We leave Ramstein at about 06:00 and try to be in Verdun around 09:00
(By bus only)

Driving up to the Verdun Museum and Memorial we pass the Souville Bunker where the German attack on Verdun was stopped.
In the early morning hours of July the 12th 1916 the first German waves reach the fort Souville. But the Fortresse withstands further attacks. The German troops are only 1,5 miles away from the city but they will never get any closer.

 The next stop is at the "Wounded Lion". This Memorial marks oficially the point of the clostest German Advance on Verdun. Not quite right because the German troops came as far as Fort Souville, some houndred feet closer to the town ~ who cares.

We then make a stop to visit the Verdun Museum and Memorial. The impressive museum offers a phantastic collection of Uniforms, Weaponry, Vehicles and displays. The everyday struggle to survive of the French "Poilou" (Fr. word for soldier) and his counterpart the German  "Landser"(Ger. word for soldier).

Here you can get a depressing insight look of the mass murder at Verdun.

Leaving the museum we head for the Ossuary and stop at the destryed village of Fleurie. 
Fleurie is one of the villages that were completely destroyed during the Battleof Verdun.
the village was taken on the 23rd of june 1916 by Bavarian troops and retaken by the French on October the 24th 1916. To remember the battle, Fleurie still has a Major and its own zip code.
We will visit the village on the next day.

Ossuaire de Douaumont
Our last stop for today is the Ossuary.
We will visit the inside of Ossuary and the tower that is 46 metres high. At the end of this tour we watch a movie about the battle of Verdun. The building was inaugurated on April the 7th 1932 and houses the remains of nearly 130.000 unknown French and German soldiers.

The beginning of the construction was August the 22nd 1920. Marshal Petain the defender of Verdun was present on this day. It is 37 metres in length,  lang and the bell weighs about 2300 kg. Inside is a memorial chapel and above the crypts are names of the battlefields inscribed where the remains of the soldiers were found.

Before we return to the bus you should have a look throu the little windows from where you see the bones of the 130.000 unknown soldiers.

After leaving the Ossuary we will then drive to our hotel.

In the evening you should go to one of the many restaurants at the river Meuse and enjoy the beautiful old town that was rebuilt after WWI.

Day 2

After breakfast we check out of the hotel and leave around 07:30 to have enough time to see more of the battlefields of Verdun.

Today we first stop at a German cemetery outside of town before we reach the destroyed village of Fleurie.

To give you an idea of what happened there you should imagine that the preperatory fire of the German attacks for June 22nd and 23rd 1916 the German artillery fired about 100.000 grenades along the front.

From Fleurie we will then drive up to the famous "Bayonette Trench".
Here we visit the place where the soldiers of the 137. French Regiment were isolated from their comrades on June the 12th.
After the position was taken by the Germans soldiers of various units weere buried in that trench. Rifles with the bayonette up were stuck in the ground so that the place could be found later.
In 1919 when the former commander of the 137th infantry regiment visited the place where he and his men fought hard and thought that his men had been buried alive when he saw a couple of bayonets sticking out of the ground.
Right after lots of articles in the newspapers about the tragedy appeared in newspapers everywhere. Reading one of the articles urged the American banker Rand to erect a Monument for the fallen. So the "Byonette Trench" is truely a memorial for the fallen.

Dead French soldiers

Our last stop will be a visit of the outside and inside of the Fort Douaumont

The Fort was built in 1885 and reinforced until 1913.
The Douaumont is 4 times larger then the neighbouring Fort Vaux.


The inside is covered by 12 metres of reinforced concrete.
At the beginning of the war Douaumont was believed to be the strongest Fortresse in the world.

In 1915 the guns were taken out of the Fort and on the 25th of February 1916 the Douaumont is taken by the Germans .

It was retaken on October the 24th 1916 at a tremendous cost of French lives.
During the time of the German occupation the Douaumont served as a shelter for the troops and housed munitions and provisions.
During the French offenive against the Douaumont guns with 400mm (about 16 inch) caliber were used.

Douaumont in November 1916                                                   

After visiting the Douaumont we will have a short visit to Fort Vaux where we visit the outside before we return to Germany.

 

Remains of a Bunker	Old trenches
Map of Verdun 1916 / Click to enlarge (2.244 KB)