their relatives was killed when they accidently dug up an old grenade.
Visited Verdun and walked around apart from areas which have not been cleared of shells etc. Chilling building where all the bones from the battlefield are contained, including a pyramid of skulls!!
This site never lost its horror. Now it's overgrown but these eery grass-mounds remind me of an animal's moss-covered bones in a forest. Nothing seems to look right in that place.
The very name still sparks somber feelings even for us who were thankfully not there. The WW1 battles always do that to me. Verdun, The Marne, Ypres, The Somme, Passchendaele, Galipoli, and so many more.
Very impressive and perfectly accompanied by the music. When will man ever come to his senses? So much suffering and death accompany our history and it happens again and again.
I went there the week before last. I recommend visiting the Mémorial de Verdun. The impressions of this terrible battle, which lasted barely six months and was so useless for the course of the war, over 300 thousand dead, over 400 thousand wounded, do not let you go. The letters from the soldiers to their families are particularly touching. And twenty years later, the war started all over again.
I can recommend everyone who plans to visit Verdun to also visit the Romagne 14 - 18 museum, which is a few minutes away from Verdun iself. Theres also a huge american cemetery that looks super impressive
It’s a saddening thought that every man who fought on this battlefield is dead. Whether if they survived or not. It’s been over 100 years since this terrible war occurred. May the fallen Rest In Peace, and lest we forget.
On 9/11 there were still about 100 world war 1 soldiers still alive and possibly a few from Verdun as well. They are all gone now but imagine the life they saw. Born in the late 1800s they saw the initial rise of automobiles, airplanes, and electricity. Then lived through 2 world wars, and the entire cold war. Mankind split the atom and landed on the moon. Then came cable TV, mass media, computers, and the internet. A new millennium dawned and then they saw the towers fall. They saw it all. It is incomprehensible the amount of change they witnessed in a single lifetime. To live in interesting times is both a curse and a blessing. Rest in peace brave souls.
Thank you for posting this video, I would like visit Verdun. My French Grandfather fought there and was injured by a German gas attack. Looks like Hell on earth.
remember my dad took me and my family to this place when we were passing thru for our destination. Really impressive to be there in person. Also inside the big bunker there tons of killboxes and walls with holes in it, in case the bunker got overrun
Its hard to understand even from a video i went there a couple years ago and only then i truly realized how crazy it is its such a small piece of land but its like walking on a giant golfball
Vauquois ( 1:07) is absolutely overwhelming. Just figure out there was a village in this place in 1914. Nothing left. The war of mines took place there during 1915 and 1916 after many regular attack failed. Once in 1916, 108 french soldiers were vaporised in a single explosion of 60 tons of TNT . Only a big crater is now to be seen (15 meters/45 foot deep). There are may of these all along Argonne battlefields.
@@jantschierschky3461 no, amatol is the british name for a thing they misunderstood at that time . Wesfalit is a german stable compound made of 80% TNT (if i remember well) + stabilizer. A bit less powerfull than pure TNT but much easier to manipulate.
@@fun3000able amatol is actually a German development 10% TNT 90% ammonium nitrate. What you talking about is an earlier product, but was to expensive took too many resources. It was used for shallow mines or defensive structures. However the name is English, but adopted.
It gives some scale of use of artillery fire when you think that whole area is polluted so that nothing really grows properly. Also there are millions of UXO:s in area. Red area, no go zone.
My great uncle returned home once on leave, his mother boiled his uniform in the washouse as it was infested in fleas and dried blood, he returned after his leave was up, two weeks later his mother got the telegrams. Thomas Smith, Grenadier Guards, Killed in action.
if you are wondering why all those holes are that big, during the battle both side tried to dig tunnel below ennemy trenches to blow them up from below
1:55 If only the soldiers who died there senselessly could see the French, German and European star-spangled banner flying peacefully side by side. Long live Franco-German friendship and European unification, both a guarantee for eternal peace in Northern, Southern, Central and Western Europe!
