I've visited the Verdun area and seen the areas torn by war, and I must tell you, I'm a agnostic, but even I felt like something was watching the area... something sad, yet prideful. when I visited, though, it was summer, and the sun was shining brightly, but even then everything felt... melancholy, and cold. And yes, I did shed a tear for all those who served their countries, died and fell and were buried alongside their foes in the ossuaries and cemeteries and war memorials...
Steve Pappas I was there in the same time. It s a real "awesome" atmosphere in the winter an there is hardly any tourist 👍🏼 But the museums are closed in january!
I visited this area and the memorial a few times in early 2016. It really is a location you want to visit and see for yourself. Nothing can convey the impact this place has until you were there. Indy's words 'This is what's left' really will make sense once you walk through the woods and villages, makes you see a lot of things just a bit differently than before.
While Indy is right that there is nothing "cool" about the horrors of World War I, I'm really glad that you guys could do this, it really helps bring the "realness" of the war off of the map and a reminder that a hundred years ago real lives were being torn apart by that conflict. Great job!
People often wonder why the French demanded so much from the Germans in the treaty of Versailles. These people fail to understand the extent of the damage to the land that the war brought. Towns were wiped out. Landscape was forever cratered worse than the moon's surface, making any entreprise a lot more difficult, for the earth might reveal bodies, unexploded ordinance, various shrapnel, rusty barbed wire, gas pockets, etc., making any attempt at leveling or farming impossible. And that, is of course, on top of the cost in human lives (war, disease, anything really ...), injured soldiers, psycho trauma, etc. I have played often in these forests of Lorraine, played hide and seek in the bunkers and trenches with my siblings. While walking in the woods, one can find some bullets, occasionally too (I remember my mother finding an early one, distinctive, because it was round). School trips were to Douaumont or Verdun memorial ossuary. The scars of this war will remain forever.
Not to mention in the last weeks of WW1, the retreating Germans conducted a scorched earth policy, destroying thousands of mines, factories and bridges. Even if the Germans had payed the full extend of the reparations they were asked to pay (they didn't), it wouldn't have covered one-third of how much it cost the French to rebuild.
I agree and that’s why I always supported the French because during ww1 the Germans heartland wasn’t touch yes people starved but the was the same everywhere meanwhile parts of France and Belgium were destroyed of course they’d want the worse revenge they wanted blood and tears and money
I visited Verdun two days ago. To my fellow Americans, yes, it is worth the long journey. Of all the Verdun sites, Fleury made the biggest impression on me. The cold and gloom were identical to what Indy experienced.
I walked Fleury for the first time in 1992 and have returned to the Verdun battlefield a number of times over the years. I don't know what, but something compels me to try and understand the sheer scale of the waste. It's incomprehensible. And why did the soldiers that survived one day wake up and fight the next? I still haven't figured it out and probably never will. This video is superb. The battlefield area is truly haunting. The undulating and torn terrain never fails to mesmerize me as do the villages, like Fleury, that also ceased to exist. It is easy for someone to say or write that 'man is inhuman to man'. Visit Verdun once and you experience the reality, thankfully second hand.
Wow they filmed at the location I have to admit it's nice that they go to historically important locations and explain their importance along with a small quick tour they should do this more often.
Even more so that that crater has eroded to the point of no longer being visible, and a tree has grown in its place. The war that killed Europe, so recent, and yet so long ago.
A century later and the traces of the war is still clearly visible wherever one turns. Like a huge scar or wound in the land that never healed. An eerie place at daytime and I certainly wouldn't dare walking there during night. For those who lived in the area it must have been an unimaginable destruction of everything they knew. Those who survived this hell carried the memories like scars in their mind. This video alone conveys more than mere words ever could. Combined they leave a lasting impression.
This is BY FAR the best episode of the entire series!!! Intro was very moving...the Great War series keeps finding innovative ways to engage viewers with unexpected topics!!!! Keep up the great work!!!
Made me cry-as did the clip about how they identified the dead .War is horrible! These poor people who just wanted to live their lives, got caught up in something they had nothing to do with.The poor soldiers who had to dig through bodies to identify their comrades, had trauma issues.The poor men who died-on both sides.Men are humans, whether they are British et al. or German et al....
These specials are, I think, one of the best aspects of this channel. They add real understanding, above and beyond the overwhelming statistics of the weekly chronicle which can sometimes obscure the forest with the trees. Well done, really one of the most interesting channels on UA-cam. Thanks for all your efforts!
