My mother is French, and my grandfather was a French military surgeon at Verdun. He was awarded France’s Legion of Honour medal for staying at his post and continuing to perform surgeries on wounded soldiers while the hospital in which he was working as being actively shelled by the Germans. He was a tough old coot. He was born in 1862, and was 62 years old when my mom was born in 1924. He died at age 96 when I was about 15 or 16. He had slipped and fallen on one of his daily 6 mile country walks and broken his arm. He was bedridden after the fall and immediately declined, and died a couple of weeks later. He was an ornery old cuss, but because my mom was his youngest child, and I was her first born (in 1952), I was his favorite grandchild, and he treated me with great affection. Mom will be 99 in December, but she is declining herself now, and I doubt she’ll make it to 100. What amazes me about my family history is that my grandfather was born during the middle years of the American Civil War, albeit in a different country. Time flies.
See how French 🇫🇷 DNA explains the longevity of your relatives ! 😎 Merci pour votre témoignage ô combien atypique mais intéressant. Les temps anciens ne sont pas si loins en effet.
The Dead Marshes were actually based on a WW1 location so it is cool that you make that connection. Tolkien was on the Somme in 1916 where countless corpses were rotting in water filled shell craters. In 1986 I found a French helmet not too far from from where you are filming, a French Lebel rifle as well, bent into a semicircle and muzzle blown off. I have a German helmet a friend found still laying on the surface. In the 1980's I had books and a 35 mm camera. Wish today's tech and internet was available to me back then. Forts: French saw how the Belgian forts (Liege/Namur) were smashed by the German/Austrian 420/305's in 1914 and decided to downgrade their reliance on fixed forts. They did not realize that Belgian forts were flawed. They were solid concrete/masonry and shattered under big hits. The French forts had a thick layer of sand incorporated into their structure, which absorbed much of the impact of the heavy shell. Emotional Scars: When detailing my explorations of Verdun to a older German man in their Army Reserves he pulled me aside and advised that I say the name Verdun in a more solemn manner. When talking to my German landlord (a WW2 East Front vet) I mentioned that I was returning from a trip to Verdun he had visible shivers run throughout his body. His dad had been at Totermann. Morte Homme = Dead Man's Hill. On my last visit in 1988, I saw modern French and German soldiers were walking the battlefield together - it made me realize that time was marching on and the ancient hatreds were fading. It was a very positive moment. In the 1980's your videos would have left military historians speechless. The production value and your delivery style are superb. * On a bet I filled a backpack with "artifacts" at Verdun in less than 20 minutes. The foliage and ground cover is naturally much thicker 40 years on.
I cannot imagine what it would feel like to be there - the earth and energy of a place like this does not recover easily from something so devastating.
It was a haunted and abandoned place. Living in the US Army in the 1980's West Germany, you were never alone. Neither during army activities or in the hustle/bustle of the then vibrant West German cities. Walking around Verdun and the Argonne Forest you were struck by the feeling of being alone. Seemed like there were little or no birds singing. In the open areas in the north Somme/Flanders you did not feel this isolation and abandonment. Visited most of the front from Verdun to the sea.@@cdd4248
The comment section on this history lesson is good reading. It fills in unintentional gaps and is wonderful to read from so many points of view. Thank you for your comments.
I love this new style of editing, especially the intro sequence. Incerdible music choice and cinematics, im a huge fan of all the visualizations and top down map views to help us orient ourselves to what we are seeing on the ground.
Damn. That was i think one of your strongest intros yet. This new series is looking incredible! That anecdote from Lord Of the Rings is fitting as Tolkein himself served in ww1 and fought in the Somme. So im sure he would have known first hand the devastation of the Great War.
Wow, I didn’t know this about Tolkien. To be fair, I never looked up much about him because I was never interested in LOTR. Gonna have to give the movies a shot now but watch with a WWI lens. Thank you for the information!
I cannot tell you enough how awesome this episode was. What a ride of up and down emotions. In the joy of experiencing all of this history, you are at the same time consumed with the overwhelming sadness of the events that transpired in these places, turned once beautiful areas into a marshland of death and claimed the last moments of so many. This was beyond a walk into history. It was an emotional journey. Well done my friend!
I’m speechless. One of the best intros and fitting music pieces, to date. I closed my eyes and could imagine what the soldiers were going through. Heartbreaking, simply heartbreaking 💔
As a French I’d like to thank you for this episode and those about to come. What happened in the Bois des Caures, the heroism of Emile Driant and his « chasseurs » is a story that one discovers only by studying the battle. I mean you don’t learn it in the usual school books, and yet when you begin to read the story of this incredible man and his 2 battalions, the details of the fighting reported by the few survivors, this is something that marks you forever. When you were in the headquarter on the left, where a shell has fallen and made it collapse, this is where the secretary of Colonel Driant, Lt Henry PETITCOLLOT, was killed and several other soldiers wounded. He started as sergeant and fought twice in Verdun (1914-1916). I think that the Bois des Caures in 1916 could be somehow our Fort ALAMO, this comparison is to point out that unfortunately and may be shamefully there is no great French movie or even no movie at all honoring the memory of the French soldiers, our « poilus », who fought in Verdun, and especially here during the first days of the battle. So thank you once again for bringing back these mens and theirs spirits for a while to the present. I went there a year ago, made almost the same walk as you, just to feel as near as possible what my country and the generation who fought for it were. Back to the present, with regards to the situation of our country…it’s a very complex feeling…you come there to find hope but return with a great sadness.
If you aren’t a history professor, then you should be. Your style of delivery of historical facts touches all the senses; and forces the viewer back in time to the actual events! Well done!!
This is like the hardcore history podcast visualized for youtube and i cannot get enough. What an incredible job these people do, to describe these things with such reverence but without losing the empathy, truly remarkable
Finally finding the time to sit down and watch these videos properly. I don’t know a lot about WW1 and even less about Verdun. So this series will be enjoyable to watch for multiple reasons!
I love it when these places are seemingly untouched and there arent any other people around. Keeps the sancitity and serenity of the experience intact and allows us to explore a deeply powerful moment in history unpertrubed, almost as if it is untouched but by nature. Quite something to it i think when there minimal human interference on these sacred sites.
There is no human interference because nobody is allowed to live there- it is called "Le Zone Rouge" - The Red Zone. The soil there is dangerous, with unexploded ordnance and gas shells. Nobody lives there- it is a dead place.
Verdun is still a big scar in our French history, but also a very unique link between many French citizens, because as the attrition was huge, almost all Regiments went on duty to Verdun at some stage, which makes that , among French people, almost all our grand grand fathers who did this war shared this awful slaughter. I don’t see any other historical moment in history that almost all families of a country have lived and shared in there blood. The whole world lived 9/11 , but not every American had a family member impacted by this tragedy, however, every body will always remember. Verdun impacted all the families of this country (as well as our German brothers) . Historical knowledge is quite low in France, but 107 years later, almost all French citizens know what was Verdun.