European Union is dog shit but yeah I agree with the rest, if we want peaceful The french and German have to stay friends. They started 3 wars including two world wars in less than a century
I visited here May 28, 2015. What I found historically ironic about Verdun is how the biggest battle between French and Germans was in the place where in 843, the sons of Charlemagne signed a treaty dividing the Frankish empire. It was a three way treaty, and the remnants of the eastern and western kingdoms fought over the middle kingdom off and on until it nearly destroyed them.
People should look at all the preserved battlefields and military cemeteries and realize that NOBODY wins in a war, mankind can achieve so much with cooperation instead of hatred.
Tragically stunning, sadly beautiful. I didn’t know that some of the trenches and tunnels still exist. If ever I visit France, I will certainly visit Verdun to pay my respects. When will we ever learn?!
We need an analysis of the battle with an overview via map and the comparison of the sight from WWI pictures, pictures after the war and today. The way the Americans talk about the batlles of the civil war. We have always been told what horrors awaited the soldiers at Verdun, we rarely talk about it in detail.
Missing from this video is a view of the lower level of the church. Through windows on the basement level one can view bins full of human skulls and bones that were recovered from the Verdun battlefield. It is a sobering experience and provides inly a small glimpse of the human toll of this battle that took place over 100 years ago!
Fun fact : veteran associations actively opposed the site to be planted with the trees until the 1930's. Until so, it was largely kept almost as it was during the battle : barren, safe for natural patches of grass and trees that grew from seeds carried by air and birds. It wasn't until the 1930's that the government decided to cover the wounds with trees
One of my great uncle fought in Verdun. (His father also fought and died in Verdun)A message had to be deliver to a superior in an other trench, but 2 messengers had already been killed. He was volunteer to try to deliver it. He was shot by a sniper but the bullet was stopped by a coin which was in a pocket just in front of his heart. After the war, this coin never left is wallet.
I was there when I was a boy. I remember the bones in the mausoleum stacked. I used to find German helmets with bullet holes in them near my house, from the Great war. I also visited the Armistice site. I am humbled by all those who fought and died for Freedom
Imagine that some of the veterans fought in this war during 4 years, survived as a civilian the second World War and still managed to live over a century, mad respect
Thought the same! But for me personally it means joy. Even though there might be different views in our two countries and quite often we have different solutions and disagree with each other, we will never go back to being enemies that wish each others death! It was a great achievement of our ancestors, to unify Europe and to overcome the (understandable) distrust between our nations. FRA 🤝 DE
been there, too. Looks like overgrown surface of the moon. Seeing pictures of contemporary aerial surveilance of the time, it actually looked like the moon. Just plain craters, small ones, big ones, small ones in big ones. And trenches. No trees or any vegetation. In some nearby village, one could just make out the wall outlines of former buildings. Any politician should visit these places to make up their mind about war and nationalism as legitimate means of politics. It is very sobering. There are plenty across to world, so no excuses of why one could not make it, please.
@@estellemelodimitchell8259 Rather dud shots than mines. There are enough clean passages in the area. And inside the forts of Vaux and Douaumont it is perfectly safe but nevertheless very impressive if not scary. And the Douaumont Ossuary is an experience nobody will ever forget.
As a veteran myself my deepest respects to 'The Fallen'. It still shocks me that they were basically were fighting over a piece of LAND! War is such a waste of human life - for what? One day may there be 'peace on earth' "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them" 🙏🙏🙏🌍🌎🌏✝✝✝✡✡
probably not. WW1 is the end of several monarchies in Europe. We are in peace (so far :( ) because the power of many nations is not in the hands of degenerated idiots.
@@Dr.KarlowTheOctoling Because it's not like since we stopped the Second World World that we've globalized our economies and brought about countless innovations right?
Probably not. WW1 removed a lot of Royalty and power though Europe and Russia. The question you should ask is if one person in the art world admired Hitlers Art would he of not went to war in WW1 and would he of not started ww2.
Never have so many died for the so few elite. Never let them gather our sons and daughters to fight their battles and wars. Only when they send their children will we ever follow them ever again into war.
