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.
"What a miserable picture! Seven days of insomnia, fatigue, thirst, anguish had transformed these sturdy men, these superbly disciplined companies, into ragged troops of laggards, of sickly, moribund figures, who nevertheless displayed an air of calm contentment for the joy of simply being alive.At the summit of a hill, we paused at the foot of a spring which bubbled clear, fresh water beside the road, where each passerby paused to quench the feverish thirst which consumed him.We took one final look back at Cote 304 and the Mort Homme, which stood out in the rosy horizon of dawn.As if from two erupting volcanoes, clouds of smoke rose up from each of the two hilltops, and the flames of explosions burst forth like jets of incandescent lava."
French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas had rotated into the Verdun sector on May 6, 1916, and moved to the front line on the 11th. Through the night of May 18-19, receiving word the relief unit had arrived, his regiment moved out during an intense bombardment, an 'avalanche of metal.' Following the policy of French commander Henri Philippe Pétain, some 80% of the French army rotated through Verdun during the Battle. On the morning of May 19 Barthas looked back at the two deadly hills northwest of the city of Verdun, the Mort Homme and Cote 304.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 209, 210, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
1916-05-19, 1916, May, Verdun, Battle of Verdun, Mort-Homme, Mort Homme, Cote 304
