Forgotten History: The Underground Hell of Fort Vaux

[@MrSaNF]

I remember a field trip we had to Fort Douaumont in school. In the main hallway there was a small open channel for the water to flow out, which was covered in big (~1.5m*2m*0.01m) metal plates. The guide told one of us to just lift it about 20cm and let it drop.A hellish cacophony emerged as it hit the ground, followed by a slight tinnitus."This", the tour guide said, "is as close as we can get to imitate what one artillery hit on the fort sounded like."

[@cracklingvoice]

Wow. That's incredible.

[@djliottchannel6416]

Hey, I also went there for school trip, and I had the same demonstration from the guide ! That was f-ing deafening !

[@brianmccarthy5557]

Work in a factory, especially where there are forging presses.

[@bwhog]

Not just incoming fire, your outgoing fire is going to be echoing through the fort at astounding levels. Even rifle fire would be intolerable.

[@thunderheads4103]

@@brianmccarthy5557 still not as loud as an artillery barrage and absent of hearing protection....unless you work in Asia

[@TOTALLYsup]

Imagining flamethrowers in those small hallways is absolutely nuts. Seeing the range of WW1 Flamethrowers really paints a picture of what it might have been like.

[@pteppig]

Breathtaking experience, imagine the smoke they create and oxygen they burn. Very frightening and effective

[@whenthedustfallsaway]

flamethrowers are a good way to burn up your limited oxygen supply

[@IsaacESFR]

@@whenthedustfallsaway its not like they would make an entire underground fort without vent holes

[@danielocean2665]

I can't agree more; Turning the corner only to find one man, wielding something that can cook a person in the time it takes to make a decision to pull a trigger. Your eyes lock, and you realize it is too late to turn and make it back around the corner. Then you feel the heat start to close in... Welcome to Hell. My prayers go to all those that stood against that, regardless of what side they were on. Unless they were Nazis. Eff them people.

[@sergeantmajorgross4461]

Daniel Ocean Don’t forget commies, commies aren’t people either.

[@GeoStreber]

My great grandfather fought at Verdun. He was one of the lucky ones and survived, after being shot in the lung. Lived to the age of 86. Rest in peace, Wilhelm Krevet II.

[@adolfgaming1761]

Bro the last sentence of a letter send out by the commanding officer in Fort Vaux was: “Don’t leave us”

[@SolidTaylor]

When you trying to put through your imagination all what you see inside... This shit becomes really scary really fast.

[@remytv]

Solid T almost makes trench warfare desirable over this. I agree.

[@QwertyBoredom122]

The title of this video is very fitting.

[@cracklingvoice]

Especially at night. The men on each side would probably be firing back at muzzle flashes. Grenades, knives, entrenching tools, helmets ... the kind of warfare that nobody comes back from. Even if you 'survive', there's no getting away from that. That is true nightmare fuel.

[@hoss2060]

Good lord I can’t even imagine how loud a single gunshot must have been in there let alone sustained fire and grenades

[@Aatell764]

I believe one of the artillery guns blasting it regularly for the 3 months before the assault was a whopping 280mm

[@asdasd-ty9se]

@@Aatell764 that’s less than 12”

[@haaxeu6501]

Add to that the terrifying screams of dying young men, losing their limbs and being burnt alive. I really can't imagine anything worse.

[@gareththompson2708]

@@asdasd-ty9se Context matters. If we were talking about battleships then "less than 12'' " would be a fairly small gun (280mm is in fact about exactly 11 inches). But for land based artillery, even heavy artillery, 280mm is absolutely enormous! Even in naval warfare 280mm is still pretty big, since only battleships/battlecruisers have guns larger than that (the heaviest of heavy cruisers *might* have guns as large as 280mm, although at that point they are likely to be called pocket battleships).

[@mares164]

I had a field trip back in school where we visited one of the forts and they made a demonstration of how an artillery hit sounded, f-ing ear bursting,and they took hits about every 5 minutes

[@altair1983]

whoever survived fighting in these must have been permanently traumatised.

[@Govanmauler]

Imagine the smell by the end...mgs, grenades, flamethrowers and death

[@archetypalculinarian]

And deaf!