It's insane how maybe, in a hundred years time, when history like this is lost to the pages, someone will open a golf course and never spare a thought as to why the terrain is perfectly hollowed out. I'm not religious. But god bless the souls that once fought on these fields
"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them." Lest We Forget
War is a waste of mankind. Imagine what we could have as human beings if we put as much effort and money into helping each other as we do finding new ways to kill each other.
My grand grand father died there and for sure, he didn't had the best time there. But I think, if I still prefer his ear experiences over his son's, who died after Stalingrad on the way to Siberia
Largest unofficial graveyard in Europe
Ukraine is fast catching up!
By what metric?
@@senianns9522 By what metric?
Largest battle of the Great War was the Somme. Then everything before and after? I don't know I feel like there's several heavy contenders.
The present situation in Ukraine is an actual war, not just a single battlefield.
@@senianns9522 Wont be close of the scale this was.
My grandfather was at Verdun he survived although seriously injured, loss of the right eye, shrapnel from mortar shelling. His elder brother called Julien Porisse, was killed on the 30th October 1916 at Thiaumont, in the Meuse, from injuries. There’s a photograph of both of them at Christmas 1915 in uniform wearing their helmets and the darkness around their eyes stands out clearly. They looked haggard, on leave in Paris
my great grand uncle died on the 30. of October 1916 as well, although he was at the somme when he fell.
My great grandfather survived the titanic and later fought in ww1 as a British rifleman in the 30th Lancaster regiment I think and survived with some minor injuries he fought alone 1914-1918
Thanks for this. Gave a great perspective of how massive the shell holes are all over. A war so horrible still shows till this day. Biggest Graveyard in Europe. RIP to all those men seeing some of the worst fighting in human history.
Those are mine craters
Jan, those craters were also created by 280mm artillery shells.
@@Danvie777 mine craters, there are shell craters that are big. 400mm, 420mm, 380mm however those were used to hit the forts, the 280mm was used to bombard Verdun itself so you won't see it's impact craters. The hill Vauquois seen is away from Verdun battlefield and are mine craters.
Neither the biggest graveyard in Europe nor the worst fighting in human history. Somme, Stalingrad, Leningrad, Kiev, Berlin, Bryansk, Rzhev, ...
160,000 soldiers were never found. That is incomprehensible. What a terrible war.
I visited the Verdun battlefield this past August. I had read "The Price of Glory" back in 1963 and had to wait 59 years to see the forts and the Ossuary for myself. Walking across the top of Fort Douamont really showed the incredible violence of the battle. My trip included a visit to the Liege and Maastricht forts and to the Maginot Line Ouvrage Schonenberg. Every historian should see these monuments for themselves.
hope you visited the different fortresses around Liege (Chartreusse) en the fortress of Eben Emael: I live in Maastricht myself and the history around us is still so present.
Indeed. Fort Douamont => Fort de Douaumont.
As my father was posted on a nearby air force base in the 1960s, I visited there with my parents. I recall the monument on Douaumont Ridge and then glancing at what was left of the village of Fleury devant Douaumont, the place had an eerie atmosphere, as if the souls of those who gave their are bot
I lived in the Somme, and the landscape of the front is a little less marked but the front line is distinguishable for dozens and dozens of kilometrers, today we see wheat fields or other fields separated by the ridges of the front lines. Few trees have grown here and there but you can guess that these lands got bombarded heavily
"more than 300,000 soldiers died at Verdun"
The shear magnitude of that number is baffling. 300,000 men died taking what? A few miles of land in either direction. Less men died taking Normandy, and they ended up gaining a foothold on the continent which allowed them to go onto to win the war. This battle killed 300,000 men just so the lines could go unchanged. The waste of life is astonishing. It's no wonder how Hitler and other men who fought in this war came to be. I firmly believe that their hatred was overshadowed the horrors they witnessed and experienced. If anything, those horrors enabled their hatred.
Like they said in Blackadder: We've advanced as much as an asthmatic ant with some heavy shopping.
Makes you wonder what some Russian soldier is experiencing right now...
