Monument to the 40th Infantry Division at Mort-Homme, Verdun. © 2015 John M. Shea
Mort-HommeAux Morts de la 40e D.I.To the Dead of the 40th Infantry DivisionThe inscription below the sword reads:Qui que tu sois Français qui passe arrete toi et salue donne un peu de ton coeur a ceux qui sont morts ici pour toiYou French who pass, stop; salute; and give a bit of your heart to those who died, died here, for you.
"The strange mixture of beauty and destruction intensified dramatically when the German guns opened up at seven o'clock. Dark smoke from exploding shells and yellow smudges of shrapnel floated over the top of the hill where the morning mist had so recently lingered. It was in fact the heaviest bombardment since the start of the battle on 21 February, and other witnesses described Le Mort-Homme as looking like a volcano in eruption. Captain Augustin Cochin, taking the brunt of the firing on nearby Cote 304, found it the worst ordeal he had ever undergone. He soon reached the end of his tether: 'Like the poor beggars in the Gospel, I pleaded not to die so senselessly, I and my poor biffins, who were driven half mad: round-eyed, no longer answering when I spoke to them.' From his position below, Jubert could make out two zones of fire: one covering the French lines from the crest of Cote 304 along to Le Mort-Homme, and a second barring the likely route by which the French might try to bring up reinforcements."
The German assault on Verdun began on February 21, 1916 with a bombardment by over 1,000 guns northeast and east of the city. The attack northwest of the city, at Mort-Homme and Cote 304, began later. Second Lieutenant Raymond Jubert had been struck by the beauty of the morning of April 8, 1916 and contrasted it with his men, sleeping like the condemned, to be woken only to die. This is the 'strange mixture of beauty and destruction' Ousby refers to in the beginning of his account of the German attack on Sunday, April 9. Despite the ferocity of the attack, the French held.
The Road to Verdun by Ian Ousby, pp. 254, 255, copyright © 2002 by The Estate of Ian Ousby, publisher: Anchor Books, publication date: 2003
1916-04-09, 1916, April, Verdun, Battle of Verdun, Mort Homme, Mort-Homme, Cote 304,
