Guest 658- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 660
#1
Its a phrase i have often used to describe the French army, but never again. Having just returned from a three day tour of the Verdun battlefields and seeing the conditions they fought in for four years the German plan was to bleed the French army white. It was possibly the battlefield with the highest casualties per square mile in history. Whole villages just disappeared into shell craters.
beer the food of the gods
#2
Cheers Guzzler a good point well made
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#3
guzzler well said,i have been down there a couple of times.it does bring a tear to ones eyes.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
#4
Oh! Oh! Oh! What a Lovely War.
Many plays and films have tried to depict the horrors of war but none has really succeeded. Even visiting the battlefields and seeing the acres and acres of war graves doesn't really bring it home. I guess you had to be there and we should all have huge admiration for, and acknowledge the huge debt of gratitude we owe to those who risked and lost their lives, not just our boys but our allies too.
War is a tragedy scripted by politicians and played out by soldiers.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#5
ah tom,did you get to the ossarie,the trench of death and the forts.
Guest 658- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 660
#6
Brian yes to all three, did you know that the ossarie was broken into recently and bones were stolen to be sold to collectors. Did you enter the fort that the Germans had to just wall up the dead from an explosion as they were under siege.
beer the food of the gods
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#7
yes tom i did that one.no i didnt know about the theft.did you do the road from verdun to bar de luc,a very intresting drive.
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
#8
The Grande Armee never surrendered.
The French army is known to be a valiant and very determined force.
Guest 658- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 660
#9
That is very true they fought to a standstill then luckily the Americans arrived in massive nos and retook most of what the French had lost.But both the Germans and the French around Verdun suffered rates of attrition unparalleled any where else.
beer the food of the gods