@@AsteroidM749A Hell, pure and simple
The whole cause of this War is stupid, a useless sacrifice, it was not freedom against angainst dictatorship, it was fat guys from both sides sending thousands of poor men dying for a few miles of terrain, it was not an ideological War, just a meaningless blood and mud bath, and the soldiers from both sides were sent to hell
The aim was not to gain anything here. It was "designed" to be a meatgrinder by the french. The german knew these. They also knew that the french would try to hold it matter what. And they used this knowledge to simply kill as much french as possible. The goal was never to concer Verdun. They wanted to "bleed out" the french army. This whole battle is a warcrime. Like all the western front would be a war crime today
It's incromprehensible to grasp the lives lost on that field. Bakers, factory workers, artisans, farmers, sons, fathers, husbands, men, boys... Lest we forget.
So much knowledge, know-how, expertise and art died with all those men. They say 7 generations are needed to recover from such a trauma.
Verdun is a great example of a pointless bloodbath with little gains on both sides that achieved almost nothing at the end of it all, when it was all finished.
Those artillery craters. Chills.
I’ve been to that very cemetery, crazy how the landscape still is filled with craters from shelling and you still see the old trenchlines stretching everywhere. Still plenty of relics laying around aswell, found a stripperclip just laying on a path.
Its crazy that the destruction of a battle can rage so fierce that 100+ years later the landscape is still molded by the craters.
I have traveled the world looking at Battlefields and there is none like Verdun The Evil and the loss is still there I cant put it into words but its different
Verdun & Stalingrad..... I am french and RIP to my grand dad, he fought in Verdun in 1916, he was 20 years old!
I agree with you, no where else did you have a more concentrated battle.
In addition to the sense of evil and loss, is there a sense of futility to be detected?
My Great grandpa fought at Verdun on the French side. He survived the war but never talked about it
Mine fought for Germany and survived without one leg
I am sorry about your grandpa Kofi. We have to make it NEVER happens again.
@@jackthepirate9233 We live in times when our countries are connected like never before. We must maintain this friendship and help others. My great-grandfather died at an old age. What about urs?
Both sets of my grandparents have family that have farms that were on the Eastern Front in WW1. In some areas you can still what remains of the trenches (just dips in the earth now). Back in the 1970s, one of their relatives was killed when they accidently dug up an old grenade.
Thanks for making this.
Visited Verdun and walked around apart from areas which have not been cleared of shells etc. Chilling building where all the bones from the battlefield are contained, including a pyramid of skulls!!
The soundtrack makes this even heavier.
Wonderfully done, extremely well put together the bugle calls only add poignance to the scene.
This site never lost its horror. Now it's overgrown but these eery grass-mounds remind me of an animal's moss-covered bones in a forest. Nothing seems to look right in that place.
The very name still sparks somber feelings even for us who were thankfully not there. The WW1 battles always do that to me. Verdun, The Marne, Ypres, The Somme, Passchendaele, Galipoli, and so many more.
Very impressive and perfectly accompanied by the music. When will man ever come to his senses? So much suffering and death accompany our history and it happens again and again.
as long as a jew will earn money from it nothing will change
You’re the problem
Very difficult for us to imagine the death and destruction that happened here.
The fact that the French territory lost thousands of acres of forest during the war is frightenning, it was just dirt and mud on 300 kms long line
Great video.
There is an almost eerie beauty to this.
I went there the week before last. I recommend visiting the Mémorial de Verdun. The impressions of this terrible battle, which lasted barely six months and was so useless for the course of the war, over 300 thousand dead, over 400 thousand wounded, do not let you go. The letters from the soldiers to their families are particularly touching.
And twenty years later, the war started all over again.
It wasn’t useless for the course of the war, the Germans never went any deeper in France because of their efforts.
It gets worse; it didn't barely last six months, it lasted nine months and a few days.