Indy and The Great War team, I would love for you to do something similar for the city of Ieper/Ypre when that battle rolls around. that entire city was almost as completely destroyed as Fleury, but they decided to rebuild it in the same exact architectural style after the war. I always found that a very powerful signal.
the imagery is taunting, the intro is great, the camera work is impressive and Indy's storytelling is on spot. thank you for this amazing piece of content.
I first visited Fleury 30 years ago and have been back a few times since. I have a German 10 Pfennig coin I found in the site of the first bakery mentioned. It is dated 1885 and is the size of my thumbnail, yet even this tiny crumb is damaged by shell fire. I keep it as a reminder of the savagery of this battle.
Abraham ಠ_ಠ unfortunately there were other wars that have been known as Great Wars, including the one that was one of the causes of the American War of Independence.
@@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819 I don’t know a single person who calls the War for Independence the Great War. That title is reserved for WW1 as it stands
For me the trees in the area are one of the most impactful parts of ww1. Beacuase after all the suffering the french people went through, they still had the strength to recreate the world they knew before the war
That is haunting. Hard to imagine a small town wiped out like that. A site like that should be preserved to remind people of the consequences of war, "lest we forget". And 19 unidentified bodies, added to the hundreds of thousands of missing and unidentified in the war. Great presentation, solemn and respectful. Very well done
parts of land near Ypres and Verdun will not be inhabitable for the next 700 years. it sounds like something from a sci-fi book, but not only did WE do that, we did it 100 years ago...really puts the horrors of war into perspective
Saku Satola Well, WW1 also affected Middle East. The Ottoman Empire collapsed in the aftermath, and France and Britain took control a lot of territory in the region, if my memory serves right.
IraqI GaMer i love This chanelle because i live close to one of the front line (vimy). but what make me sad is when i see reportage from irak. it lokes like WW1 all over again. And i hope you country will be ok. because even if it's 100 years old i know what it's like to be in a country at war. from the story of my great mother... courage!
Thank you for this very touching episode that helps you understand at an emotional level the human cost of this battlefield. It is a haunting reminder of the sacrifice of the soldiers that fought there.
Seeing the ups and downs in the ground and the actual living scars of the war is really powerful. It's like the grass and moss have simply preserved the craters rather than covering them up. I did not expect to see such clear and immediatly recognisable marks in the landscape (atleast not that many). I'm having a hard time even finding words to describe my feelings. Maybe that is it, "indescribable".
Fantastic video as always--I find that these "field trip" videos hit me far harder emotionally than the week-to-week updates do. I think seeing these places and memorials in such detail makes the horrific reality of the war so much more vivid and, well--real. Thank you.
Indy, Flo and Crew - this is the best damned video you guys have made - period. Everything about it was just damned spot on. Indy's narration, the tone, the content ... everything. And matched with what seems like the perfect setting with the silent forest and the mist - its hauntingly beautiful. Well done!!
Quite interesting episode. The sculpture was an interesting touch. And to think Europe is covered with places like these, not only the Western front, though it saw the most dense fighting.
A lot of places were destroyed during the war. But this video makes that seem to come to life. This village was real at one time. With people living normal regular lives. Doing what normal regular people do. Until the Great War came along and disrupted it completely. Great job.
I knew the battle of Verdun was bad.....but i never thought it was this bad....this just shows how horrifying Verdun was...But i would be curious to see someone manage to recreate the Lost villages of WW1 in a computer simulation to know how the Villages looked like before they disappeared.
What struck me the most is just the _ground._ I live in Minnesota, and I've spent a fair bit of time in various parts of the backwoods there. No natural ground looks like that--those intense ripples and dips are the scars, a full century on, of the insane force of combat that reshaped the earth itself.
It's odd really, whenever you see places like this. Fleury, Vimmy Ridge, The forest of Argonne as well as places like Auschwitz. All places where so much death took place all at once. They all have another thing in common besides the horror that was committed in those places. They're all, amazingly and scarily quiet. Barely any birds chirping, no civilisation of Human or Animal kind can be heard. It's almost like the Earth itself is paying it's respect to those that fell in such large numbers at those places.
I was moved by this video. Indy struck the perfect tone, simple, respectful, yet matter-of-fact. He let the spirit of the place speak. Videos like this fulfill the potential of the Internet. Where else could this 8-minute gem be offered to us?
Very moving. When Indy speaks of other soldiers buried around you and under the surrounding trees I left with ghostly images of soldiers standing in the entire area. It's like you are immersed in Fleury and it will be this way forever.
