90 anniversary of the Battle of Verdun


This month is the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Verdun in northeastern France during WW1. 32 million shells were dropped in an area 50 miles square killing over 300,000 French and German soldiers over 4 months. Numerous myths about Verdun have emerged over the years, mainly patriotic French myths and German excuses, as the article describes. As horrible as the slaughter of Verdun was, it did not equal the combined slaughter of the previous year, 1915, when 1.5 million soldiers were killed, or the major battle which followed it in 1916, the Battle of the Somme. It also did not equal the even more industrialised killing of WW2 when 135,000 were killed in one night's fire bombing of Dresden. Nevertheless, I'll dip my head and wear a poppy to work in memory of those who died in WW1 and the classical liberal order which also died in 1914.

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Posted: Mon - February 20, 2006 at 09:40 PM        

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