I can recommend everyone who plans to visit Verdun to also visit the Romagne 14 - 18 museum, which is a few minutes away from Verdun iself. Theres also a huge american cemetery that looks super impressive
It’s a saddening thought that every man who fought on this battlefield is dead. Whether if they survived or not. It’s been over 100 years since this terrible war occurred. May the fallen Rest In Peace, and lest we forget.
On 9/11 there were still about 100 world war 1 soldiers still alive and possibly a few from Verdun as well. They are all gone now but imagine the life they saw. Born in the late 1800s they saw the initial rise of automobiles, airplanes, and electricity. Then lived through 2 world wars, and the entire cold war. Mankind split the atom and landed on the moon. Then came cable TV, mass media, computers, and the internet. A new millennium dawned and then they saw the towers fall. They saw it all. It is incomprehensible the amount of change they witnessed in a single lifetime. To live in interesting times is both a curse and a blessing. Rest in peace brave souls.
Thank you for posting this video, I would like visit Verdun. My French Grandfather fought there and was injured by a German gas attack. Looks like Hell on earth.
remember my dad took me and my family to this place when we were passing thru for our destination. Really impressive to be there in person. Also inside the big bunker there tons of killboxes and walls with holes in it, in case the bunker got overrun
Its hard to understand even from a video i went there a couple years ago and only then i truly realized how crazy it is its such a small piece of land but its like walking on a giant golfball
Vauquois ( 1:07) is absolutely overwhelming. Just figure out there was a village in this place in 1914. Nothing left. The war of mines took place there during 1915 and 1916 after many regular attack failed. Once in 1916, 108 french soldiers were vaporised in a single explosion of 60 tons of TNT . Only a big crater is now to be seen (15 meters/45 foot deep). There are may of these all along Argonne battlefields.
Amatol not TNT, if 60t TNT that whole hill be gone. Well mine warfare was in all battle fields in WW1 Westen front
@@jantschierschky3461 Westfalit actually.
@@fun3000ablewhat you think amatol is ?
@@jantschierschky3461 no, amatol is the british name for a thing they misunderstood at that time . Wesfalit is a german stable compound made of 80% TNT (if i remember well) + stabilizer. A bit less powerfull than pure TNT but much easier to manipulate.
@@fun3000able amatol is actually a German development 10% TNT 90% ammonium nitrate. What you talking about is an earlier product, but was to expensive took too many resources. It was used for shallow mines or defensive structures. However the name is English, but adopted.
All that and the sons of those who survived Verdun did it all over again 20 years later.
So heartbreaking you look at those craters and you know there are pieces of bodies, fragments of bones. The remains of the nameless dead.
This place is amazing.
Everyone should visit just to see the scale of the horror of war.
The fact that you can get on top of the mausoleum and see tombstones in a one mile radius all around you from above still gives me chills
Heartbreaking.
So peaceful. Now it has become one of the historic places on Earth
I once was there and its just terrifying. Bombing holes everywhere
its so crazy to think that what your seeing was a war torn land all them years ago full of dead young soldiers. Rest in peace heros.
Very moving.
It gives some scale of use of artillery fire when you think that whole area is polluted so that nothing really grows properly. Also there are millions of UXO:s in area. Red area, no go zone.
My great uncle returned home once on leave, his mother boiled his uniform in the washouse as it was infested in fleas and dried blood, he returned after his leave was up, two weeks later his mother got the telegrams. Thomas Smith, Grenadier Guards, Killed in action.
Respect
if you are wondering why all those holes are that big, during the battle both side tried to dig tunnel below ennemy trenches to blow them up from below
1:58 beautiful picture to see the French and German flags wavin left and right of the European flag.
1:55 If only the soldiers who died there senselessly could see the French, German and European star-spangled banner flying peacefully side by side.
Long live Franco-German friendship and European unification, both a guarantee for eternal peace in Northern, Southern, Central and Western Europe!
Well said!
European Union is dog shit but yeah I agree with the rest, if we want peaceful The french and German have to stay friends. They started 3 wars including two world wars in less than a century
I was teary eyed when i was watching. Dont know how i will take it if i go there.
