A glimpse near shattered Verdun

A glimpse near shattered Verdun

A glimpse around shattered Verdun

V18931

This glimpse around shattered Verdun shows nothing but desolation. The cloud of smoke in the sky is the tell-tale of a shrapnel shell that has exploded over some point behind the lines, where the Germans thought there were troops. Verdun is a very old French town where there is a stone fort of the ancient construction that towers up in the air and is an easy mark for shells. This fort was not used during the last war, however. Two modern forts, outside of the city itself, were the center of the fighting. Thee, forts, Vaux and Duaumont, were of the modern low-built type that seems a part of the landscape at a very short distance. Verdun itself was never taken by the Germans, but the forts were captured and recaptured again and again. Of course Verdun was badly shelled all of this time, and the country about it looks like what we see here. At one time, the French and German soldiers fought desperately, hand to hand, in the basements of the forts, the Germans finally being driven out. The well known "Ils ne passeront pas" (they shall not pass) will always recall to the French nation the bravery of her sons at Verdun.

1 stereograph : b&w

1 gelatine silver print stereograph (8 x 15 cm) mounted on card (9 x 18 cm)

Copyright. The Keystone View Company

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World War through the stereoscope