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Great Battlefields--Part 1

© Roxanne Nelson

As long as there have been people living in Europe, there have been wars. Big wars, little wars, skirmishes, great battles, great carnage left in its wake....War is always tragic, to everyone involved, whether they can claim to be the winner or loser. But interestingly enough, many of Europe's popular attractions and tourist sites center around just that-war. The memories, the memorials, the destruction left intact for posterity...and of course, the battlefields.

Europe is full of battlefields, and many of them have been left intact or partially so, and have been enshrined with monuments and remembrance for the dead, and hopefully, with a warning to those who come and visit.

Verdun

It seems fitting to begin with Verdun, being that this quiet French town was once the scene of a battle of untold carnage. Nearly 700,00 soldiers lost their lives at Verdun, and in the end, no new advantage had been gained for either side. There are many websites about this battle (check links at the end) so I will not go into detail here about the specifics of the battle. In brief, during WW I, France had built a line of fortifications stretching from the Swiss border to the city of Verdun. The Germans first attacked on February 21, 1916 and eventually gained some ground. The French counter attacked, the Germans attacked again, and so on. Several forts fell to the Germans, but not Verdun. The battles continued, and by November 1916, most of the territory had been reclaimed by France, and they were back at their original position. Thus, after a loss of nearly a million lives, they were right back where they started.

What's to see...

The battlefield has been left untouched, both as a homage to the dead soldiers and also because the soil was so polluted from the millions of shells fired. It remained barren for years, too polluted for any vegetation to grow. Even to this day, there are still unexploded shells and it is not wise to wander about, except in designated areas. You can visit the forts of Douaumont and Vaux, two places that were passed back and forth during the battle.

The village of Fleury is no more, but there is a fine museum on its site. There is also an ossuary, which contains the bones of about 130,000 French and German soldiers who could not be identified. Also visit the cemetery where 15,000 French soldiers were laid to rest.

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