The Verdun Memorial

Today his Lordship and I went on a tour of the Battle Field of Verdun an area of between 20 and 30 Square Kilometres, high above the town, which was fought over between February and November 1916 between France and Germany inthe Great War.

600,000 French and German soldiers were killed in the battle, and bearing in mind the population of Verdun today is only 21,000, this is a staggering number of casualties.
There are French cemeteries all around the town with crosses to the fallen as far as the eye can see. It is indeed a sobering sight.

Verdun itself was razed to the ground in 10 months of the battle and it is said to have been rebilt in 10 years, only to have history repeat itself in WW2.
Other villages in the battle zone were also obliterated and have been largely rebuilt.
The area, although pleasantly wooded now, has beeen left with the hollows made by artillery shells and some of the trenches and dug outs used by the French.

The solemnity of the morning and the pointlessness of the sacrifice of a generation of the young men of Europe left us rather jaded and disappointed that the lessons of history have still not been learned by today's generation.