Location 2 – Verdun and the Victory Monument

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Brief History - The Plan

Directions – When you reach Verdun on the Voie Sacrée follow the signs to "Verdun Centre" and you will eventually reach the Place Saint Paul. Go straight across to the Rue des Frêres Boulhaut and you will find yourselves on the banks of the River Meuse near to the Chaussée Gate and the bars and restaurants of the Verdun quayside. There is car parking on the right hand side of the road or, if your hotel is nearby, park there and walk down to the river.

Practical Information – The Quai de Londres is where most of Verdun's best restaurants and bars are located and an ideal time to view the many memorials and places of interest along the Verdun quayside is, therefore, on the first evening before you have dinner. This view shown in image 1 below makes an interesting comparison with the wartime photograph in The Initial German Assault.

Historical Notes – Verdun is one of the great fortified cities of Europe. Starting life as a simple crossing point over the Meuse, it grew during Roman times to become an important strategic centre. For much of the first millennium and first 500 years of the second, Germanic peoples controlled it, until, in 1552, the King of France, Henri II, retook it. The threat from the east continued, however, and following sieges in both 1792 and 1870, the town fell to the Germans. After the latter siege the town was returned to France but the lands to the east, Lorraine and Alsace were conceded to Germany. This meant that Verdun was the central bulwark of the French frontier at the start of the First World War.

In the opening stages of this conflict the German Army, guided by their Schlieffen Plan, made their main focus in the north with a great wheeling attack aimed to the west of Paris. When this northern drive was halted at the Battle of the Marne fought between the 5th and 12th September 1914, the Germans began to seek breakthroughs on other parts of the front. South of Verdun the Germans managed to gain a crossing of the Meuse at St Mihiel and French forces desperately tried to deny the enemy any further inroads onto the heights on the right bank of the river. Fighting died down in 1915 as the focus of fighting shifted to Champagne and Artois but, with Verdun now surrounded on three sides by German forces, the scene was set for the Battle of Verdun which began in February 1916.

The city itself suffered terrible shelling during the fighting and not just in 1916. Verdun's most prominent landmark, the Cathedral Notre-Dame, came through 1916 fairly intact but was badly damaged in a further German offensive between April-May 1917 when the roof was destroyed and the vaults pierced. A particular target for the Germans were the bridges over the Meuse which continued to bring supplies across to the French Army on the right bank throughout the battle. Damage amongst the quayside buildings was particularly severe.

Today, with the quaysides rebuilt and the great buildings reconstructed, only the monuments and memorials are left to remind visitors of the destruction.