[@christianstoll8160]

"Ruptured eardrums" = deaf

[@shawnr771]

Certainly the WW1 was a extremely violent and ghastly experience which none of us can imagine. However I would think there are some known and unknown battles and skirmishes in every war that those who fought them were just as traumatized.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

Govanmauler I'd imagine they'd all be so covered in dust and rubble they couldn't smell much of anything. those walls were dropping tons of concrete and from Ian's brief walk through the floors there had to be just covered in the stuff and everything had to be just caked in powdered cement

[@EvilSSP]

Am I the only one who checked my volume at the beginning?

[@samholdsworth3957]

Evil D no lol

[@sharlin648]

I may have nearly deafened myself too :p

[@YamacKocovali7]

nope xD

[@rivergoff802]

No I did

[@KTo288]

No, I was on the verge of booting up another device and watching it on that.

[@user-ns3vs3bp3e]

It must have been hell to defend those corridors but imagine being the troops being ordered into them without any of the cover and firing ports the French had

[@QwertyBoredom122]

Thats where the threat of a bullet to the back of the head comes in unfortunately.

[@TheThingInMySink]

Yeah, soldiers tend to fight with a lot more tenacity if they fear their officers more than their enemy, this however means that any army which is more afraid of it's officers than their enemy may also often be prone to desertion should they be left standing idle for lenghty periods of time.

[@kenibnanak5554]

There were probably a lot of stocked C96 and stocked Lugers with snail drums used whenever available. Also I am not convinced someone knowing they were going in there wouldn't find a hack saw and shorten their gun a little bit. Not that would be documented..

[@typograf62]

Hell seems to be an understatement. I simply cannot imagine the heat, the thirst and the noise, that would have been down there. Nor the stench - fear and sweat has a very pungent smell. And I am grateful that my imagination fails here.

[@grumpyoldman-21]

@@kenibnanak5554 w e're going to need shot guns for this....

[@cracklingvoice]

Someone in Hollywood needs to make a film about these forts. If movies like Fury, Dunkirk, Saving Private Ryan, and Black Hawk Down can be popular, then this story should also be told on the silver screen. Even if they only told half of the true story, without any embellishment, it would be enough.

[@axelpatrickb.pingol3228]

They already did it's called "Passchendaele", "The Lost Battalion", and "Joyeux Noel".

[@ArmandDupin]

It's about french people. By law, those can only be romance interests or villains in american movies.

[@1pcfred]

Being as the Germans were able to manage to overrun the fort at least there'd be a happy ending.

[@chuckaule6292]

Dunkirk kind of sucked.

[@lapinmalin8626]

I saw a theater piece of the history of this fort and she was wonderful

[@julien8629]

*Grenade spam intensifies*

[@Adam-zi5se]

Lmao

[@trollemall7016]

Julien These damn french campers deserve it!

[@christophertalmage3392]

Yep

[@JohnnyLouisXIX]

Don't forget the Model-10A and dynamites

[@terrandroid]

Spam fritters

[@petesheppard1709]

So well-lit and quiet and clean. It's impossible to imagine existing in the dark, noise and stench the soldiers on both sides endured, especially the French defenders as they were forced ever deeper into the bowels of the fort.

[@martinjf467]

The lighting on the video you see is ALL modern, they were anything but well lit at the time they were in use - lighting was very inadequate and electricity was not much employed even though at least some forts had an internal generator - the platform a generator had been installed on is still apparent in Genicourt. In Vaux though the German penetration of the fort led to prolonged underground fighting and most of the time the best the soldiers had was oil lamps and candles.

[@killercour]

Sounds like a horrible situation the french were in. Licking the walls for moisture and fighting in a giant stone coffin.

[@colarisaka]

"They shall not pass!!!"

[@danielsimmons2339]

This, along with Old West Vignettes, are my favorite series you've done so far and I do hope you continue them! These small scale perspectives on individual skirmishes and operations make the history seem so much more personal and real. It's inspired me to do my own research into lesser-known aspects of military history in a way that I never would have otherwise. There is something really addictive about digging into subjects that don't have a ton of information readily available. You have to be resourceful: "How would this have been worded back then?", "This historical journal didn't have what I was looking for but maybe the bibliography contains something that does!", "Maybe I can search these words in German and find more hits on it." Finally finding a scan of a first-hand account or a newspaper article of the era is extremely vindicating!

