We left Verdun this morning and headed out into the French countryside. It was a fun day for me, anyway, because the majority of the stops we made were new (hence the post title). We stepped back into World War I to get a sense of where World War II built from.
Our first destination was, perhaps, a bit on the creepy side – the Douaumont Ossuary. An ossuary, for those who don’t know, is a place to store bones. The story of this ossuary dates to the Battle of Verdun, fought on the slopes it overlooks. Because of the chemical warfare (mustard gas and more) used during World War I, this battle was particularly hellacious. Bodies of the soldiers killed were left on the battlefield for a year before anyone could come take care of them. That’s a long time to be outside and unprotected. While thousands of the young men could be identified even then, more could not. Bones were collected and stored in the ossuary. I believe the staff is still working to identify as many people through DNA as they can - even 100 years later. You can see the bones through the lower windows.
The ossuary stands at the top of a hill, on which is the cemetery for the soldiers killed in the battle. Thousands of graves line the hillside, including a section for the Muslim soldiers who were killed. The French brought them from their colonies – Tunisia, Algeria and Morroco.
Just down the road is a section of trench you can walk above and in. As you may remember from high school history, World War I was fought in the trenches. Both sides dug them, both sides lived in them, and both sides died in them. They weren’t very wide; I don’t think two people could walk side by side in them. They wouldn’t have been covered in grass, either, since the landscape had been blown to smithereens by then.
Fort Douaumont was the next stop. The fort has been converted to a museum (but it was closed and we didn’t have time to see it anyway), and its gun emplacements can be reached on foot. Both the French and the Germans used this fort during World War I, and it’s less than two miles from it to the cemetery.
The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery was next on the list. We expected we’d have to sand the graves of the Nebraska National Guardsmen we were there to visit, but Bruce, the cemetery superintendent, had already done that for us. We laid the wreath in the chapel and found all our guys. This cemetery is the resting place of seven Medal of Honor winners. Bruce also told us that three of the four finalists for the Tomb of the Unknowns are buried here.
Lunch was at the War for Peace Center for Education, Arts and Culture. While it sounds like it’s a fancy building with lots of resources, it’s actually one man’s vision. Jean-Paul de Vries told us when he was 18, he was obsessed with war and everything connected to it. When he was 19, he and a couple friends found a trench with three dead Germans in it. They were just his age when they died, and that changed his outlook. His museum includes 300,000 artifacts found within a three-mile radius of his house. I think he’s done a nice job with his displays - it’s a pretty nice museum. He reminded us that, whatever the uniform, if you empty a soldier’s pockets, they all carry the same things.
Then we were off to Montsec, a memorial built on the top of a hill known as Dry Mountain (mont sec). It was absolutely stunning. The memorial itself reminds me of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., but this is bigger. It was built after World War I and sustained damage in World War II. According to a carving on the side, it was repaired in 1948. It overlooks a valley, so it would be a great strategic location. One of the gentlemen in our group, Jim Skinner, told us about his grandfather who was wounded near this location during World War I.
We stopped at the St. Mihiel American Cemetery, from which you could see Montsec off in the distance. One soldier from the NNG lies buried here, and we visited him. We were also able to retire the colors at 4:30 p.m., which is a great honor.
We made it to Nancy and settled into our home away from home for the next three nights. It is nice to have a place where you can take things out of your suitcase and not have to stuff them back in right away. Nancy, of course, delivers a spectacular light show every night during the summer, so some of us waited up for it. Fortunately, tomorrow is a lighter day, so we can recover.
It’s hard to believe we’ve been here a week already. By this time next week, we’ll all be back home, back to our regular lives. I know, buzz kill. Still a lot to go, however. Tomorrow/today we’ll be at Flavigny Bridge, Fort St. Vincent, Agincourt and Sugar Loaf Hill.
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