JD, thank you for doing this series. That said, I have stood at Gettysburg's 'Devils Den"; Antietam's "Sunken Lane"; and along the wall at Marye's Heights of Fredericksburg and they were hard places to stand where the dead were not quiet. I cannot imagine the battlefields of Verdun and I am not certain I could stand there without tears.
OMG amazing. Please let this be a long series. I hope this brings you back to Kansas City to the National WWI Museum and Memorial where all of us can then have a much more greater appreciation for those artifacts. I live 10 minutes from this museum and have been here many times. Across the street at Union Station, I saw the absolutely amazing and extremely sobering Auschwitz: The Exhibition. I am so mad at myself. I've passed up so much German Pickelhaube helmets and WW1 trench art at garage and estate sells here in Kansas City over the years and all it was so cheap. I've seen dozens of these helmets over the past 15 years. Countless trench art.
Thank you for this tribute to my country , and to french soldiers . My grangreat father fought 4 years , and was killed in April 1918; His body was never recovered.
Thank you for this video! I’ve been a huge admirer of Col Driant since I first learned of him. It was because of he and his Chaussers that the French were able to prepare to defend against the German attack. He is a hero and IMO doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. I’m pumped about this series. Verdun both fascinates and terrifies me. I hope to visit the battlefield soon.
Another masterpiece J.D. Your work, story telling, and production values keep getting better and better. Keep it coming. So necessary in a world bereft of historical understanding and perspective.
I'm Belgian and always had a strong connection to WW1 and WW2 stories. I've had two great grandfathers living through WW1. The first one was a cavalryman, captured at the Yser battle, quite early on. He was sent to a camp in Germany to work for the remaining years of war. The stories that reached me, almost a century later, told me that he was treated quite okay. He got back after liberation with very few traumatic feelings. He returned to our family and continued to live a peaceful life. The second great-grandfather lived through WW1 all those years and survived the trenchwar psychically, yet emotionally damaged to the bone. For the remainder of his life he could barely enjoy anything, always sat on his seat with his mind wandering into darkness whilst the smoke of his pipe filled the room. His mental scars of battle never healed. We visit the battlefields and graveyards of WW1 every few years and it always gives me the chills. It's a weird feeling to have, a dark nostalgia for a time I never experienced in real time. Last year I came back from a visit and wrote this small poem in memory of those fallen at the trenches. Trench. A chain of barbed wire Where death crawls next to smoke Deafening silence follows fire When the night puts on its cloak. As the poppy lost its leafs Young wolves never to roam A weeping mother griefs For a name written in stone. - Jan Van Roy
Thank you very much for this awesome video. I'm really excited for this new series. The circumstances of the burial of Lt. Col. Driant made me think of the state burial given to Manfred von Richthofen by the allies. WW1 was just so different from WW2, there was a lot of mutual respect for each other and espacially the common soldiers knew by winter of 1914, that they were all in the same dark situation. Those poor souls...
I've lived in Missouri my whole life. I've been to 14 civil war and rev. War battlefields, I live 15 minutes from Wilson's Creek. I haven't been this excited about a series in a while I've been hoping for a Verdum Somme Passchendale and some U.S. ww1 action for a whole Thank you JD and to everyone who makes this possible!!!!
Very excited that you are covering this JD. I have some trench art that has Verdun in scripted on it that was sent to me from a friend of mine in France. Thanks again JD for all u do!
The fact that the ground is still showing scars of the battles from over 100yrs ago is just insane to think about. Many people look at ww2 and swift battles like Dunkirk or the invasion of Russia at the start, but man this video brings a new light to WW1 and the horror it was. Literally fighting for inches of ground, sacrificing thousands for it too. War of attrition, the quality and the editing is improving everyday JD, i can really tell you're putting in solid effort and work to make sure history is not forgotten, and to that thank you for doing so!
WW1 was much deadlier and involved much more people than WW2 did. The French truly showed their might and almost single handedly won WW1 on the western front, they were the great victors of WW1, but it came at a very high price in lives and French land destroyed. If Anglo speakers would read more about it, and not only English and American propaganda written by English speaking authors, but relied more on archives and other countries littérature, they’d appreciate the sacrifice France did, more than one generation of frenchmen died, and they might understand better the pacifist mindset in the French society at the beginning of WW2. But it’s unlikely to happen, as both the UK and the USA were protected by the seas and never saw their country invaded and the battlefield on their own grounds, but for colonies. Something that isn’t talked much, if ever, by English speakers is the role of the French in the Eastern and southern fronts: Italy, Serbia, Bulgaria, where they were pivotal for the victory. The same goes for other battlefields all around the world. And the same applies for WW2, where English speakers literally have no knowledge of the French battles in Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific, etc.
My great-grandfather fought and died at the Battle of Verdun. Great introduction to an exciting series JD! I'm looking forward to the rest of the series about the Battle of Verdun!
Thank you for this episode of WW I. I remember visiting the trenches as a child at Diksmuide, Passchendaele, Ypres (Flanders Field Museum), Hill 62 trenches and so many more. History lover from that moment on. Could feel the absolute horror these brave men and women were facing. Even the smell stays with you. Thank you for keeping history alive. That the upcoming generations never forget what these men and women sacrificed. Lest We Forget!
I have literally no knowledge of anything WWI. And I couldn’t be more excited to watch this series and learn! Thank you for another outstanding installment, JD!
For Falkenhayn to state, whether true or false, that his strategy was attrition was to confess to his primitive and unimaginative mindset as a military commander. Or, perhaps, it was a measure of desperation due to each side's inability to break through the trench stalemate in the then year-and-a-half old war. It was supposed to be a short war of movement when first imagined. WWI is sometimes neglected in historical study and that is not good. It had monumental future consequences and also, I believe, was the transition point between old and new style of warfare. I'm glad that you are doing this piece. I'm sure it is very challenging due to the passing of years.
I can't thank you enough for doing this series on Verdun. I lived there 70 years ago right after WWII. These videos bring back so many memories and I thought I would never see again what to me were areas where I played as a girl. I wonder if it is possible to purchase the entire series.
I have to say, your video collection is of such excellent quality and so professionally produced, that I believe you should be honored for your work. I have never had the pleasure of viewing such excellence on TH-cam until I found your channel. I appreciate your efforts and hope you continue producing for years to come. Thanks so much!
A new level of excellence! Walking the ground in this area, it’s beyond belief. Fort. Duamont, the Ossuary, the carnage. Like Gettysburg, Shiloh, Normandy et al; you cannot really fully understand it until you walk it. So well done, and done with respect.
Love this new series, JD. I love how you cover this "war to end all wars" as Woodrow Willson called it. Always have understood that it was this war and its outcome that tragically paved the way for the next war. Thank you for bringing this tragic war to life with this series. Looking forward to more.
