Feeling thoroughly rested after our day off in Verdun, we set off in low cloud and a biting wind on Stage 6 of the WFW. We decided not to follow the WFW route out of the city along the Meuse Canal to Champ, primarily as it had rained solidly the day before, causing concerns that the towpath track would be waterlogged and impassable. Instead, we stuck to the high ground to the north of Vacherauville, on the eastern bank of the Meuse, which afforded us an excellent view across the flood plain back towards Verdun.
The Battle of Verdun conjures up images of the slaughter and destruction that took place on the eastern bank of the Meuse around the forts of Douaument and Souville. In fact, the battle was prosecuted with equal ferocity on the western bank. A kilometre from the Meuse crossing at Champ sits the remains of the destroyed village of Cumieres. The village was evacuated in 1914 and briefly occupied by the Germans in September before being retaken as part of the Marne offensive. After limited gains in February 1916, the Germans relaunched the Verdun offensive in March 1916, this time attacking either side of the Meuse. The vital ground of Cote (hill) 304 and 295 (known as Mort Homme or Dead Man‘s Hill) were the primary objectives on the western bank. Vicious fighting took place on these hills throughout the spring and early summer of 1916, with thousands of Germans and French soldiers killed or wounded as they launched attack after counter-attack. On the summit of Mort Homme surrounded by a moonscape of shell caters and old trenches, still visible today, stands a memorial to the French 69th Division, with the epitaph ‘Ils n’ont pas passe’ (They did not pass).
The impressive Jacques Froment-Maurice sculpture evokes a feeling of death, defiance and sacrifice, and the chill wind that whipped through the tress did nothing to lessen this impression. Although nature has reclaimed this land, one cannot help but feel an over whelming sense of sadness, as you walk along the trail through the old trenches. The scale of the unimaginable human catastrophe is perhaps best symbolised by Bethincourt, yet another village ‘wiped’ off the map during 1916. Its population evacuated to Verdun, and the village was reduced to rubble by the Artillery of both French and German armies.
As we reached the end of today’s walk, we climbed to the American Monument on the hill above the new village of Mountfaucon d’Argonne. The old village, like so many others had been destroyed. Sitting astride the crest of the hill, old Mountfaucon had first been evacuated then fortified by the Germans and then finally destroyed. The US 1st Army captured this key hill village in September 1918 during the final ‘100 days’ of WW1. The memorial commemorates the US contribution to the liberation of this area, and marks the lives lost in the process.
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