RETURN TO VERDUN
World War I had a horror all its own.
Imagine standing in the Ossuary, a building containing the bones of more than 130,000 dead French and German soldiers who were blown apart or left to die in the fields during the eight month battle of Verdun in 1916.
Imagine looking down the hill from the Ossuary at the identified graves of thousands more.
The Ossuary / Verdun, France / June 21, 2013
Imagine visiting Fort Douaumont, which was hit by an estimated 120,000 artillery shells during the war.
Thanks to Callista's insistence that I retrace the trip I took with my parents 55 years ago (see last week’s newsletter on that earlier trip and its impact on my life), we found ourselves in Verdun.
Fort Douaumont / Verdun, France / June 21, 2013
Verdun is an interesting town with pre-Roman roots and a significant medieval history well worth the visit. There are historic buildings, medieval walls, and ancient churches. There is a lovely area along the Meuse River called the Quai d'Londres with little restaurants and brasseries. (As an aside we had Quiche Lorraine while in Lorraine. It has much more cheese than an American quiche.)
The city of Verdun itself was not badly damaged in World War I -- although it was the goal of the Germans who never got there.
The horrors of a battle of annihilation were, however, fought in the hills, valleys, ravines, and streams around Verdun.
It is as though the savage intensity of the German effort to seize Verdun was met by an equally savage French determination to stop them.
The result was an outpouring of blood caused by an avalanche of artillery, gas, flame throwers, grenades, and small arms fire. The museums of Verdun make clear the collective violence and the ingenuity of supply efforts which sustained that violence.
It is helpful to remind Americans that this extraordinary bloodletting was small compared to the battles for Leningrad and Stalingrad in World War II. (Some of President Putin's icy toughness can be understood in the context of Russian sacrifices in World War II which dwarfed anything the Western democracies experienced.)
As I revisited this battlefield, which had changed my understanding of the dangers that threaten civilization, I began to realize why it had affected me so much.
The key fact of Verdun was that it had happened.
Verdun is in a way more horrifying because there was nothing to suggest before World War I began that there was a conflict between the French Republic and the German Empire that could lead to this kind of unending slaughter.
World War II has abundant horrors but it also has at its heart a demonic figure in Adolph Hitler. Somehow Hitlerian evil serves as an explanation of the heroic resistance of those he sought to destroy or dominate.
There was nothing in the summer of 1914 to suggest that "civilized" states could slide into a bloodlust and a thirst for power so profound that 18 months later the German Army would launch a battle of attrition designed to literally bleed France white by killing a generation of young men.
As we visited Verdun today I realized that it was this central horror, that reasonable people can do terrible things and reasonable countries can cause unimaginable pain, which drove me to public service.
The lesson of Verdun is that the world can become dangerous frighteningly fast with horrifying results and a wise country will remain strong enough to deter or defeat such an event.
A Patriotic Side Trip
On our way to Verdun we took a brief detour to visit the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. As with every overseas American cemetery, the American Battle Monuments Commission does a remarkable job of maintaining the appearance of the final resting place of young Americans.
Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery / Romagne-Gesnes, Meuse, France /
June 21, 2013
Callista and I were both surprised to discover that more Americans are buried at Meuse-Argonne than any other cemetery in Europe. We had visited the American cemeteries in Normandy while filming Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny. Situated along the shore, they are very sober and compelling.
The Meuse-Argonne Cemetery has a very different feeling. It is located on a local road in the small town of Romagne. Its quiet workmanlike aura seems to fit the attitude of the American Expeditionary Force of 1917-1918.
In this quiet cemetery is the final resting place of 14,246 Americans, including nine Medal of Honor winners and eighteen sets of brothers.
While we don't study it much now, the Meuse-Argonne battle was a major American contribution to defeating Germany. The battle began on September 26, 1918 and after six weeks of fighting, the American-French forces had pushed the Germans out of the Argonne Forest and crossed the Meuse River. By November 7, 1918, the Allied Forces were on the verge of liberating the city of Sedan. The Armistice ended the fighting four days later.
The addition of these fresh American forces to the Allied effort was the straw that broke the German capacity to fight.
It is worth visiting the American Meuse-Argonne Cemetery to recognize and thank those who gave their lives for our country.
Your Friend,
Newt
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