Montage of the destroyed village of Fleury, France, a village of several hundred destroyed during the Battle of Verdun and never rebuilt. Insets are the Chapel and a sculpture of a poilu. The door of the chapel states it is in memory of Fleury-devant-Douaumont, the village's full name. © 2015 John M. Shea
In memoire de Fleury-devant-Douaumont 1914-1918
"The last major German attempt to capture Verdun took place on the evening of June 22, when a German artillery bombardment was launched, using a new phosgene gas: Green Cross. Men and horses were caught and killed by the terrible fumes. Doctors treating the wounded weere themselves struck down. For several hours the rain of death continued, then 30,000 Germans attacked. Near Fleury a whole French division, 5,000 men, was wiped out, and Fort Thiaumont, two miles north of Verdun, was captured. . . .. . . Fleury was taken, but the Germans were halted before they could enter Fort Souville, the last but one fort between them and Verdun itself. The Germans did not have enough Green Cross gas for a second gas attack."
The Battle of Verdun began on February 21, 1916, with one of the greatest bombardments of the war, and the shelling was frightful in the weeks and months that followed. The German attack of June 22 threatened the city of Verdun itself, taking yet another of the forts defending fortified Verdun. Fleury itself was destroyed and never rebuilt, remaining, 100 years after the battle, a memorial to it and its horrors.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, pp. 255, 256, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
1916-06-22, 1916, June, Verdun, Battle of Verdun, poison gas, phosgene gas
