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Europe » France » Lorraine » Verdun August 31st 2006

East of the city of Verdun you will find the battlefield of the greatest battle in World War I. Verdun is a symbol for the massive slaughter of soldiers in this war. Even the landscape has its scarves today as you see on the pictures. On the top of the battlefield stands Fort Douaumont which the Germans were able to occupy for nine months. Verdun keeps the memory for us how cruel a war is. In the Ossuaire the bones of 600 000 German and French soldiers are buried. Let’s hope their victim for us was not in vain. ... read more
View Fort Douaumont 1
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Inside Fort Douaumont

Europe » France » Lorraine » Nancy August 28th 2006

Europe » France » Lorraine » Nancy May 7th 2006

Hello everyone, We had the most interesting visit to the Maginot Line. We were told that the French started building it in 1929 in a spirit of "never again" after they were so badly hit during WWI. The purpose was to protect that part of their border that wasn't protected by friendlies--Belgium or by natural defence--mountains. Also, military service had been reduced to one year, so this conserved manpower. It was five hundred miles of subterranean tunnel that contained a rail system for moving ammunition. The walls were constructed of brick, cement and gridiron and were almost four feet deep. During WWII it accommodated 1,000 men and forty officers. They worked in three shifts, eight hours of defence work, eight hours of sleep, six hours of repair and maintenance work with the final two hours to ... read more
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