I felt so sorry for you that your gear was stolen. Glad to see you back with another fantastic series. Been to Verdun myself a couple of years ago. Will never forget the experience. The calm and eerie forests with shellholes everywhere.
Emile Driant’s story is one of the most compelling, tragic and courageous stories of the First World War. Because of the language barrier much of the WW1 material I consume is Anglocentric though the French had 1.4 million dead compared to roughly 890,000 for Britain and the Western Front was nearly entirely contested on French or Belgian soil. Thanks for highlighting this battle and Émile Driant’s story.
Thank you, JD. I realize just watching this how woefully ignorant I am of much of the history of WWI. I had definitely never heard of Colonel Driant and the details of his final stand and passing. Very moving. Looking forward to watching more from this series.
I lived in a small town like this until I was 5. I can still see the house I lived in. I can’t imagine it ever being gone. This is so heart breaking. Lives were devastated and everything they knew was gone. This video really touched me in so many ways. Thank you for another amazing but very sad video.👍😢
Thanks for this great contribution. I think it was Fleury that changed hands eleven times. The utter destruction is just beyond belief. When i was there many years ago the silence was palpabele. Thanks for your words too and the way you delivered them. I had similar emotions being there. The music you selected adds a lot to the feeling of loss you expressed. Great work, with great feeling. Tx!!
12:56 My Great-grandfather was killed one of these great prepared artillery barrages 7 months earlier at LaFontenelle in the Vosges Mountains July 8th 1915. The French artillery chopped the mountainside to pieces were he was on the front line. The Germans lost their positions on the hill for a few days and regained it, and it is unknown if his body was ever recovered.
This stuff is terrible and doesn’t really compute to my American brain. We don’t have battlefields like this that are still modern enough for grandchildren to share sentiments of the war. Our civil war was 150 years ago, and it was fought with muskets and black powder. Ww1 was slightly more modern soldiers, but modern day weapons blowing them to pieces. the trauma that does to a population is indescribable. Although we fought in ww1 (and although it pains the French to admit, saved the day) our mental record of war almost collectively stops at ww2.
I’m glad we’re friends today btw, I can’t imagine having to fight and kill Germans today, it’s basically Fratricide and it was back then as well. If anything, the French are the “odd ones”, being that they look vastly different from the British or the Germans, who ethnically are cousins. History is wild.
@@agentmueller As a postscript my German great-grandmother remarried after the war. Along with her husband killed, both her younger brothers met their demise around same time frame at another part of the western front of death. My other German great grandfather of the 2./ 5th Bavarian Infantry Regt. survived. Albeit he suffered gangrene in his left shin at Longueval 8/1916 which monthly made its presence known.
The narrative, the visuals, the music, the animated maps. Another masterclass JD! Very excited to watch this series, hopefully we'll see some sites in my country Belgium
Excellent video. While I have knowledge of many of the WWII battles fought in Europe, I know very little about the important battles of WWI. This was very informative and at least now I know a little about that horrible battle at Verdun. Thanks JD! You keep upping your game!
No matter what you believe or how a story becomes a legend, this is what history is all about. I think the legends are what bring people to finding out more about the real history. TY for another great video.👍😁
Idk if its just me, but i have found in being a history enthusaist and learning about the great long history of our people. That sometimes it is within the darkest chapters of human history we find the most poweful and meaningful lessons...reminders of our great potential and the consequences of loosing our way with it. As is said, you often learn more from your failures than in your successes and i feel the same can be said of humanity as a whole. There is something about seeing a traumatic event, or seeing the thousands of graves marked on the fields of france, or the endless names of the missing...that gives an immense weight and great meaning to the sacrifice. Something that cannot be quantified in words. If actions speak louder than words, then nothing speaks louder than a thousand graves, or an empty tomb for a lost generation. There is a certain sense of responsibility. A responsibility to future generations of humankind not to repeat the same mistakes. In that we are all on this road, all part of the same centuries long tale that is still being written...and it is within our and future generations hands to write the final chapter of it all, and to see it through to the end. I feel more connected to history in that way. Not as some past event that took place long ago, disconnected from the present. But rather a part of the same story that is still being written with which we now have the choice to write its next chapter. Anyhow, i just thought id share that. Thats just how i feel about studying these great and terrible events in the long history of our species. Its triumphs and its tragedies... There is a certain importance to learning of them. Perhaps even more so than the happier and easier times.
I was searching for videos about the battle of Verdun because next week I am going to visit the battlefields of Verdun with my 12 year old son. He is very interested in the history of the Great War and WO2. My great grandfather was a Belgian Grenadier in the Great War. He fought 4 years at the Yser in Flanders and survived. Your videos are really good. Subscribed... Greetings from Flanders, Belgium.
You are so very knowledgeable, and respectful-your documentaries are masterfully produced. The comments brought forth by your documentaries are also a masterclass in slivers of history.
Wow!!! 😢 Such a sad place.. and you are braver than I, going in that tunnel alone (not just for the wildschwine). This Verdun series has been totally phenomenal to watch, and so moving. I served in the British Army, I've been to Ypres etc. and been emotional visiting those places.. but Verdun is even more of a hell. Superb work!
Some of your best work and I have been watching for quite some time. I have been to Ypres and there are many places where tractors can't till the soil and only cows are allowed in the fields due to unexploded ordnance. Were you made aware of and warned about this during your visit to Verdun? The first field you show in the video is obviously safe as it is being farmed. But gosh, wandering around the woods would have made me very apprehensive.
Your work is outstanding, JD! Incredible beginning to this series. No question, this is my favorite channel!! THANK YOU for sharing all the important history that you do.
Wow - just wow. Thank you for this fantastic episode. I am 54 and I have studied Verdun since I was in college. I hope to make it there someday but if I can't, this video gave me great direct insight!
Ich bin in den 90er und 00 Jahren etliche Male unterwegs gewesen mit meiner Freundin und meinem Hunden. Ich war durch Zufall damals auf das Buch von German Werth ,Verdun Unternehmen Gericht gestoßen. Die Schlacht ließ mich Jahre lang nicht mehr los! Ich wohnte in Marre ,von dort bin ich in jeden Winkel gelaufen. Der Bürgermeister von Marre ,gab mir Pläne von den Forts auf dem Hügel. Marre,Bois Borrus und Belle Epine ect. Damals war noch einiges nicht so schrecklich umgebaut, wie das Fort Douaumont, dieses hat mit der ursprünglichen Anlage nicht mehr viel gemeinsam! Trotzdem, für mich war es für Jahre meine 2te Heimat. Was dort an Schrecken und Elend, Verlust und Wahnsinn geherrscht hat ,ist kaum zu beschreiben. Deshalb finde ich deine Arbeit sehr wichtig und wertvoll! Heute wo wieder einmal ein Stellungskrieg tobt,wo Tausende junger Menschen in den Tod marschieren, ist es wichtig jungen Leuten zu vermitteln, was das bedeutet! Ich bin durch Verdun in fast allen Orten des Weltkrieges in Frankreich und Belgien gereist! Jeder der diese riesigen Friedhöfe sieht, sollte klar sein, Krieg ist ein Verbrechen !Schöne Serie, ich werde mich langsam durcharbeiten!
