![]() ![]() ![]() The general sense of fear and horror toward Verdun is evident from the soldier’s own testimony, “Hell,” “Furnace,” “Calvary,” are some of the words used to describe the experience of battle there, (the author further informs us that the soldiers had christened it “Place of Death.”) One soldier describes the night of the 19-20 July 1916, as the best day of his life because his division was taken away from Verdun – “We came out from Hell,” he says, “so what if we get killed elsewhere, Verdun is a nightmare for all troops that have passed there.” Soldiers write of having “hardly any strength” and about the effects of phosgene gas inhalation, which “burns them in the stomach.” The author speaks of his impression of “physical and moral weariness” inferred from the letters of the 22nd July 1916. To counter this the French sought to regain the initiative in the air by grouping fighter aircraft in squadrons to overwhelm German reconnaissance efforts.Īn examination of contemporary private reports written by a postal censor on the 22nd and 28th July 1916 concerning soldier’s letters home provides an insight into the soldier’s morale immediately after fighting at Verdun, and morale six days later. Cases of “friendly” fire increased as infantry holding these shell holes and craters rather than trench lines, found it much more difficult to distinguish from a comrade from the enemy. Fighting developed into more direct forms of combat between small groups of men battling from one shell hole to another without cover. pinterest French soldier’s personal accounts of trench warfareĪs the Battle of Verdun continued, soldiers arriving there encountered a landscape rivalling Dante’s description of Hell, where once linear trench lines were now little more than defended shell holes after the intense artillery bombardment. ![]()
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