Location 8 – Tranchée des Bayonettes

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Brief History - Crisis of the Battle

Directions – Return back to the Abri des Pélérins intersection and take the right turn sign-posted to the Tranchée des Bayonettes. The road drops downhill before turning sharply left. The entrance to the Tranchée des Bayonettes is on the right.

Practical Information – If you don't see a rifle muzzle at first, keep looking. At each visit the author is certain that none remain – until an eagle-eyed companion spots one first!

Historical Notes – The memorial commemorates an unsubstantiated incident in the June fighting when a group of French infantry waiting in their trench to go into action were buried by German shelling. Reports have it that when the fighting ended their bayonets and rifles could be seen protruding above the earth – the implication being that the infantrymen were dead but still standing to attention beneath.

A wealthy American, George Rand, latched onto the story and, supported by the newspapers, he funded the memorial to their memory. Reliable reports indicate that many of the bodies were actually exhumed shortly after the war, identified and laid to rest elsewhere. The unknowns were re-interred and none of them were found to be standing upright in any case. Whatever the truth, the site has since passed into Verdun mythology and continues to attract thousands of visitors every year.