I've been watching your excellent videos for a couple years now and I must say, every one gets just a step better. If I couldn't get you to a million subs in one click I'd do it in a heartbeat. Thank you for your continued hard work! Your videos should be shown in classrooms across America.
Hey friend, I'm not sure how I found this channel but it is so entertaining and imformative! I spend Sundays binge watching episodes every week. Thank you!
Fantastic episode. I know so very little about the 'Great War'. Please keep 'em coming. Everyone should see this in order to appreciate what the participants went through. Thank you.
I was a French Exchange student in 1990 from the UK and my French penfriends family were from Sedan.They they took me here to Verdun. I was 14 years old and I will never forget. Lest We Forget 🙏
Great video and incredible animations. Verdun is a very interesting battle that I feel like isn't really talked about much in the English speaking world at least, so good on you for making this series.
Thanks for this great and moving video. I'm French and to my shame I did not know Emile Driant. The French wikipedia article on him is very good. I learned that in 1914, as 59 years old and member of the parliament, he could not be recalled. He volunteered to fight. He was also a successful writer of 30 "military science fiction" novels as "Capitaine Danrit" (his pen name) and was compared to Jules Verne. Thanks again to make me aware of this very interesting hero.
Howdy, I have been around 1975 in Verdun and until today it's one of the biggest battlefield impressions I ever encountered and I've been from Skagen all the way down to Normandy on the Westwall and on the US civil war battlefields as well and on many others around Europe.
Wasn't verdun the place with the most casualties per sq km if I recall correctly? In that it is, can be considered one of the most violent and deadly battles in human history just due to the sheer concentration and scale of the slaughter.
I was always attracted to know more about the battle of Verdun, and JD is mastering explaining it ! Thank you so much for your time and amazing explanation of what really happened in that particular battlefield ! Keep it up !
Wow, very good narration ,text , video and graphics!! Good job. I also have to salute your bravery. I'm sure at some point there were land mines all over that area. I know when I visited France I was warned not to walk off the beaten paths. But that was 1990 and by now I'm sure a thorough clean up has been done. But still....I'm no expert and i wonder how long munitions can be dangerous.
Most of the remaining signs of trenches in the bois de caures are pre 1917 or later when the battles in the area lost force. Driants original lines were most probably completely annihilated during the battle of verdun from February to December 1916. Some accounts speak of trenches being reduced to ground level during the timespan of two hours of bombardement. Anyway: Thank you for covering this episode of WW1.
Will say again, and can't say enough, Verdun is a one of a kind place to visit. It's unreal almost; the battle seems like it might have only happened a few years ago, except for the size of everything betraying that it happened over 100 years ago. Highly recommend to any person interested in history. I know for an American it might not be the highest priority; its outside of Paris, but not too far from Reims, which is also awesome to visit BTW - you can see where Eisenhower's headquarters and where the surrender happened, but Verdun is truly a place people of all nations should remember because no battle has ever equaled the intensity of it that relatively small piece of ground. Verdun has lots of English signage so any American can fully experience it.
I have been to verdun many times. I must say that for me this place has its own aura that fascinates and shocks me every time. Just seeing you in the video walking through this beautiful forest where the birds chirp just 110 years after the absolute and unimaginable hell happened at the same place. I am not superstitious or anything, but you can feel it when you are there. Thx for this great story from this Battle.
I really enjoy your vids. Great content, presented in a gentle conversational style. Like 2 mates chatting over a beer. Not the more common, slightly loud, very patronising lecturing style of so many historians. Keep well & keep doing what you do so well 👍🏻🏴
My mother is French, and my grandfather was a French military surgeon at Verdun. He was awarded France’s Legion of Honour medal for staying at his post and continuing to perform surgeries on wounded soldiers while the hospital in which he was working as being actively shelled by the Germans. He was a tough old coot. He was born in 1862, and was 62 years old when my mom was born in 1924. He died at age 96 when I was about 15 or 16. He had slipped and fallen on one of his daily 6 mile country walks and broken his arm. He was bedridden after the fall and immediately declined, and died a couple of weeks later. He was an ornery old cuss, but because my mom was his youngest child, and I was her first born (in 1952), I was his favorite grandchild, and he treated me with great affection.
Mom will be 99 in December, but she is declining herself now, and I doubt she’ll make it to 100. What amazes me about my family history is that my grandfather was born during the middle years of the American Civil War, albeit in a different country. Time flies.
Wow what a history , be proud of it .
Quelle histoire 🇨🇵. Vous pouvez être fier en effet
Thats Awesome!
@@Indiana_vador_47 Merci beaucoup!
See how French 🇫🇷 DNA explains the longevity of your relatives ! 😎 Merci pour votre témoignage ô combien atypique mais intéressant. Les temps anciens ne sont pas si loins en effet.
The Dead Marshes were actually based on a WW1 location so it is cool that you make that connection. Tolkien was on the Somme in 1916 where countless corpses were rotting in water filled shell craters.
In 1986 I found a French helmet not too far from from where you are filming, a French Lebel rifle as well, bent into a semicircle and muzzle blown off. I have a German helmet a friend found still laying on the surface. In the 1980's I had books and a 35 mm camera. Wish today's tech and internet was available to me back then.
Forts: French saw how the Belgian forts (Liege/Namur) were smashed by the German/Austrian 420/305's in 1914 and decided to downgrade their reliance on fixed forts. They did not realize that Belgian forts were flawed. They were solid concrete/masonry and shattered under big hits. The French forts had a thick layer of sand incorporated into their structure, which absorbed much of the impact of the heavy shell.
Emotional Scars: When detailing my explorations of Verdun to a older German man in their Army Reserves he pulled me aside and advised that I say the name Verdun in a more solemn manner. When talking to my German landlord (a WW2 East Front vet) I mentioned that I was returning from a trip to Verdun he had visible shivers run throughout his body. His dad had been at Totermann. Morte Homme = Dead Man's Hill. On my last visit in 1988, I saw modern French and German soldiers were walking the battlefield together - it made me realize that time was marching on and the ancient hatreds were fading. It was a very positive moment.
In the 1980's your videos would have left military historians speechless. The production value and your delivery style are superb.
* On a bet I filled a backpack with "artifacts" at Verdun in less than 20 minutes. The foliage and ground cover is naturally much thicker 40 years on.
