The rulers of the Central Powers stumped by Verdun. Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Mohammed V of Turkey, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, and Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria puzzle over a map labeled "Verdun." The ink and watercolor drawing is dated March 4, 1916. By R. DLC?The German assault on Verdun began on February 21, 1916 and continued through August.
Illustrated map labeled "Verdun." Drawing dated March 4, 1916. By R. DLC?
"Two other sections went up to reinforce other companies on the firing line. The 4th Section, to which I belonged, was sent to observe on the slope of Cote 304 facing the Mort Homme.Everything was sinister in these places, but this place was even worse, if that's possible. At the bottom of the ravine, where the ruisseau [stream] des Forges flowed, shells of every caliber, fired by both sides, fell without respite. This dark abyss seemed like a volcano in constant eruption, and there we were, hanging right on its rim.Our mission consisted of maintaining liaison, by patrols, with the troops who held the facing slopes. But these patrols took place only on paper, in fictional reports. In reality, the patrols had ceased after three days—there was no one to send out on patrol."
Excerpt from the Notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas who had rotated into the Verdun sector on May 6, 1916, and moved to the front line on May 11. Our quotation is from May 13. Barthas' unit was on Hill 304, facing the hill of Mort-Homme. What trenches there are simply come to an end leaving gaps of up to 400 meters between sections and companies. 'No one knew whether we had Germans or Frenchmen in front of us,' he writes. His language gives some sense of the horror of the Battle of Verdun: 'debris,' 'shredded', 'pulverized,' 'torn to bits.' The chaos and shelling exceed anything Barthas has seen in 20 months in the front lines.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 194, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
1916-05-13, 1916, May, Verdun, Battle of Verdun, Mort Homme, Cote 304
