A glimpse near shattered Verdun


Title

A glimpse near shattered Verdun

Alternative Title

A glimpse around shattered Verdun

Description

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.

Spatial Coverage

Medium

Extent

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

Rights

Copyright. The Keystone View Company
No known restrictions on publication

Relation

World War through the stereoscope

Download File(s)

https://repository.erc.monash.edu/files/upload/Rare-Books/Stereographs/WWI/Keystone/kvc-023.jpg
https://repository.erc.monash.edu/files/upload/Rare-Books/Stereographs/WWI/Keystone/kvc-023b.jpg

Citation

Keystone View Company, “A glimpse near shattered Verdun,” Monash Collections Online, accessed May 29, 2023, https://repository.erc.monash.edu/items/show/25449.

Item Relations

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