I cannot imagine what it would feel like to be there - the earth and energy of a place like this does not recover easily from something so devastating.
It was a haunted and abandoned place. Living in the US Army in the 1980's West Germany, you were never alone. Neither during army activities or in the hustle/bustle of the then vibrant West German cities. Walking around Verdun and the Argonne Forest you were struck by the feeling of being alone. Seemed like there were little or no birds singing. In the open areas in the north Somme/Flanders you did not feel this isolation and abandonment. Visited most of the front from Verdun to the sea.@@cdd4248
The comment section on this history lesson is good reading. It fills in unintentional gaps and is wonderful to read from so many points of view. Thank you for your comments.
I love this new style of editing, especially the intro sequence. Incerdible music choice and cinematics, im a huge fan of all the visualizations and top down map views to help us orient ourselves to what we are seeing on the ground.
It is nicely done. Good eye to notice it.
I like this new editing format better
Yes. Maps, graphics, and animation make all the difference.
I like it as well. My dad was a cinematographer and editor back in his day. He'd be very impressed. Good job, indeed.
Damn. That was i think one of your strongest intros yet. This new series is looking incredible!
That anecdote from Lord Of the Rings is fitting as Tolkein himself served in ww1 and fought in the Somme. So im sure he would have known first hand the devastation of the Great War.
Thanks! And yeah, I’ve thought a lot about how The Great War affected Tolkien’s writings.
Tolkien also earned the Military Cross, comparable to our Bronze Star, for action at the Somme.
Wow, I didn’t know this about Tolkien. To be fair, I never looked up much about him because I was never interested in LOTR. Gonna have to give the movies a shot now but watch with a WWI lens. Thank you for the information!
I cannot tell you enough how awesome this episode was. What a ride of up and down emotions. In the joy of experiencing all of this history, you are at the same time consumed with the overwhelming sadness of the events that transpired in these places, turned once beautiful areas into a marshland of death and claimed the last moments of so many. This was beyond a walk into history. It was an emotional journey. Well done my friend!
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I’m speechless. One of the best intros and fitting music pieces, to date. I closed my eyes and could imagine what the soldiers were going through. Heartbreaking, simply heartbreaking 💔
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As a French I’d like to thank you for this episode and those about to come. What happened in the Bois des Caures, the heroism of Emile Driant and his « chasseurs » is a story that one discovers only by studying the battle. I mean you don’t learn it in the usual school books, and yet when you begin to read the story of this incredible man and his 2 battalions, the details of the fighting reported by the few survivors, this is something that marks you forever.
When you were in the headquarter on the left, where a shell has fallen and made it collapse, this is where the secretary of Colonel Driant, Lt Henry PETITCOLLOT, was killed and several other soldiers wounded. He started as sergeant and fought twice in Verdun (1914-1916).
I think that the Bois des Caures in 1916 could be somehow our Fort ALAMO, this comparison is to point out that unfortunately and may be shamefully there is no great French movie or even no movie at all honoring the memory of the French soldiers, our « poilus », who fought in Verdun, and especially here during the first days of the battle. So thank you once again for bringing back these mens and theirs spirits for a while to the present. I went there a year ago, made almost the same walk as you, just to feel as near as possible what my country and the generation who fought for it were. Back to the present, with regards to the situation of our country…it’s a very complex feeling…you come there to find hope but return with a great sadness.
As a French what?
@@elchapito4580 French citizen
There are a lot of French movies on WW1, and many on WW2, but they all date back to before the 1960s.
I was in Verdun last year... there are no words that do that place justices
it's absolutly haunting
Very.
If you aren’t a history professor, then you should be. Your style of delivery of historical facts touches all the senses; and forces the viewer back in time to the actual events! Well done!!
Ha! Appreciate that.
This is like the hardcore history podcast visualized for youtube and i cannot get enough. What an incredible job these people do, to describe these things with such reverence but without losing the empathy, truly remarkable
Finally finding the time to sit down and watch these videos properly. I don’t know a lot about WW1 and even less about Verdun. So this series will be enjoyable to watch for multiple reasons!
Hope that you enjoy them!
I love it when these places are seemingly untouched and there arent any other people around. Keeps the sancitity and serenity of the experience intact and allows us to explore a deeply powerful moment in history unpertrubed, almost as if it is untouched but by nature.
Quite something to it i think when there minimal human interference on these sacred sites.
There is no human interference because nobody is allowed to live there- it is called "Le Zone Rouge" - The Red Zone. The soil there is dangerous, with unexploded ordnance and gas shells. Nobody lives there- it is a dead place.
Verdun is still a big scar in our French history, but also a very unique link between many French citizens, because as the attrition was huge, almost all Regiments went on duty to Verdun at some stage, which makes that , among French people, almost all our grand grand fathers who did this war shared this awful slaughter. I don’t see any other historical moment in history that almost all families of a country have lived and shared in there blood. The whole world lived 9/11 , but not every American had a family member impacted by this tragedy, however, every body will always remember. Verdun impacted all the families of this country (as well as our German brothers) . Historical knowledge is quite low in France, but 107 years later, almost all French citizens know what was Verdun.
JD, thank you for doing this series. That said, I have stood at Gettysburg's 'Devils Den"; Antietam's "Sunken Lane"; and along the wall at Marye's Heights of Fredericksburg and they were hard places to stand where the dead were not quiet. I cannot imagine the battlefields of Verdun and I am not certain I could stand there without tears.
Heck of a place.
OMG amazing. Please let this be a long series. I hope this brings you back to Kansas City to the National WWI Museum and Memorial where all of us can then have a much more greater appreciation for those artifacts. I live 10 minutes from this museum and have been here many times. Across the street at Union Station, I saw the absolutely amazing and extremely sobering Auschwitz: The Exhibition. I am so mad at myself. I've passed up so much German Pickelhaube helmets and WW1 trench art at garage and estate sells here in Kansas City over the years and all it was so cheap. I've seen dozens of these helmets over the past 15 years. Countless trench art.
This one is a masterpiece. The intro, the graphics. Hats off, JD.
Thanks!
Thank you for this tribute to my country , and to french soldiers . My grangreat father fought 4 years , and was killed in April 1918; His body was never recovered.
Thank you for this video! I’ve been a huge admirer of Col Driant since I first learned of him. It was because of he and his Chaussers that the French were able to prepare to defend against the German attack. He is a hero and IMO doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. I’m pumped about this series. Verdun both fascinates and terrifies me. I hope to visit the battlefield soon.
Driant was the man. Hope that people share these videos out with a few friends to help others learn about the battle.
Overwhelming German number, but still they fought, nearly to the last man. That's what heros do.
Another masterpiece J.D. Your work, story telling, and production values keep getting better and better. Keep it coming. So necessary in a world bereft of historical understanding and perspective.
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You’re really taking things to the next level. I’m very excited to see what your future holds with this channel.