That quote at 4:33 about people running, 'Like living torches' really stuck me. It's seems so horrible to my ears to hear about men, humans, the pinnacle of creation, reduced to soulless animals screaming inhuman screams and running mindlessly away from fire. Of course, we as people fear becoming inhuman. That's why we made zombies in fiction, we see a thing that looks human, but isn't like us. An animal in human skin. Perhaps, when we see the horror in the world, we see the true horror in ourselves, huh?
I visited a WW1 site with my history class once and telling them that they were potentially walking on thousands of dead caused some to almost freeze in place. On cemeteries you know where the dead are burried, but at that place it was completely unknown. And I'm still proud due to the fact that even the biggest goofballs and jokers and class realized what had happened there and became very thoughtful and serious.
It's very sad. I imagine looking at that area in the spring or summer one could forget that thousands upon thousadns died there. The cost was so high for just a few meters of ground. Like all wars it's truly terrible. Rest in peace soldiers and citizens of Fleury, we might not know all your names but you are not forgotten.
Seeing you walk around there made me think what must have gone through the minds of soldiers advancing over the same ground in the second world war. Indy, your treatment of the Great War is a credit to you and your crew. In the cut and thrust of week by week history, it's easy to get caught in the excitement. Moments like this bring us back to the reailty of it all. Thank you.
I visited this very same village last year in June. The weather was similar foggy and raining. It is as of God still weeps over the extreme violence that took place no the Great War. Great job bringing history to life. Thank you
this video really captures that feeling that you get when you visit the area around Verdun. I was there with my dad some years ago. If you notice all the holes in the ground, those are remains of shell holes which have been left more or less untouched. The ground still bleeds. i recommend it to all fans of history to go there. You can get quite emotional when you walk around that place. Anyway i am happy to be a patron and supporter of this show. Excellent work by indy and the gang :-)
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Indy and Crew for inserting HUMANITY into your episodes. The walkabout at 5:00 was so well done, so powerful, dust flew into one of my eyes. Thank you.
this is why and what I love about this channel.. you go to the actual locations and give a damn about what you talk about... and show how it effects you. thank you for showing us Fleury
stumbling on this brand new channel called The Great War several years ago I never thought how much I would look forward to seeing every new episode. The quality of your work is excellent and the content educational and impactful. Thank you The Great War team.
Hey Indy. Thanks for showing this to us. In the few years I've been following you guys this has been the most touching episode I've seen. Thank you and the team for doing some amazing work
The entire atmosphere is just astonishing! It's so silent yet you can imagine the sounds of the war and the horror. That intro brought a tear to my eye!
sylvain falquet yes l, there is a zone named Red Zone in which the soil is forever contaminated by corpses and there are still shells buried (lots are found each year, so in this area the police have units specialized in mine-clearing)
TheIpsin damn....this made me really sad. but I cannot believe that the first fully industrialized war has caused land that won't be safe for the next 700 years. that sounds like something that would happen in a sci fi war in the future, but we did that, and we did it 100 years ago. I'm scared at what we could do now....
or, as my uncle from that area somewhat blunty says it, "every year some farmer gets a new pond on his farm, and the list of casualties grows". really put the effect of such a major conflict into perspective
Well done. I could hear your frustration with the epic waste of all those lives. This really brought to life the impact of all the death and destruction.
Fascinating video and Fleury just made my bucket list of places to visit. It seems like quite a haunting place and even on a sunny day I think it would be quite an experience.
Question for out of the trenches : what happened to the people living in villages close to the frontline, or in the middle of big battles(ex: Verdun, Somme) the like Fleury? Were they moved in other parts of the country? Did their governments help them? Or were they left to fend for themselves? Thank you for your hard work and keep the good stuff coming! You are currently the best channel on UA-cam!
I could be entirely wrong, but from what I remember reading in the book "generals lie in bed", it describes British and Canadian soldiers who lived on the front line occasionally visiting towns and villages when they got switched out by another division. This said, I highly doubt these towns and villages were ever evacuated, and instead civilians were often an indirect casualty of war. During artillery shelling, french civilians would take cover in wine cellars, or basements where ever they could.
They were evacuated when the village was woken up by artillry firing. Although it isn't mentionned whether or not shells hitted the village or if it was the sound of the german "preparation artillery shots" (fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleury-devant-Douaumont yes it's in french, i was lazy and didn't searched for an english translation).
You can also read more in the book "Poilu" By Louis Barthas. In his experience a decent amount of the towns still had civilians living there, at least during the first half of the war, and the soldiers would rotate in and out of those villages since they could use the shelled or abandoned buildings to sleep in.
These were the days before social safety nets- if your village was in a battle zone you either stayed and prayed or you left as a refugee and hoped that you had family or friends in another place who would take you in.
