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French trench clearers in the Battle of Verdun. French Corporal Louis Barthas recorded a commander's expectations of his men before a May 18, 1916 attack to take no prisoners, neither captured nor wounded, an order 'unworthy of a Frenchman.' The soldier kneeling on the left has likely just killed the German soldier on the ground, either combat or murder. Illustration by Léon Taa. . . ., 1916
Monument to the 40th Infantry Division at Mort-Homme, Verdun. © 2015 John M. Shea
Glass slide of Italian soldiers carrying building material up a mountainside in the Dolomite Alps.
French soldier standing next to an unexploded 420mm shell that fell on Verdun. March, 1916. It weighed 2,100 pounds empty.
"It seems that the commander of the Moroccan Zouaves, leading the attack, gave his men an odious order: 'My friends, I have no orders to give, but you already know what I expect you to do in an attack . . .' He meant taking no prisoners. This was reported to me by eyewitnesses. The language was unworthy of a Frenchman. And the Germans, when they would advance and see the fate reserved for those who fell into our hands, would resist to the last when they saw themselves surrounded. Or they would massacre those of us who fell into their hands. That's the way they killed those who were at one of our first-aid stations: the medical officer, the orderlies, the wounded, some of them finished off with blows from rifle butts." ((1), more)
"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." ((2), more)
"On May 20th, the Italians lost the Borgola Pass, 3,000 men, 33 guns and three howitzers. Everywhere the Austrian advance was successful. The Laurence Plateau, Fima, Mandriole and the heights as far as the Astico Valley were captured in quick succession. Between the Astico and Brenta, the Austrian advance continued in the Valleys of Terra Astico, Doss Maggio and Campelle.. . .In less than a week the Austrians had advanced their whole line far into Italian territory, across mountains 5,000 to 9,000 feet high, and had taken 24,000 prisoners, 251 cannons and 101 machine guns." ((3), more)
"Insolently looking the commandant up and down, from head to toe, [the soldier] lashed him with a stream of scornful phrases: 'You little runt, you little ragamuffin. It's out there, on the front lines, that you should come visit us, and now on the first day of rest we have, you show up and bother us. On Cote 304, you didn't even dare come out of your hole. Now get out of my sight.'. . . 'I'm saying that on Cote 304 we never saw you. Here we don't salute anymore.'" ((4), more)
"How long is this going to last? Anguish makes me wonder when and how this gigantic, unprecedented struggle will end. There's no resolution in view. I wonder if it won't just finish for lack of men left to fight. It's no longer one nation fighting another. It's two great blocs fighting, two civilizations colliding. The peoples have been touched by the madness of death and destruction. Certainly humanity has gone mad! It must be mad to do what it's doing. Such slaughter! Such scenes of horror and carnage! I can't find the words to convey them. Hell could not be worse. Men are mad!" ((5), more)
(1) French Infantry Corporal (then Private) Louis Barthas on preparations for an attack on May 18, 1916 during the Battle of Verdun. The Zouaves attacked at 2:00 a.m. to seize a fortified outcropping. At first successful, the French were forced to pull back suffering heavy losses.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 202, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(2) 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
(3) Despite ample warning of an impending Austro-Hungarian offensive against northern Italy from the Trentino, Italian Commander in Chief Luigi Cadorna made few preparations. Begun on May 15, 1916 with bombardment by 2,000 guns, Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf's Asiago Offensive rapidly progressed. Conrad hoped to drive through the mountains to reach and cross Italy's northern plain, continuing to reach the Adriatic Sea, isolating the Italian Army.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 232, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(4) Soldiers returned as changed men from the front lines of the Battle of Verdun and its fearsome bombardments. In the first paragraph a commandant is offended that a soldier continued shaving and showed no respect. In the second, a sentry continued smoking his pipe and failed to salute when his commanding officers passed. French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas had also been on Cote 304, and further observes of his commanders, 'It was long ago that they had lost the esteem of their men. Now they had earned their scorn.'
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 215, 216, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(5) Excerpt from the diary of French Second Lieutenant Alfred Joubaire writing on May 22, 1916, the first day of French General Mangin's attempt to retake Fort Douaumont, captured by the Germans on February 25, in the first days of the Battle of Verdun. Joubaire had arrived in the Verdun sector on May 17, having learned of his deployment the previous day: 'There's no longer any doubt of the position we're going to take up . . . It's Verdun, it's the big one, real carnage, real slaughter. Everybody is very calm and very happy.' Joubaire was killed on June 2 on his second rotation into the Verdun front lines.
The Road to Verdun by Ian Ousby, page 304, copyright © 2002 by The Estate of Ian Ousby, publisher: Anchor Books, publication date: 2003
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