I appreciate that!
th-cam.com/video/IZEsI_vj1wU/w-d-xo.html
I'm Belgian and always had a strong connection to WW1 and WW2 stories. I've had two great grandfathers living through WW1. The first one was a cavalryman, captured at the Yser battle, quite early on. He was sent to a camp in Germany to work for the remaining years of war. The stories that reached me, almost a century later, told me that he was treated quite okay. He got back after liberation with very few traumatic feelings. He returned to our family and continued to live a peaceful life. The second great-grandfather lived through WW1 all those years and survived the trenchwar psychically, yet emotionally damaged to the bone. For the remainder of his life he could barely enjoy anything, always sat on his seat with his mind wandering into darkness whilst the smoke of his pipe filled the room. His mental scars of battle never healed. We visit the battlefields and graveyards of WW1 every few years and it always gives me the chills. It's a weird feeling to have, a dark nostalgia for a time I never experienced in real time. Last year I came back from a visit and wrote this small poem in memory of those fallen at the trenches. Trench.
A chain of barbed wire
Where death crawls next to smoke
Deafening silence follows fire
When the night puts on its cloak.
As the poppy lost its leafs
Young wolves never to roam
A weeping mother griefs
For a name written in stone. - Jan Van Roy
Crazy to think the scars on the landscape are over 100 years old. I can't imagine what it would have been like to go through that bombardment 😮
So excited for this series, and you doing this battle is great! This is a fascinating battle in scope,tragedy and heroism! Thank you JD
Lots more coming after this.
Channel and content was already top notch but holy smokes, this is a whole new level of awesomeness!
Thank you very much for this awesome video. I'm really excited for this new series. The circumstances of the burial of Lt. Col. Driant made me think of the state burial given to Manfred von Richthofen by the allies. WW1 was just so different from WW2, there was a lot of mutual respect for each other and espacially the common soldiers knew by winter of 1914, that they were all in the same dark situation. Those poor souls...
I've lived in Missouri my whole life. I've been to 14 civil war and rev. War battlefields, I live 15 minutes from Wilson's Creek. I haven't been this excited about a series in a while I've been hoping for a Verdum Somme Passchendale and some U.S. ww1 action for a whole Thank you JD and to everyone who makes this possible!!!!
Glad to bring it!
Very excited that you are covering this JD. I have some trench art that has Verdun in scripted on it that was sent to me from a friend of mine in France. Thanks again JD for all u do!
The fact that the ground is still showing scars of the battles from over 100yrs ago is just insane to think about. Many people look at ww2 and swift battles like Dunkirk or the invasion of Russia at the start, but man this video brings a new light to WW1 and the horror it was. Literally fighting for inches of ground, sacrificing thousands for it too. War of attrition, the quality and the editing is improving everyday JD, i can really tell you're putting in solid effort and work to make sure history is not forgotten, and to that thank you for doing so!
WW1 was much deadlier and involved much more people than WW2 did. The French truly showed their might and almost single handedly won WW1 on the western front, they were the great victors of WW1, but it came at a very high price in lives and French land destroyed.
If Anglo speakers would read more about it, and not only English and American propaganda written by English speaking authors, but relied more on archives and other countries littérature, they’d appreciate the sacrifice France did, more than one generation of frenchmen died, and they might understand better the pacifist mindset in the French society at the beginning of WW2.
But it’s unlikely to happen, as both the UK and the USA were protected by the seas and never saw their country invaded and the battlefield on their own grounds, but for colonies.
Something that isn’t talked much, if ever, by English speakers is the role of the French in the Eastern and southern fronts: Italy, Serbia, Bulgaria, where they were pivotal for the victory.
The same goes for other battlefields all around the world. And the same applies for WW2, where English speakers literally have no knowledge of the French battles in Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific, etc.
What an amazing episode. Thank you!!! Love the line: "At the very least would make you pee down both legs!" Pure gold JD! I laughed out loud.
Ha! Sometimes things pop in my brain and go right out my mouth.
My great-grandfather fought and died at the Battle of Verdun. Great introduction to an exciting series JD! I'm looking forward to the rest of the series about the Battle of Verdun!
It's amazing to see how nature has reclaimed those battlefield sites in the past 107 years. Great video, JD . . . as always!
Thank you for this episode of WW I. I remember visiting the trenches as a child at Diksmuide, Passchendaele, Ypres (Flanders Field Museum), Hill 62 trenches and so many more. History lover from that moment on. Could feel the absolute horror these brave men and women were facing. Even the smell stays with you. Thank you for keeping history alive. That the upcoming generations never forget what these men and women sacrificed. Lest We Forget!
I have literally no knowledge of anything WWI. And I couldn’t be more excited to watch this series and learn! Thank you for another outstanding installment, JD!
For Falkenhayn to state, whether true or false, that his strategy was attrition was to confess to his primitive and unimaginative mindset as a military commander. Or, perhaps, it was a measure of desperation due to each side's inability to break through the trench stalemate in the then year-and-a-half old war. It was supposed to be a short war of movement when first imagined.
WWI is sometimes neglected in historical study and that is not good. It had monumental future consequences and also, I believe, was the transition point between old and new style of warfare. I'm glad that you are doing this piece. I'm sure it is very challenging due to the passing of years.
I can't thank you enough for doing this series on Verdun. I lived there 70 years ago right after WWII. These videos bring back so many memories and I thought I would never see again what to me were areas where I played as a girl. I wonder if it is possible to purchase the entire series.
I have to say, your video collection is of such excellent quality and so professionally produced, that I believe you should be honored for your work. I have never had the pleasure of viewing such excellence on TH-cam until I found your channel. I appreciate your efforts and hope you continue producing for years to come. Thanks so much!
Hear hear!!
A new level of excellence!
Walking the ground in this area, it’s beyond belief. Fort. Duamont, the Ossuary, the carnage. Like Gettysburg, Shiloh, Normandy et al; you cannot really fully understand it until you walk it.
So well done, and done with respect.
Thank you!
Love this new series, JD. I love how you cover this "war to end all wars" as Woodrow Willson called it. Always have understood that it was this war and its outcome that tragically paved the way for the next war. Thank you for bringing this tragic war to life with this series. Looking forward to more.
I felt so sorry for you that your gear was stolen. Glad to see you back with another fantastic series. Been to Verdun myself a couple of years ago. Will never forget the experience. The calm and eerie forests with shellholes everywhere.
Emile Driant’s story is one of the most compelling, tragic and courageous stories of the First World War. Because of the language barrier much of the WW1 material I consume is Anglocentric though the French had 1.4 million dead compared to roughly 890,000 for Britain and the Western Front was nearly entirely contested on French or Belgian soil. Thanks for highlighting this battle and Émile Driant’s story.