These kinds of trips are the kind that will change you forever. I remember my trip to Dachau; it is a place that I will never forget. I won't forget it because any horrors I saw there, but because of the knowledge of what happened there. I have a feeling that Fleury hits home in a very similar way.
Such a sad story. Must be terrifying to have lived in that village as it was being bombed. & bodies still buried, unidentified and look after by the trees.
Hands down, your most sincere episode yet, the passion you have for history and knowledge you share is greatly commendable and such as yourself I am a history buff and enjoy watching your episodes. Please continue this excellent work.
You guys should do a playlist of all the field trips, i enjoy them even more then the normal episodes because history in theory is cool but once you see whats left glued to the context presented, it all feels more believable.
This, more then anything else, is why your show is so important. To show with a clarity and a certainty the true price of modern war. To educate several generations of people for which destruction and carnage on this scale remains and hopefully forever will remain unimaginable. To help people realise that war and the attitudes and ideas that lead to and fuel it are not ways to glory or a solution to a problem, but simple petty, pathetic excuses for countless villages filled with countless lives to be reduced to THAT. Nothing but ghosts in the fog, and the memories of those of us fortunate enough to live in calmer times.
TGW's content is always excellent but this episode has really taken it to a whole new level. Creepy, melancholic yet with a clear, deep message. Great work!
The Great War, this reminds me of a photo of the Tour de France from 1922 Called "The Gates of Verdun". The gates in the photo were destroyed during WWII. Thank you for your work on keeping history alive. Craig
The mist really adds to the creepiness.
Yeah, perfect place to see an army of the deads rise in anger and pain.
It's probably the ghosts.
The forest in Europe look so beautiful compared to the U.s.
Sheldon Robertson. michigans up is good
Sheldon Robertson second largest water fall on the eastern coast
I can't be the only person who gets slightly tearful watching these videos? It's hard to imagine the suffering that went on during the war.
I blame dust.
...yeah... must be dust.
Kalle Cederström stupid dust
as sad as it may be its human nature so you might as well embrace it
I've visited the Verdun area and seen the areas torn by war, and I must tell you, I'm a agnostic, but even I felt like something was watching the area... something sad, yet prideful.
when I visited, though, it was summer, and the sun was shining brightly, but even then everything felt... melancholy, and cold. And yes, I did shed a tear for all those who served their countries, died and fell and were buried alongside their foes in the ossuaries and cemeteries and war memorials...
mrboring cabage i still blame germans .
Wow! Even the weather added to the tone of the video. Very well done.
+Steve Pappas yeah, we were lucky in that sense.
The Great War Implying you didn't just place 100s of smoke machines around the place
Steve Pappas I was there in the same time. It s a real "awesome" atmosphere in the winter an there is hardly any tourist 👍🏼
But the museums are closed in january!
The Great War could you visit more places like this?
I definitely agree, a UA-cam channel would have a massive special effects budget that would buy hundreds of completely silent fog machines
This video was shot beautifully.
I know! The desaturation is probably a result of the fog more than anything, but it works so well given the content.
At Verdun in WW1
Solider 1: Where is the Village?
Solider 2: Youre right in the middle of it.
soooo 324 Tommies walk into a german maxim machine gun...they had Somme fun there lemme tell you that
I visited this area and the memorial a few times in early 2016. It really is a location you want to visit and see for yourself. Nothing can convey the impact this place has until you were there. Indy's words 'This is what's left' really will make sense once you walk through the woods and villages, makes you see a lot of things just a bit differently than before.
Agree. I made the trip 30 years ago and walked through those villages which were wiped out. It is incredibly depressing.
While Indy is right that there is nothing "cool" about the horrors of World War I, I'm really glad that you guys could do this, it really helps bring the "realness" of the war off of the map and a reminder that a hundred years ago real lives were being torn apart by that conflict.
Great job!
Indy's run in the beginning really puts perspective as to the scene on those fateful days.
Tasteful, fascinating and sad in equal measure.
People often wonder why the French demanded so much from the Germans in the treaty of Versailles. These people fail to understand the extent of the damage to the land that the war brought. Towns were wiped out. Landscape was forever cratered worse than the moon's surface, making any entreprise a lot more difficult, for the earth might reveal bodies, unexploded ordinance, various shrapnel, rusty barbed wire, gas pockets, etc., making any attempt at leveling or farming impossible. And that, is of course, on top of the cost in human lives (war, disease, anything really ...), injured soldiers, psycho trauma, etc.
