A VISIT TO VERDUN IN 2025.

The 1916 battle of Verdun opened on 21st February with a massive artillery bombardment followed by a large scale advance by the German V Army. After just five days, the first major French fort, Douaumont, fell to the enemy and all seemed to be going well for the Germans in their attempt to ‘bleed the French Army white’.
However, by the time the battle closed in December, and following the fighting on the Somme between July and November 1916, it was the German Army that was suffering most from a manpower shortage.
At Verdun, some 300,000 men of both sides were killed and total casualties amounted to approximately 700,000. To read more about the fighting and the French efforts to keep the Voie Sacréeopen, the road from Bar Le Duc to Verdun which the French used to supply the Verdun front, please click on the link below.
What Was The Battle Of Verdun? | Imperial War Museums
My article will cover the battlefield visitor in 2025, and what is there to be seen today.
As I mentioned last week, Verdun in 2025 is a modern, vibrant town with a long water frontage to the river Meuse, which harbours an array of restaurants, bars and café culture. There are a number of WWI memorials to view but the actual scene of the fighting, the hills around the town, are today heavily wooded and whilst public access and paths are available, it requires a backpack, flask and stout boots to take on these walks, especially as on our second day, the temperature reached 30 degrees centigrade.
We started our adventure at the site of a Destroyed Village.
The Destroyed Villages.
If my memory serves me correctly, there were nine villages completely obliterated from the surface of the earth during the fighting which it was decided not to rebuild in the 1920s. Today, these villages still have a Mayor appointed, and on behalf of the long dead residents and soldiers, the Mayors still play a part in local politics and decision making.
The one we spent most time at was Douaumont-Fleury. It is impossible to walk on the site of the lost village without walking in shell craters. There is hardly a square yard that did not receive an artillery shell.

The line of the old streets and the names of the shops, butcher, baker etc. are denoted by small raised marker boards. As the fighting continued, many French regiments rotated in and out of the line, and their regimental memorials adorn the site of the old village and give you time to ponder the bravery and spilt blood that once lay around you.

The Forts.
There are a number of fortifications to visit, the two most famous being Douaumont and Vaux. The ring of forts around Verdun were constructed after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 and by the start of the 20th Century, they were found to be obsolete against the new generation of weaponry available to the Germans, much of it designed and manufactured by Krupps.
Before 1914, a large scale programme of improvements was carried out which entailed adding thick layers of reinforced concrete to the outer walls of the forts, and yet by the time of the fighting in 1916, the forts were rendered useless as high level defensive positions after Joffre’s decision in 1915 to remove the biggest calibre guns from the forts for use elsewhere on the Western Front.
Nevertheless, the loss of these forts after stout and brave defence from the garrison within, was a huge blow to French national morale. Many a good man lost his life in the French attacks to recapture the forts, an achievement which was completed in the autumn of 1916.
The forts are very impressive to visit, and at the Museum of Peace (see below) you can buy a day pass that gives you access to the museum and the forts. Large areas of the forts are available to the general public and there are tri-language explanation boards which tell the story of the fighting, the history of the forts and life inside them for the garrison.

The Verdun Peace Memorial Museum.
Like the forts above, the Peace Museum, situated close to the destroyed village of Douaumont-Fleury, is a must visit location.

The museum, on two levels, contains a wealth of information and maps and uses modern electronic moving dioramas to explain the ebb and flow of the fighting between February and December 1916. The main point that I took from this, was that for the loss of 300,000 men killed, no significant tactical or strategic gains were made by either army, but that French national morale was maintained, and several generals, including Robert Nivelle [More about him in a fortnight – Ed] made their names and reputations.
The museum also does a very good job in explaining the significant sacrifice made by the black and Arab soldiers of the French Empire – men from Morocco, Senegal, Algeria etc. all of whom fought with great distinction for the Empire.
The museum, as you would expect, contains a remarkable collection of war time artefacts pertinent to Verdun, from vehicles, to weaponry, uniforms, photographs, personal stories etc. and it is very easy to spend two or more hours here. With a café and toilets on site, it is also a good location to build into your itinerary for a lunchtime visit.