[@ShawarmaFarmer]

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, We will remember them.

[@51WCDodge]

Lawrence Bnyon For the Fallen Verse 4 AKA the Credo.

[@tomf3150]

Merci.

[@truereaper4572]

Beautiful.

[@hereticalthunks]

Lest we forget.

[@secretbaguette]

Lest We Forget

[@makt4971]

This gives me TNT and limpet charge flashbacks.

[@matthayward7889]

Must have been absolutely horrific. Some incredibly brave Frenchman!

[@SexyFace]

Matt not like they had a choice. the fritz had the entire fortress surrounded, and they weren't exactly handing out passes to leave

[@4FYTfa8EjYHNXjChe8xs7xmC5pNEtz]

The French get a bad rap because of WWII. Prior to that, they were known and feared throughout Europe as some of the most highly skilled and aggressive soldiers on earth.

[@matthayward7889]

theebondetamp27 absolutely this!

[@readman010]

Kind of an oxymoron given their reputation for surrendering lol

[@jagerfromgsg945]

The Minty I know. I played BF1 and this got me really interested in WW1 so when this map came out I did a lot of research and it annoys me when people make fun of the French bc of WW2 (roast me if you like for playing bf1 or whatever)

[@gavin_1973]

Battlefield 1's interpretation of this fort is way more open with metal pipes, no brick blockades blocking anything, big hallways, doors that can be locked, valves, skylights, and of course, the zombie room. Also they do have artillery always bombing the fort which I find to be a nice touch. The operation for the map seems to be quite accurate, the French slowly get pushed back into the fort, the battle doesn't begin in the fort, which makes sense in the way of how it was in WW1. Also there is a lot of debris from guns being blown up (like the one Ian had shown.) The French kind of act as the defending force as well since if they start losing in conquest they get elite classes like the Trench Raider, Flamethrower man, and Sentry, and the Germans don't get any of that. I don't know why they didn't use conquest assault for this map, it would have been more fitting imo (conquest assault is more of an attack/defense mode than normal conquest.) Although BF1 doesn't have the exact accuracy with its gameplay (like the guns for example), the overall game tells a story within the operations and locations you fight in quite well in the multiplayer. If you look at the codex entries within the game its easy to tell that DICE put a lot of effort into researching WW1 well while making BF1.

[@ArmandDupin]

BF1 is a shite game.

[@SportbikerNZ]

@@ArmandDupin Except it wasn't and led to the massive battlefield dynasty.

[@Tom-2142]

SportbikerNZ which already existed before bf1, bf4 for example

[@autismo3405]

Tom 2142 yes but the point is is that it grew much larger

[@goobers143]

@@autismo3405 bf1 came out in 2016

[@DeadBaron]

100 years ago and the earth is still that deformed. Wonder if there are any unexploded shells they missed... Also, so cool how there are still some cannons.

[@Matt.71]

there are, i went to the battlefields of verdun and found 5 shells in 2-3 hours of Walking, 2 of them in places open to public...

[@rotwang2000]

In Flanders it's not unusual to find stacks of shells by the side of the road that farmers dug up, waiting for the daily army demolition team tour to come pick them up. In France there is an area closed to the public called the Zone Rouge or Red Zone where the density of shells still in the ground is so big it would take forever to clear.

[@Bobbydyland]

The iron harvest.

[@jorisjamroziak7024]

I don't know for Verdun, but for the Flanders region there's an average of 2 shells per day that are still being found a 100 years later. Especially harvest or construction sites unearth a lot of objects. A couple of months ago a construction worker died when he wanted to know how a shell looked like on the inside. Thinking that a 100 year old piece of rusted metal was safe, he used a disc cutter to open the still active shell. He died in the resulting explosion.

[@zlikurac4840]

rotwang2000 that land is still infertile cause of all the mustard gas and artillery barrages to this day

[@dirus3142]

The things I think about when seeing these old forts is how compact they are on the inside. How much little space there is to move around in on a day to day bases. Then I, inadequately, imagine what it might have been like to fight in that small space. What it would have been like to have to assault that space. The thought of fighting in a space that could very well be your own tomb is terrifying. It makes me wonder, what was worse for these men, fighting in no mans land seemingly completely exposed to the guns of the enemy. Or fighting in one of these confined forts with bombs, rifles, MGs, flamethrowers, and gas filling up what little space you have. The bodies of your friends and enemy alike filling up hallways. How could any man who fought in that confined concrete and steel warren not come out completely def, and brain damaged from the concussions caused by all those weapons firing in that space. The forts cannons, and machine guns, the soldiers rifles and grenades all exploding with in that echo chamber of a building.

