The valleys of the dead.....

[Chris Boonzaier]

On the 20th of May 1916 we paraded past out Commanding General. We were a lusty, lively column marching in the spring sunshine. A few days later half of the men were either dead or rolling in pain and blood on the terrible battlefield at Verdun. The other half? Well, the next few weeks of hell would take care of them, melting, shrinking their numbers to almost nothing. Verdun! The grave of thousands of our best men! The symbol for the most terrible war. Yet before her altar I go down on bended knees because I love her with all my old soldiers heart...

Why? Because there, in the ravines of the dead, while the furious battle raged, we knew a total inner silence, a silence we have never known since, the silence men know when they prepare to die.... when all things purile and ugly fall away and a man becomes a child of his God. Verdun, what a overpowering and violent experience! We had never felt closer to God and we asked him not to save us, but for much more! We asked that he give us an inner strength to do our heavy and arduous duty....

I page through my diary from those times. On each page the horror stares out at me, the horror that grabbed our throats like a wild animal trying to steal our breath, our sanity. I hear the ceaseless explosions of the shells, the whizz and whistle of shrapnel, the drone of shells passing overhead. I see the unending fire, smoke and haze that filled the Chauffour and Albain ravines, see the companies as they advance through the ravines of death, sense the waves of destruction rolling over us, smell the rotting bodies, the stink of explosives and gas, feel the horror in the throat as the explosions cover us in earth and shreded flesh, see the drawn, hard, dirty faces of the living and the pale, unmoving forms of the legions of dead. Stammering, calls, the wimpering of the wounded "Take me back, dont let me die here!" and I see us, exhaused, near collapsing as we carry the wounded back...

Leiber, J?ger, Southerners, Northerners, Flamethrower troops, pioneers, ... they ran through the Ravines with us, attacking, being thrown back, attacking again....

[Chris Boonzaier]

One of the valleys....

[Chris Boonzaier]

I am sure Jens or David can supply us with a modern photo of the Albainschlucht...

Here is a rare Bavarian silver bravery medal award doc to a Pionier who dug out some comrades during a heavy barage in the Albainschlucht. The passage in the first post is from a man in one of the regiments he was attached to and described the ravines in the week that the action took place...

[Chris Boonzaier]

And that my friends.... is why a researchable piece of paper is worth way more to me than a shiny, unnamed medal ;-)

[Guest Rick Research]

That's TWO Bavarian Silver Bravery Medal documents you've got now, right? The other for a long round of toss-back-the-grenades, and now this one for being wounded digging out buried comrades (one of whom died) and being wounded himself carrying the other back to safety.

Ever so much more with actual citations than just the "shiny things."

[JensF.]

Thats the Chaffourschlucht isn't it?

One of the valleys....

[Chris Boonzaier]

Thats the Chaffourschlucht isn't it?

I am not sure... I have it on my hard drive, I think it was labeled "Totenschlucht"

[Tom]

It is the valley where also the Carri?rres d'Haudromont were. This is the first valley when you drive from Bras to the battlefield. In the valley the road goes in a sharp curve.

Btw. there are more valleys in Verdun that they used to call Totenschlucht.

[JensF.]

I fear all valleys at Verdun were Totenschluchten...

[Chris Boonzaier]

It is the valley where also the Carri?rres d'Haudromont were. This is the first valley when you drive from Bras to the battlefield. In the valley the road goes in a sharp curve.

Btw. there are more valleys in Verdun that they used to call Totenschlucht.

Hi Tom,

i will post some more pics from this series this weekend, would be great if they can be identified.

All the best

Chris