Thank you, JD. I realize just watching this how woefully ignorant I am of much of the history of WWI. I had definitely never heard of Colonel Driant and the details of his final stand and passing. Very moving. Looking forward to watching more from this series.
I lived in a small town like this until I was 5. I can still see the house I lived in. I can’t imagine it ever being gone. This is so heart breaking. Lives were devastated and everything they knew was gone. This video really touched me in so many ways.
Thank you for another amazing but very sad video.👍😢
I don’t think I have said “wow” so many times during one of your videos!! Just blows my mind.
Awesome! So glad that you enjoyed it. Pretty amazing place.
Thanks for this great contribution. I think it was Fleury that changed hands eleven times. The utter destruction is just beyond belief. When i was there many years ago the silence was palpabele. Thanks for your words too and the way you delivered them. I had similar emotions being there. The music you selected adds a lot to the feeling of loss you expressed. Great work, with great feeling. Tx!!
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Absolutely mind blowing! Thank you JD for covering this important event in history ✌🏽
12:56 My Great-grandfather was killed one of these great prepared artillery barrages 7 months earlier at LaFontenelle in the Vosges Mountains July 8th 1915. The French artillery chopped the mountainside to pieces were he was on the front line.
The Germans lost their positions on the hill for a few days and regained it, and it is unknown if his body was ever recovered.
This stuff is terrible and doesn’t really compute to my American brain. We don’t have battlefields like this that are still modern enough for grandchildren to share sentiments of the war. Our civil war was 150 years ago, and it was fought with muskets and black powder. Ww1 was slightly more modern soldiers, but modern day weapons blowing them to pieces. the trauma that does to a population is indescribable. Although we fought in ww1 (and although it pains the French to admit, saved the day) our mental record of war almost collectively stops at ww2.
I’m glad we’re friends today btw, I can’t imagine having to fight and kill Germans today, it’s basically Fratricide and it was back then as well. If anything, the French are the “odd ones”, being that they look vastly different from the British or the Germans, who ethnically are cousins. History is wild.
@@agentmueller As a postscript my German great-grandmother remarried after the war. Along with her husband killed, both her younger brothers met their demise around same time frame at another part of the western front of death.
My other German great grandfather of the 2./ 5th Bavarian Infantry Regt. survived. Albeit he suffered gangrene in his left shin at Longueval 8/1916 which monthly made its presence known.
Great video JD. Had to be a surreal feeling walking across that field and entering the woods.
The narrative, the visuals, the music, the animated maps. Another masterclass JD!
Very excited to watch this series, hopefully we'll see some sites in my country Belgium
Thank you for a fantastic introduction to the battle and introducing a French hero to a wider audience.
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Loving this new series and everything you put into the history to keep it alive and not forgotten.. great work jd!
Thank you sir for a great introduction into this series. Its going to be amazing. But all of your stuff is. RIP to all of those brave souls.
Excellent video. While I have knowledge of many of the WWII battles fought in Europe, I know very little about the important battles of WWI. This was very informative and at least now I know a little about that horrible battle at Verdun. Thanks JD! You keep upping your game!
No matter what you believe or how a story becomes a legend, this is what history is all about. I think the legends are what bring people to finding out more about the real history. TY for another great video.👍😁
Idk if its just me, but i have found in being a history enthusaist and learning about the great long history of our people.
That sometimes it is within the darkest chapters of human history we find the most poweful and meaningful lessons...reminders of our great potential and the consequences of loosing our way with it.
As is said, you often learn more from your failures than in your successes and i feel the same can be said of humanity as a whole.
There is something about seeing a traumatic event, or seeing the thousands of graves marked on the fields of france, or the endless names of the missing...that gives an immense weight and great meaning to the sacrifice. Something that cannot be quantified in words.
If actions speak louder than words, then nothing speaks louder than a thousand graves, or an empty tomb for a lost generation.
There is a certain sense of responsibility.
A responsibility to future generations of humankind not to repeat the same mistakes. In that we are all on this road, all part of the same centuries long tale that is still being written...and it is within our and future generations hands to write the final chapter of it all, and to see it through to the end.
I feel more connected to history in that way. Not as some past event that took place long ago, disconnected from the present. But rather a part of the same story that is still being written with which we now have the choice to write its next chapter.
Anyhow, i just thought id share that. Thats just how i feel about studying these great and terrible events in the long history of our species. Its triumphs and its tragedies... There is a certain importance to learning of them. Perhaps even more so than the happier and easier times.
I was searching for videos about the battle of Verdun because next week I am going to visit the battlefields of Verdun with my 12 year old son. He is very interested in the history of the Great War and WO2.
My great grandfather was a Belgian Grenadier in the Great War. He fought 4 years at the Yser in Flanders and survived.
Your videos are really good. Subscribed...
Greetings from Flanders, Belgium.
Awesome! Thank you. Enjoy your trip!
You are so very knowledgeable, and respectful-your documentaries are masterfully produced. The comments brought forth by your documentaries are also a masterclass in slivers of history.
Wow!!! 😢
Such a sad place.. and you are braver than I, going in that tunnel alone (not just for the wildschwine).
This Verdun series has been totally phenomenal to watch, and so moving.
I served in the British Army, I've been to Ypres etc. and been emotional visiting those places.. but Verdun is even more of a hell.
Superb work!
Some of your best work and I have been watching for quite some time. I have been to Ypres and there are many places where tractors can't till the soil and only cows are allowed in the fields due to unexploded ordnance. Were you made aware of and warned about this during your visit to Verdun? The first field you show in the video is obviously safe as it is being farmed. But gosh, wandering around the woods would have made me very apprehensive.
Your work is outstanding, JD! Incredible beginning to this series. No question, this is my favorite channel!! THANK YOU for sharing all the important history that you do.
Glad you enjoy it! Really do appreciate you watching.
Wow - just wow. Thank you for this fantastic episode. I am 54 and I have studied Verdun since I was in college. I hope to make it there someday but if I can't, this video gave me great direct insight!
Ich bin in den 90er und 00 Jahren etliche Male unterwegs gewesen mit meiner Freundin und meinem Hunden. Ich war durch Zufall damals auf das Buch von German Werth ,Verdun Unternehmen Gericht gestoßen. Die Schlacht ließ mich Jahre lang nicht mehr los! Ich wohnte in Marre ,von dort bin ich in jeden Winkel gelaufen. Der Bürgermeister von Marre ,gab mir Pläne von den Forts auf dem Hügel. Marre,Bois Borrus und Belle Epine ect. Damals war noch einiges nicht so schrecklich umgebaut, wie das Fort Douaumont, dieses hat mit der ursprünglichen Anlage nicht mehr viel gemeinsam! Trotzdem, für mich war es für Jahre meine 2te Heimat. Was dort an Schrecken und Elend, Verlust und Wahnsinn geherrscht hat ,ist kaum zu beschreiben. Deshalb finde ich deine Arbeit sehr wichtig und wertvoll! Heute wo wieder einmal ein Stellungskrieg tobt,wo Tausende junger Menschen in den Tod marschieren, ist es wichtig jungen Leuten zu vermitteln, was das bedeutet! Ich bin durch Verdun in fast allen Orten des Weltkrieges in Frankreich und Belgien gereist! Jeder der diese riesigen Friedhöfe sieht, sollte klar sein, Krieg ist ein Verbrechen !Schöne Serie, ich werde mich langsam durcharbeiten!
