It may seem a little strange that I should advise you to go there. Verdun is probably the most famous battle in WWI. Here, in 1916, Germans and French troops were facing each other, dug in their "tranchées", when the germans decided to attack. First, for days, they bombed the area. A nightmare we cannot even imagine. The whole landscape was deeply transformed by this bombing. However, a few French troops survived in this hell, and were able to defeat the following attack, supported by new troops. (On the picture, right, a "tranchée" and the craters caused by bombs. If you want to see other pictures of the bombing, click on the picture. You'll have a bird's-eye views of the Douaumont fort before the bombing, and what was left of it afterwards : nothing.) This hell cost the live of over 700,000 men between October 1916 and August 1917.
In Douaumont, in the "Ossuaire" are buried more than 150,000 soldiers, Germans, French, Canadian and English together, who died in this battle.
Beware the numerous LF-R and LF-D zones around Verdun. There is an airfield near the city.
From the sky, you will be able to see, even after almost 100 years, craters made by the bombing. Flying here, where the first dogfights were fought by people like Fonck, Guyenmer and the Red Baron might be a tribute to soldiers of your own country who came, fought and died in France during this terrible war. After flying, visit some of the many battlefields on the ground, and remember.
Verdun itself is not a very pretty city. But it is a world-famous symbol of peace, like Stalingrad or Hiroshima.
In Normandy, far from Verdun, you may also want to see the D-day landing beaches, and other places where fightings occured during those crucial hours. Of course, there is much to see and remember also (a museum in Caen...) But fom the sky, you won't see much. La pointe du Hoc is quite impressive, though, with a lot of craters to show what kind of hell it was. Omaha la sanglante (bloody Omaha) has much changed, with a road and houses built in the very places where the the raging battle occured. Pegasus bridgewas dismantled and rebuilt as it was on D day. The original bridge was taken away and, as far as I know, rebuilt somewhere else, not far.
The weather today in Verdun :
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