I have played often in these forests of Lorraine, played hide and seek in the bunkers and trenches with my siblings. While walking in the woods, one can find some bullets, occasionally too (I remember my mother finding an early one, distinctive, because it was round). School trips were to Douaumont or Verdun memorial ossuary.
The scars of this war will remain forever.
Not to mention in the last weeks of WW1, the retreating Germans conducted a scorched earth policy, destroying thousands of mines, factories and bridges.
Even if the Germans had payed the full extend of the reparations they were asked to pay (they didn't), it wouldn't have covered one-third of how much it cost the French to rebuild.
I agree and that’s why I always supported the French because during ww1 the Germans heartland wasn’t touch yes people starved but the was the same everywhere meanwhile parts of France and Belgium were destroyed of course they’d want the worse revenge they wanted blood and tears and money
Most of these German sympathizers in my experience are Americans with German ancestry.
I visited Verdun two days ago. To my fellow Americans, yes, it is worth the long journey. Of all the Verdun sites, Fleury made the biggest impression on me. The cold and gloom were identical to what Indy experienced.
I walked Fleury for the first time in 1992 and have returned to the Verdun battlefield a number of times over the years. I don't know what, but something compels me to try and understand the sheer scale of the waste. It's incomprehensible. And why did the soldiers that survived one day wake up and fight the next? I still haven't figured it out and probably never will.
This video is superb. The battlefield area is truly haunting. The undulating and torn terrain never fails to mesmerize me as do the villages, like Fleury, that also ceased to exist. It is easy for someone to say or write that 'man is inhuman to man'. Visit Verdun once and you experience the reality, thankfully second hand.
Wow they filmed at the location I have to admit it's nice that they go to historically important locations and explain their importance along with a small quick tour they should do this more often.
Jason Barrera yup. this is what we pay for.
Idk how you put out content like this on a regular basis. Abosutely incredible as always
It is haunting to be told someone used to live in a spot that is just a crater now.
Even more so that that crater has eroded to the point of no longer being visible, and a tree has grown in its place. The war that killed Europe, so recent, and yet so long ago.
And other people died in this crater...
There were thousands of bodies all over fleury
A century later and the traces of the war is still clearly visible wherever one turns. Like a huge scar or wound in the land that never healed. An eerie place at daytime and I certainly wouldn't dare walking there during night. For those who lived in the area it must have been an unimaginable destruction of everything they knew. Those who survived this hell carried the memories like scars in their mind. This video alone conveys more than mere words ever could. Combined they leave a lasting impression.
This is BY FAR the best episode of the entire series!!! Intro was very moving...the Great War series keeps finding innovative ways to engage viewers with unexpected topics!!!! Keep up the great work!!!
Konrad von Hötzendorf even ruins battles, when he is attacking someone else, hundrets of miles away.
Religion of peace turning you into pieces He was the greatest general the Entente Powers had.
@@wyatthill6252 that's not what his record shows. I know that that he has his fans but better than Hindenburg? Don't think so.
@@Conn30Mtenor he was kidding.
@@Conn30Mtenor Note that he says entente powers. Hotzendorf was so bad he may as well have been working for the enemy
@@wyatthill6252 Just as mr. A. Hitler was the Allied ace-general in the next geo-political adjustment event.
Made me cry-as did the clip about how they identified the dead .War is horrible! These poor people who just wanted to live their lives, got caught up in something they had nothing to do with.The poor soldiers who had to dig through bodies to identify their comrades, had trauma issues.The poor men who died-on both sides.Men are humans, whether they are British et al. or German et al....
Wow, you can really feel Indy's sadness in this episode.
Excellent video! Captures the melancholy poetic of the place and time. This is high quality work guys, congratulations!
These specials are, I think, one of the best aspects of this channel. They add real understanding, above and beyond the overwhelming statistics of the weekly chronicle which can sometimes obscure the forest with the trees. Well done, really one of the most interesting channels on UA-cam. Thanks for all your efforts!
Wow. A very effective segment, one of your best. Thanks for posting.
Indy and The Great War team, I would love for you to do something similar for the city of Ieper/Ypre when that battle rolls around. that entire city was almost as completely destroyed as Fleury, but they decided to rebuild it in the same exact architectural style after the war. I always found that a very powerful signal.
in that big black indy looks like a bond vilien
He IS a bond villien. This show is his masterplan for world domination.
Teco01ejg Are we going to see what modern war really is?
the imagery is taunting, the intro is great, the camera work is impressive and Indy's storytelling is on spot. thank you for this amazing piece of content.
I first visited Fleury 30 years ago and have been back a few times since. I have a German 10 Pfennig coin I found in the site of the first bakery mentioned. It is dated 1885 and is the size of my thumbnail, yet even this tiny crumb is damaged by shell fire. I keep it as a reminder of the savagery of this battle.
