VERDUN REVISITED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17145, 26 April 1919, Page 2 (Supplement)

VERDUN REVISITED

A CITY OF THE DEAD. • r+ TE3RIBLE SCABS OP HONOUR. . Inspiring and instructive to an English viator i£aa inspection of Verdun, wrote a, correspondent, from Pans last month. Frenchmen used to say during the war that the cfty typified the soul of Prance, The truth of this claim is proved to a sur-. jaisingj degree by a walk through its itrects ana an examination of its forts. What the city endured during the long weary years of struggle baa given it honcurable place as one of the famous siege towns of history. In foimer wars tie Germans gained admittance, but from 1914 to 1918, dospite terrific and almost overwhelming battering, Verdun defeated evory attempt of tho enemy, who was cast back ignominiensly time after time. Its scars and wounds may not be healed in this generation, but they are its decorations, and for many a day sightseers will desire to witness for themselves scenes that have given tie arms of tho Allies immortal glory. Wo motored into the city at midnight, having travelled along tha Paris road for many miles. Passing through the main street So tRe left, scarcely a whole house could I* seen. The name of a notary still remained on the party wall, tut his old chambers wonld never again receive clients. They bail passed into a heap of debris. The principal hotel was in ruins. Jt wad so, more or less, with the establishments of butcher, draper, baker,, and house-furnisher. I did not see a single place conducting its business. But for the few soldiers on guard at various pouita or passing through ft.be streets, it was like a city of the dead. The only civilians I met were some country people from the neighbouring villages—three or four clad in blacb-who proceeded on their way 6toically, but with an evident feeling of sadness at lie disconsolate scenes they witnessed. I could visualise this pleasant city on the hilltop in July, 1914, and see in the shops and bouses a busy and prosperous people. Children played in the streets. In safely they came and went. Their parents were, buying and selling in the shops, and the regular even flow of life in a French town, even though so near the German borders, proceeded on ite way as for forty years and more previously. Then the Hun, with his cruel ambition, rushed out of his lair to destroy men, women, children, homes and businesses. Gone for ever _ the Verdun of August 3, 1514. „ ~ Some places, however, remain that the Germans could not destroy. We were fortunate in being allowed to inspect one of the great forts on the southern side of the town. Death and destruction might bo above and around the fort, but in this mighty stronghold, built with stone deep into the hillside, the garrison remained secure.