JD, If you had been my history teacher when I was in school I probably would have gotten straight A’s!!! You make history come alive!!! Thank You!!!
I've been watching your excellent videos for a couple years now and I must say, every one gets just a step better. If I couldn't get you to a million subs in one click I'd do it in a heartbeat. Thank you for your continued hard work! Your videos should be shown in classrooms across America.
Ohh JD! This was magnificent! Thanks for sharing!
Fantastic video. Makes me excited to see the next one and even more excited to get to Verdun myself in a few weeks
Hey friend, I'm not sure how I found this channel but it is so entertaining and imformative! I spend Sundays binge watching episodes every week. Thank you!
Thanks! Glad that you’re enjoying it. Feel free to share it out with a few others. 🙂
Fantastic episode. I know so very little about the 'Great War'. Please keep 'em coming. Everyone should see this in order to appreciate what the participants went through. Thank you.
Wonderful video. It pulled my heart to see all of the destruction that is still, over 100 years later, apparent. ❤❤
Crazy place to visit.
The most mindblowing thing for me is the lumpy bombed out terrain and entire landscapes. Wow.
I was a French Exchange student in 1990 from the UK and my French penfriends family were from Sedan.They they took me here to Verdun. I was 14 years old and I will never forget.
Lest We Forget 🙏
You are a natural at narrating history. Appreciate the work you put into these.
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@@preshisify no idea what that means lol
oh sorry about that, agreed or i concur, i second that, it's just like a bookmark, i make my own shorthand too
Great video and incredible animations.
Verdun is a very interesting battle that I feel like isn't really talked about much in the English speaking world at least, so good on you for making this series.
Thanks for this great and moving video. I'm French and to my shame I did not know Emile Driant. The French wikipedia article on him is very good. I learned that in 1914, as 59 years old and member of the parliament, he could not be recalled. He volunteered to fight. He was also a successful writer of 30 "military science fiction" novels as "Capitaine Danrit" (his pen name) and was compared to Jules Verne. Thanks again to make me aware of this very interesting hero.
Thanks for another excellent video JD! Your channel is definitetly my all time favorite!!
Wow, thanks!
Howdy, I have been around 1975 in Verdun and until today it's one of the biggest battlefield impressions I ever encountered and I've been from Skagen all the way down to Normandy on the Westwall and on the US civil war battlefields as well and on many others around Europe.
Wasn't verdun the place with the most casualties per sq km if I recall correctly?
In that it is, can be considered one of the most violent and deadly battles in human history just due to the sheer concentration and scale of the slaughter.
@@livethefuture2492 Absolutely, and until today it's tangible.
Brilliant, informative and respectfully presented video. More impeccable stuff JD.
You and your team are champions.
Much appreciated!
I was always attracted to know more about the battle of Verdun, and JD is mastering explaining it !
Thank you so much for your time and amazing explanation of what really happened in that particular battlefield !
Keep it up !
Wow, very good narration ,text , video and graphics!! Good job. I also have to salute your bravery. I'm sure at some point there were land mines all over that area. I know when I visited France I was warned not to walk off the beaten paths. But that was 1990 and by now I'm sure a thorough clean up has been done. But still....I'm no expert and i wonder how long munitions can be dangerous.
Very well done J.D, I was enthralled from start to finish. Good job as always!!! 👏
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You deserve an academy award. My God it is well done. Keep going!
Wow, thank you!
Most of the remaining signs of trenches in the bois de caures are pre 1917 or later when the battles in the area lost force. Driants original lines were most probably completely annihilated during the battle of verdun from February to December 1916. Some accounts speak of trenches being reduced to ground level during the timespan of two hours of bombardement.
Anyway: Thank you for covering this episode of WW1.
Will say again, and can't say enough, Verdun is a one of a kind place to visit. It's unreal almost; the battle seems like it might have only happened a few years ago, except for the size of everything betraying that it happened over 100 years ago. Highly recommend to any person interested in history. I know for an American it might not be the highest priority; its outside of Paris, but not too far from Reims, which is also awesome to visit BTW - you can see where Eisenhower's headquarters and where the surrender happened, but Verdun is truly a place people of all nations should remember because no battle has ever equaled the intensity of it that relatively small piece of ground. Verdun has lots of English signage so any American can fully experience it.
Agreed. Definitely a must see place.
Fantastic to see The Great War getting some outstanding JD coverage.
I have been to verdun many times. I must say that for me this place has its own aura that fascinates and shocks me every time. Just seeing you in the video walking through this beautiful forest where the birds chirp just 110 years after the absolute and unimaginable hell happened at the same place. I am not superstitious or anything, but you can feel it when you are there.
Thx for this great story from this Battle.
Really enjoyed my time exploring this battlefield.
JD. Your work just keeps on getting better and better , with every Video , the music , the graphics , everything, THANK you Frank from montana......
Consistently, the best historical content on YT! Please cover the Battle of Beaumont Hamel from my. own province - fascinating, yet tragic!
Thanks! Beaumont Hamel is on my list.
Captivating to say the least. Greatest tour yet.
Thank you!
Wow. I am grateful to you for taking me to places I will never see in person-thanks for making history come alive.
I was excited when I heard of this series. You are the one I trust to tell me the history with the proper knowledge and respect. Thank you!
This was fantastic! JD, you have the best job ever .
More please…
Got a lot more on the way. 🙂
Excellent 👏 thanks for being so detailed in an easy to understand way. Excellent filming and editing. Looking forward to the next episode.
Very well done. Looking forward to more like this and more on WW1
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Excellent, I cant wait to see this series.
I really enjoy your vids. Great content, presented in a gentle conversational style. Like 2 mates chatting over a beer. Not the more common, slightly loud, very patronising lecturing style of so many historians. Keep well & keep doing what you do so well 👍🏻🏴
Fascinating! Looking forward to the rest of the series.
Awesome, thank you!
i find your stuff fantastic please keep up the great work
"That is a big 'ol hole" has to be my favourite battlefield exploration quote!
Your videos are very special, very respectful. History, sentiment and thoughtfulness.
My compliments.
I know nothing about this battle. First episode was excellent and looking forward to watching subsequent episodes and learning about Verdun.
Thanks! Hope that the series will help you pick up a thing or two. I know that I learned a lot while putting it together.
I have walked this area many times when i lived in France.this is a truly incredible presentation.