If that's not a more fitting monument to the first world war, I don't know what is.
Abraham ಠ_ಠ unfortunately there were other wars that have been known as Great Wars, including the one that was one of the causes of the American War of Independence.
Neil Dahlgaard-Sigsworth the seven years war?
@@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819 I don’t know a single person who calls the War for Independence the Great War. That title is reserved for WW1 as it stands
For me the trees in the area are one of the most impactful parts of ww1. Beacuase after all the suffering the french people went through, they still had the strength to recreate the world they knew before the war
That is haunting. Hard to imagine a small town wiped out like that. A site like that should be preserved to remind people of the consequences of war, "lest we forget". And 19 unidentified bodies, added to the hundreds of thousands of missing and unidentified in the war. Great presentation, solemn and respectful. Very well done
I dont ever think i have seen a video with 10k views, and 3 dislikes. And still, i feel angry at those 3 people
parts of land near Ypres and Verdun will not be inhabitable for the next 700 years. it sounds like something from a sci-fi book, but not only did WE do that, we did it 100 years ago...really puts the horrors of war into perspective
The fact you don’t hear birds or other wildlife just adds to the intensity of the landscape. It’s like nature knows there was to much death there.
4:33 Man that quote.
This is one of the channels on YT I live for...
IraqI GaMer Interesting that someone from Iraq is so into ww1 which is mostly european history.
Saku Satola Well, WW1 also affected Middle East. The Ottoman Empire collapsed in the aftermath, and France and Britain took control a lot of territory in the region, if my memory serves right.
IraqI GaMer i love This chanelle because i live close to one of the front line (vimy). but what make me sad is when i see reportage from irak. it lokes like WW1 all over again. And i hope you country will be ok. because even if it's 100 years old i know what it's like to be in a country at war. from the story of my great mother...
courage!
Clément Charpentier
We really need more people like you in this world. :•)
Saku Satola count me in , greetings from Saudi Arabia
This is a powerful, touching, and thought provoking segment. Thanks to you all for taking the time to produce it for us.
Thank you for this very touching episode that helps you understand at an emotional level the human cost of this battlefield. It is a haunting reminder of the sacrifice of the soldiers that fought there.
Seeing the ups and downs in the ground and the actual living scars of the war is really powerful. It's like the grass and moss have simply preserved the craters rather than covering them up. I did not expect to see such clear and immediatly recognisable marks in the landscape (atleast not that many). I'm having a hard time even finding words to describe my feelings. Maybe that is it, "indescribable".
Fantastic video as always--I find that these "field trip" videos hit me far harder emotionally than the week-to-week updates do. I think seeing these places and memorials in such detail makes the horrific reality of the war so much more vivid and, well--real.
Thank you.
Indy, Flo and Crew - this is the best damned video you guys have made - period.
Everything about it was just damned spot on. Indy's narration, the tone, the content ... everything. And matched with what seems like the perfect setting with the silent forest and the mist - its hauntingly beautiful.
Well done!!
Thanks, glad you liked it.
One Of the Most impressive episodes so far. Thank you so much
Quite interesting episode. The sculpture was an interesting touch. And to think Europe is covered with places like these, not only the Western front, though it saw the most dense fighting.
I just started crying. I can't even explain why... it just happened, and is still happening.
Goddamit. War is hell.
So very sad. The part of war we don't think of , an entire town where people lived , worked and prayed destroyed , gone. Good segment Indy and crew.
A lot of places were destroyed during the war. But this video makes that seem to come to life. This village was real at one time. With people living normal regular lives. Doing what normal regular people do. Until the Great War came along and disrupted it completely. Great job.
I knew the battle of Verdun was bad.....but i never thought it was this bad....this just shows how horrifying Verdun was...But i would be curious to see someone manage to recreate the Lost villages of WW1 in a computer simulation to know how the Villages looked like before they disappeared.
What struck me the most is just the _ground._ I live in Minnesota, and I've spent a fair bit of time in various parts of the backwoods there. No natural ground looks like that--those intense ripples and dips are the scars, a full century on, of the insane force of combat that reshaped the earth itself.
It's odd really, whenever you see places like this. Fleury, Vimmy Ridge, The forest of Argonne as well as places like Auschwitz. All places where so much death took place all at once. They all have another thing in common besides the horror that was committed in those places. They're all, amazingly and scarily quiet. Barely any birds chirping, no civilisation of Human or Animal kind can be heard. It's almost like the Earth itself is paying it's respect to those that fell in such large numbers at those places.