[@51WCDodge]

More space = more excavation , easier to attack and more material required. Though some of The German tunnels in the Channel Islands, speciffically Jersey at L'Aveal are wide enough once through the entrance to manovere tractors and trailers about.

[@martinjf467]

Vaux does seem quite claustrophobic however a visit to most (not all) of the other forts shows it far better as they are not nearly so battered - Souville and Tavannes perhaps being obvious exceptions because they were pulped. In reality the forts were not particularly cramped at all. The barrack blocks were huge and the corridors connecting them were very big and high roofed. Even the fighting galleries in the later forts (there were several stages to the fort builds with massive improvement work on the earlier forts every time a new idea was tried) seem roomy except those corridors in the ditch walls in forts like Genicourt which idea was soon abandoned anyway - an opening in a wall is a weak point after all. One of the fort improvements apparent everywhere was the construction of "Betonne Armee" (literally reinforced concrete) tunnels within the core of the forts to protect from big shells - the earlier forts had a bizarre construction technique where the barrack blocks were surrounded with a masonry outer shell and an air gap between outer and inner but you can see ample evidence in Fort St. Michel that this was really ineffective. In 1917 they carried out a final series of works - the so called Travaux 17, installing deep level tunnels connecting all fighting areas and an escape route to the outside. This was as a direct result of the lessons learnt at (in?) Vaux and these ARE VERY claustrophobic indeed, many not even properly finished with concrete lining. naturally they are often in a precarious state and many have collapsed. Fort Bois du Bourrus has a particularly good example of finished Travaux 17 however as there is no light what so ever in the tunnels, even close to the entrances, it is LETHAL exploring in there as there are open pits with drops of a great height. Imagine encountering these in the dark. Not good.

[@drmaudio]

Imagine the sound of battle inside that fort.

[@monke6776]

Gun Sense (drmaudio) You’d go deff in like ten minutes

[@GTAMAN561]

*Battlefield theme intensifies*

[@joshuahmitchell873]

Yeah but in all seriousness imagine firing a 303 in those tunnels

[@medina5129]

Gun sounds,screaming,crying, possible engine's and planes overhead

[@camronrapp4146]

Considering the reports of soldiers who's ears started bleeding, I'd say it was fairly loud

[@Argon314]

I feel compelled to plug Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast series “Blueprint for Armageddon” here (which I just recently finished). I always had a healthy, if somewhat distant and vague, respect for WWI as a world-changing event, but it always felt second to WWII in significance in my mind due to the over abundance of media dedicated to WWII relative to WWI. But man, hearing about the sheer magnitude of suffering and carnage and the millions of people obliterated and pulverized in this meat-grinder of a conflict was heartbreaking. It’s incomprehensible the scale of this conflict to someone like me in the present day. I more fully appreciate now why this was dubbed “The Great War” and “The War to End All War”. Perhaps the most horrifying fields of battle in all human history were on the western front of WWI.

[@maxmg2227]

WWI was terror on soldiers WW2 was terror on civilians

[@martinjf467]

Amen to that. I don't know how the soldiers stayed sane however in interviews in later years many said that they enjoyed themselves. Go figure. I had 7 family members fight out there and three never came home.

[@tamlandipper29]

I'm sure you'd agree that it's not the only one to have a massive impact on the combatants. I'm trying to learn more about the Iran Iraq war, with all the fury there.

[@HimmelGanger]

When you watch this, and read about the aweful conditions during WW1, you can understand why JRR Tolkien came up his depiction of the dungeons and mines of Utumno and Angband, endless pits of misery.

[@100GTAGUY]

One of my high-school research papers was on JRR Tolkien's experiences in ww1 and how he went on to use them as the basis for his books that many people think are just complete works of fiction and fantasy. Once I learned about this his books had an entirely different demeanor to them.