The National Necropolis.
Is a remarkable location to visit. There is a large scale French cemetery on site, one of many in the area, and the beautifully designed and built Ossuary and chapel, contains the assorted bones of over 135,000 troops of all nationalities found on the battlefields.
Your visit, starts with a twenty-minute film show which again explains the sequence of events that took place around Verdun in 1916, and shows many contemporary film clips. It is also possible to climb some 240 steps to the top of the tower which gives a panoramic view across the battlefields, albeit, much of it now hidden by trees.
At the halfway stage of your climb, there is another small but impressive museum where you can stop to catch your breath before completing the climb.
Given the troubles currently taking place in Gaza and the immigration issues prevalent today in France and the UK, it gives us hope when we view the very large and significant French Jewish and Islamic memorials which are on site adjacent to the Ossuary. These men fought bravely, side by side, and one can only hope that peace will prevail once again in the near future.

The Trench of Bayonets.
Is a well signed location close to the National Necropolis and is well worth a visit. Through an impressive entrance way, you make your way to a monument that encompasses the site of a trench that was defended by men of the 137th Infantry Regiment and today several graves of unknown men are built into the monument. The regimental memorial sits proudly atop a small rise in the ground, and on the rear of the monument, you can walk into the wooded area and easily follow the depressions in the ground that mark the lines of the French trenches.
Whilst walking in the wood, I struck up a conversation with a chap walking with his dog, who I assumed to be French. Doing my best schoolboy French, I discovered that he was in fact Belgian. I mentioned our dear friends Nadine and Philip from Ronse in Belgium and lo and behold, he told me that he knew Ronse well and was in fact married there! What a coincidence.

Mort Homme (Dead Man) and Hill 304.
Are two high points to the north-west of Verdun and about a 10-mile drive. Mort Homme, we discovered, was named before the Great War but was very aptly named. Here the French defended this high ground with a ferocious determination as to surrender the ground would have given the Germans a huge advantage. The main memorial at Mort Homme simply states ‘They Shall Not Pass’, and there are two further memorials to the regiments that served in the 40th and 42nd Infantry Divisions.
To give you some idea of the ferocity of the fighting here, when Hill 304 was surveyed at the end of the war, the German bombardments had reduced its height between 7 and 10 metres. How anyone lived through that is unimaginable.
Colonel Driant.
I always love a good tale of an individual man’s bravery, and they don’t come much better than that of Colonel Driant’s story.
Colonel Emile Driant was a late 19th Century soldier in the French Army who resigned his commission in 1906 to pursue a career in politics. He was elected MP for Nancy, a position he still held on the outbreak of war.
Despite now being 58 years of age, he re-enlisted as a Captain, was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and given command of the 56th and 59th Chasseurs (Light Infantry) Reservist battalions. Using his position as an MP, Driant was a very vocal critic of Joffre’s decision to strip the Verdun forts of their big guns.
When the Germans attacked on 21st February, Driant gallantly led his men in a defensive action that held the German advance up for more than 24 hours in this sector. He was seen standing on the roof of his concrete command bunker directing the fire of the defenders, and being a first class shot, he also shot over 20 Germans whilst shouting out his personal tally to his sergeant.
Eventually, Driant gave the order to the survivors to fall back across the road that today runs behind Driant’s bunker, and during this withdrawal, Driant was overrun and killed.
The Germans, noting his bravery and leadership, buried him with full military honours and wrote, via the Red Cross in Switzerland, to his wife.
You can read more here Colonel Driant’s Division | Chemins de mémoire

WWII Resistance.
Whilst driving to Fort Vaux, we spotted a sign and turned off to discover the execution site of 16 members of the French Resistance who were murdered by the Gestapo in late August 1944 as the Americans liberated Verdun town.
The men, 15 French and 1 Belgian, were taken from the town prison into a wooded depression and shot on 31st August.
Like many of these sites, they feel cold and eerie and there always seems to be a complete lack of birdsong. We paid our respects and moved on.

Verdun, today a modern lively town with a superb river frontage of bars and cafes, is well worth a visit. The fighting here in 1916 is well represented but if you intend to walk the battlefields, please note that the hills are very wooded and many areas are out of bounds.