I visited here May 28, 2015. What I found historically ironic about Verdun is how the biggest battle between French and Germans was in the place where in 843, the sons of Charlemagne signed a treaty dividing the Frankish empire. It was a three way treaty, and the remnants of the eastern and western kingdoms fought over the middle kingdom off and on until it nearly destroyed them.
La historia jamás debe ser olvidada. Descansen en paz todos los caídos.
People should look at all the preserved battlefields and military cemeteries and realize that NOBODY wins in a war, mankind can achieve so much with cooperation instead of hatred.
The only evocation of the name Verdun sends shivers down my spine ...
Tragically stunning, sadly beautiful. I didn’t know that some of the trenches and tunnels still exist. If ever I visit France, I will certainly visit Verdun to pay my respects. When will we ever learn?!
We need an analysis of the battle with an overview via map and the comparison of the sight from WWI pictures, pictures after the war and today. The way the Americans talk about the batlles of the civil war. We have always been told what horrors awaited the soldiers at Verdun, we rarely talk about it in detail.
Wow. No words. All those crosses.
What is the name of the musical piece? Great video.
I was there twice, a really impressive place
1:03 I can’t even fathom the size of the artillery rounds that caused those massive craters.
These craters were made by underground mines which have been blown up by either side. But nevertheless very terrifying
I must say the graveyard looks smaller from above. if you stand among the graves yourself, they reach farther than the eye can see
Impresionante!
The craters....., the destruction... what a waste of time and life.
That cemetery is unreal 😢
Missing from this video is a view of the lower level of the church. Through windows on the basement level one can view bins full of human skulls and bones that were recovered from the Verdun battlefield. It is a sobering experience and provides inly a small glimpse of the human toll of this battle that took place over 100 years ago!
That's exactly how it is now and trust me, you get tired of the trumpets after a few days.
Can You give GPS for this place? Many thanks for all people
Danke.
To this day, they still have unexploded shells in the area. Many of them have chemicals.
Hard to imagine the craters that created this unique landscape was once filled with mud and blood
I was here with friends, and stood in the placed that were filmed here
Fun fact : veteran associations actively opposed the site to be planted with the trees until the 1930's. Until so, it was largely kept almost as it was during the battle : barren, safe for natural patches of grass and trees that grew from seeds carried by air and birds. It wasn't until the 1930's that the government decided to cover the wounds with trees
You're walking around and you hear a slight sound of a pipe whistle but nobody else is around you
How many souls are resting in these fields...
One of my great uncle fought in Verdun. (His father also fought and died in Verdun)A message had to be deliver to a superior in an other trench, but 2 messengers had already been killed. He was volunteer to try to deliver it. He was shot by a sniper but the bullet was stopped by a coin which was in a pocket just in front of his heart. After the war, this coin never left is wallet.
lol u sure?
@@schwingYourself of course I’m sure…. And why the « lol »? It’s just disrespectful.
@@chiracultrainstinct3d629 Rotten people on the internet. Sadly, that's also what they fought for.
this is the biggest bullshit ive ever read
@@elpresidente7569 so don’t read, and stop talking little troll
Fantastic video!!!
The name of the music????
Thank you very much! The title is "Unknown Soldier"
@@fsp-livinghistory4086 i find nothing.
Link? please.
May brothers never fight again.
so many young lives lost 😢
are the craters at 1:06 from 1 massive bomb or multiple shells in the same place causing it to go deeper and deeper?
The craters are from blown up underground mines, which have been dug under the opposing lines. There once was a village upon that hill...