That was incredibly haunting yet poignant
I was moved by this video. Indy struck the perfect tone, simple, respectful, yet matter-of-fact. He let the spirit of the place speak.
Videos like this fulfill the potential of the Internet. Where else could this 8-minute gem be offered to us?
Just look at the ground... a century later and the earth is still so scared.
Religious or not I hope the dead found peace and rest. :/
Very moving. When Indy speaks of other soldiers buried around you and under the surrounding trees I left with ghostly images of soldiers standing in the entire area. It's like you are immersed in Fleury and it will be this way forever.
This episode is mind blowing!
That quote at 4:33 about people running, 'Like living torches' really stuck me. It's seems so horrible to my ears to hear about men, humans, the pinnacle of creation, reduced to soulless animals screaming inhuman screams and running mindlessly away from fire. Of course, we as people fear becoming inhuman. That's why we made zombies in fiction, we see a thing that looks human, but isn't like us. An animal in human skin. Perhaps, when we see the horror in the world, we see the true horror in ourselves, huh?
I visited a WW1 site with my history class once and telling them that they were potentially walking on thousands of dead caused some to almost freeze in place. On cemeteries you know where the dead are burried, but at that place it was completely unknown. And I'm still proud due to the fact that even the biggest goofballs and jokers and class realized what had happened there and became very thoughtful and serious.
It's very sad. I imagine looking at that area in the spring or summer one could forget that thousands upon thousadns died there. The cost was so high for just a few meters of ground. Like all wars it's truly terrible. Rest in peace soldiers and citizens of Fleury, we might not know all your names but you are not forgotten.
Seeing you walk around there made me think what must have gone through the minds of soldiers advancing over the same ground in the second world war. Indy, your treatment of the Great War is a credit to you and your crew. In the cut and thrust of week by week history, it's easy to get caught in the excitement. Moments like this bring us back to the reailty of it all. Thank you.
I visited this very same village last year in June. The weather was similar foggy and raining. It is as of God still weeps over the extreme violence that took place no the Great War. Great job bringing history to life. Thank you
this video really captures that feeling that you get when you visit the area around Verdun. I was there with my dad some years ago. If you notice all the holes in the ground, those are remains of shell holes which have been left more or less untouched. The ground still bleeds.
i recommend it to all fans of history to go there. You can get quite emotional when you walk around that place.
Anyway i am happy to be a patron and supporter of this show. Excellent work by indy and the gang :-)
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Indy and Crew for inserting HUMANITY into your episodes. The walkabout at 5:00 was so well done, so powerful, dust flew into one of my eyes. Thank you.
this is why and what I love about this channel.. you go to the actual locations and give a damn about what you talk about... and show how it effects you. thank you for showing us Fleury
stumbling on this brand new channel called The Great War several years ago I never thought how much I would look forward to seeing every new episode. The quality of your work is excellent and the content educational and impactful. Thank you The Great War team.
Hey Indy. Thanks for showing this to us. In the few years I've been following you guys this has been the most touching episode I've seen. Thank you and the team for doing some amazing work
thanks, glad you liked it.
awesome video. keep up the awesome stuff
The entire atmosphere is just astonishing! It's so silent yet you can imagine the sounds of the war and the horror. That intro brought a tear to my eye!
Great video guys, keep up the good work.
are there still areas that people can't live near on the old battlefields? also love the camera work!!
sylvain falquet yes l, there is a zone named Red Zone in which the soil is forever contaminated by corpses and there are still shells buried (lots are found each year, so in this area the police have units specialized in mine-clearing)
TheIpsin damn....this made me really sad. but I cannot believe that the first fully industrialized war has caused land that won't be safe for the next 700 years. that sounds like something that would happen in a sci fi war in the future, but we did that, and we did it 100 years ago. I'm scared at what we could do now....
or, as my uncle from that area somewhat blunty says it, "every year some farmer gets a new pond on his farm, and the list of casualties grows". really put the effect of such a major conflict into perspective
Pipsy wow...just wow...loss of words here
that's really tragic stuff...
Outstanding Camera work!
Visiting Fleury truly brings the horrors of war home to the visitor.
This is the best special "real life" special hands down
Well done. I could hear your frustration with the epic waste of all those lives. This really brought to life the impact of all the death and destruction.
War really is heartbreaking.
Keep doing what you folks are doing... it's so important, and you do it so well. Thank you.
Just impressive. Probably one of the best video of TGW. Simultaneously eerie and moving Wow....
Holy crap, but this was a powerful episode! You've done an amazing out of great episodes, but none more powerful than this one.
Fascinating video and Fleury just made my bucket list of places to visit. It seems like quite a haunting place and even on a sunny day I think it would be quite an experience.
Another well done special from The Great War . Thank you .
Well Done, thank you The Great War Crew for all of your effort.
Question for out of the trenches : what happened to the people living in villages close to the frontline, or in the middle of big battles(ex: Verdun, Somme) the like Fleury? Were they moved in other parts of the country? Did their governments help them? Or were they left to fend for themselves? Thank you for your hard work and keep the good stuff coming! You are currently the best channel on UA-cam!
I could be entirely wrong, but from what I remember reading in the book "generals lie in bed", it describes British and Canadian soldiers who lived on the front line occasionally visiting towns and villages when they got switched out by another division.
This said, I highly doubt these towns and villages were ever evacuated, and instead civilians were often an indirect casualty of war. During artillery shelling, french civilians would take cover in wine cellars, or basements where ever they could.
They were evacuated when the village was woken up by artillry firing. Although it isn't mentionned whether or not shells hitted the village or if it was the sound of the german "preparation artillery shots" (fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleury-devant-Douaumont yes it's in french, i was lazy and didn't searched for an english translation).
You can also read more in the book "Poilu" By Louis Barthas. In his experience a decent amount of the towns still had civilians living there, at least during the first half of the war, and the soldiers would rotate in and out of those villages since they could use the shelled or abandoned buildings to sleep in.
These were the days before social safety nets- if your village was in a battle zone you either stayed and prayed or you left as a refugee and hoped that you had family or friends in another place who would take you in.
Thank you Indy and crew!!! you just added a dimension to the battle (at least for me) that I'd have never thought about...
These kinds of trips are the kind that will change you forever. I remember my trip to Dachau; it is a place that I will never forget. I won't forget it because any horrors I saw there, but because of the knowledge of what happened there. I have a feeling that Fleury hits home in a very similar way.
Fantastic and moving video Indy. Love the cinematography. Don't ever let people forget why this war was supposed to end all wars.
Wow this was incredibly well produced 😮
We do what we can.
Such a sad story. Must be terrifying to have lived in that village as it was being bombed. & bodies still buried, unidentified and look after by the trees.
One of the best episodes yet. You guys are by far the best channel on UA-cam.
Thanks.
Hands down, your most sincere episode yet, the passion you have for history and knowledge you share is greatly commendable and such as yourself I am a history buff and enjoy watching your episodes. Please continue this excellent work.
What a perfect day to film...the fog really sets the tone for just how dramatic and devastating WW1 was.
Yeah, we were lucky in that regard.
I never would have traveled to Fleury, but thanks to Indy, now I have. Good Job, Great War Channel.
You guys should do a playlist of all the field trips, i enjoy them even more then the normal episodes because history in theory is cool but once you see whats left glued to the context presented, it all feels more believable.
A very somber journey and the mist/fog adds a lot to the feeling and the atmosphere, very interesting stuff.
Words cannot say. Thank you for another wonderful and powerful video.
This, more then anything else, is why your show is so important.
To show with a clarity and a certainty the true price of modern war.
To educate several generations of people for which destruction and carnage on this scale remains and hopefully forever will remain unimaginable.
To help people realise that war and the attitudes and ideas that lead to and fuel it are not ways to glory or a solution to a problem, but simple petty, pathetic excuses for countless villages filled with countless lives to be reduced to THAT.
Nothing but ghosts in the fog, and the memories of those of us fortunate enough to live in calmer times.
yes, the place made them very clear.
Even the landscape is still scarred from the shelling. That's crazy to me. That blows me away.
TGW's content is always excellent but this episode has really taken it to a whole new level. Creepy, melancholic yet with a clear, deep message. Great work!
Well that's the most haunting thing I've ever seen on UA-cam. Brilliant work guys.
I got chills watching this. Well done.
It gives such an incredibly eerie feeling.
Indy looks like a british Butler
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel he knows the dark night
hey desert fox
MyCocaine
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel low key reminds me of a younger Michael Caine
He looks like Nardole with hair to me.
Very moving episode Indy. brings home the reality of the conflict.
Possibly you're best episode gentleman. Very well done indeed!!!
Thanks, Indy and crew. A beautiful treatise on the real cost of war.
The sculpture is a powerful memorial.
Have a great Independence Day!
Love,
David
The Great War, this reminds me of a photo of the Tour de France from 1922 Called "The Gates of Verdun". The gates in the photo were destroyed during WWII. Thank you for your work on keeping history alive.
Craig