Well nice footage, some areas shown are not Verdun so, also nearly 800k kIA
I was there when I was a boy. I remember the bones in the mausoleum stacked. I used to find German helmets with bullet holes in them near my house, from the Great war. I also visited the Armistice site. I am humbled by all those who fought and died for Freedom
And to think that today all those who fought in the great war are resting
Imagine that some of the veterans fought in this war during 4 years, survived as a civilian the second World War and still managed to live over a century, mad respect
Seeing the French, German and EU flag on the hill together fills me with sorrow and with joy
Thought the same! But for me personally it means joy. Even though there might be different views in our two countries and quite often we have different solutions and disagree with each other, we will never go back to being enemies that wish each others death! It was a great achievement of our ancestors, to unify Europe and to overcome the (understandable) distrust between our nations. FRA 🤝 DE
been there, too. Looks like overgrown surface of the moon. Seeing pictures of contemporary aerial surveilance of the time, it actually looked like the moon. Just plain craters, small ones, big ones, small ones in big ones. And trenches. No trees or any vegetation. In some nearby village, one could just make out the wall outlines of former buildings. Any politician should visit these places to make up their mind about war and nationalism as legitimate means of politics. It is very sobering. There are plenty across to world, so no excuses of why one could not make it, please.
Well said.
Politicians already know. They don't care. You don't seem to understand just how careless sociopaths and psychopaths are.
@@DeadPixel1105 Unfortunately I do. You still have a point about many politicians. In some countries more, in some less. But in either case, too many.
its almost as if we fight in order to create or manifest these hallowed grounds. War is hell. Before and after.
a war from a century ago stil leave scar on that landmark today.
Even with the earth this scarred, she healed.
A thousands bomb per square meter ...
Some soils are also still higly dangerous cuz of the different bio-weapon used such as mustard gaz
At least for all European schoolclasses a visit to Verdun should be mandatory.
Yeah, no. A normal school budget is barely enough for the closest city.
@@angtartitus1235 that's why every countries should make that happen, especially French and German ones
you do know that there are mines there right?
@@estellemelodimitchell8259 Rather dud shots than mines. There are enough clean passages in the area. And inside the forts of Vaux and Douaumont it is perfectly safe but nevertheless very impressive if not scary. And the Douaumont Ossuary is an experience nobody will ever forget.
Reminds me a lot of sabaton's song "fields of verdun"
I wonder why...
As a veteran myself my deepest respects to 'The Fallen'. It still shocks me that they were basically were fighting over a piece of LAND! War is such a waste of human life - for what? One day may there be 'peace on earth'
"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them"
🙏🙏🙏🌍🌎🌏✝✝✝✡✡
What a horrible waste and we are living in a world that would probably be more stable if that war didn't have happen?
probably not. WW1 is the end of several monarchies in Europe. We are in peace (so far :( ) because the power of many nations is not in the hands of degenerated idiots.
I mean, considering the technological and medical advancements it offered to society, it’s hard to say.
@@Dr.KarlowTheOctoling Because it's not like since we stopped the Second World World that we've globalized our economies and brought about countless innovations right?
@@genb4374 Yeaahhhhh
Probably not. WW1 removed a lot of Royalty and power though Europe and Russia. The question you should ask is if one person in the art world admired Hitlers Art would he of not went to war in WW1 and would he of not started ww2.
Never have so many died for the so few elite. Never let them gather our sons and daughters to fight their battles and wars. Only when they send their children will we ever follow them ever again into war.
It's insane how maybe, in a hundred years time, when history like this is lost to the pages, someone will open a golf course and never spare a thought as to why the terrain is perfectly hollowed out.
I'm not religious. But god bless the souls that once fought on these fields
A frozen hell, that s what this looks like...
"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."
Lest We Forget
A tous les soldats morts pour la patrie, merci d'avoir protégé la France. Vive la France
If you can find it online, read a ( big) book called “Verdun “ by Jacques Pericard. It is pricy but we’ll worth it.
I cried.
War is a waste of mankind. Imagine what we could have as human beings if we put as much effort and money into helping each other as we do finding new ways to kill each other.
All those young men, German, British, French, Belgian or Empire nations lying there for what? Such a saddening waste of human life.
It was only French and German.
@@anttondesperben377 So only Frenchmen and Germans died during WWI? I was commenting on the waste of life across the conflict.
The land will forever be scarred by what happened there
My grand grand father died there and for sure, he didn't had the best time there. But I think, if I still prefer his ear experiences over his son's, who died after Stalingrad on the way to Siberia
If you told this to a soldier in 1916 it would look like this after the war he wouldnt trust you