[@noturfather1106]

@@100GTAGUY a masterful work of storytelling, written by a man who had gone into some of those very horrors he wrote about. And ruined in the 21st century by woke idiots

[@iancornell141]

Gun Jesus visits Holy site

[@thesuperpierre59]

Giving it its blessings and wisdom

[@ToastytheG]

DroehnIng You must be fun at parties.

[@thesuperpierre59]

DroehnIng /whoooooooooooooosh

[@God-mb8wi]

Aldo Siffredi How many times do I need to emphasize to idiots, no, this isn't a woosh moment

[@jumpinJosh]

@DroehnIng Yeah, while this isn't really the place for a gun jesus joke.. IMO, "holy site" has a connotation of hallowed place to be respected and revered. And if there's a location that should be remembered, respected, and kept unchanted for future generations, this certainly is one.

[@soylentgreen7074]

Sound of the echoes of the wind whistling off the openings is haunting.

[@Sturmpionier]

When the German Pioneers decided to use flamethrowers to flush out the French defenders, one major problem they had was how tight some of the corridors were for the large weapons. The Kleif M.1914 and 1916 flamethrowers were deemed to large to fit, so the slightly smaller M.1915 variant was most likely used. Another problem was the amount of smoke and heat these weapons produced depending on which type of flammable oil was used (there were four different mixtures the Germans used). So basically what turned out to be a feasible idea for flushing out the French backfired and caused harm to both sides. There are also some really interesting stories by French soldiers who had to face these weapons in the Fort that are absolutely exhilarating. I really hope you may some day do a review on either a German Wechselapparat M.1917 or Kleinflammenwerfer flamethrower so that others may better understand their use during the war. Good job on the video.

[@SchmitzM1A]

German Pioneers? That's one way to refer to Nazis...

[@mumkinbadbokura]

@@SchmitzM1A This was WWI. So no Nazis.

[@Tom-2142]

Michael Schmitz ? Are you aware of what ww1 was lol? Nazis in ww1 wtf

[@martinjf467]

@@SchmitzM1A Fort Douamont was to all intents and purposes captured by a German Pioneer Sergeant named Kunze who got into the fort after being blown into the ditch by a stray shell. He found a door that had been left unlocked and he entered the fort where he then found most of the garrison - elderly reservists, at their meal. So he locked them in the mess area and sent for reinforcements! Even Hollywood couldn't script this could they!!! The French spent months bombarding the fort and lost many soldiers before they succeeded in recapturing it. The fort today bears no resemblance to how it was at the start of the war mainly due to the extensive bombardment the French inflicted trying to take it back - they literally "explosively landscaped" the top of the fort and the back of the fort is unrecognisable now with the interior actually being what you see from the car park, the rear exterior having been totally blown away.

[@Paul-ie1xp]

If anyone is interested Alister Horne's the Price of Glory paints a really graphic description of what was happening inside the Fort during the battle, he also does a tremendous job of recounting how Fort Deaumont was recapture.

[@51WCDodge]

The 420 mm (16.5 inch) Howitzer that cause the damage was the German L/12 M Gerat 14 better known as Big Bertha. The shell was 820kg (1,807lbs) gauranted to make your eyes water. Though intially sucesful against older fortifications they were not that effective at Verdun Two ended up at the Aberdeen Proving Ground post war used to test ariel bomb casings, both were scrapped prior to WW2. A lotof the area around Verdun is Cordon Rouge, still highly dangerous due to unexploed ordnance.

[@iudsaenmotrango3271]

Awesome. Truly awesome, but it the old sense of the word. The valliance of these men cannot be understated, and I only feel joy that the reputation of France's military has been somewhat vindicated of an unjust reputation of late. Between historic fiction like Battlefield one and Great channels like Forgotten Weapons/History, people are finally starting to understand what ordinary men, not so different to themselves, suffered to protect thier countries, thier beliefs and thier loved ones. The memories of all great men, not just in singular but en masse, should be remembered at all times. Don't forget what they gave, and what you might give too, should the call require it. Liberté, égalité, fraternité.

[@michaelpalczewski6421]

Iudsaen Motrango 1

[@mikestauffer7033]

@JAG no, it is now common knowledge that Falkenhayn made this " bleed france whide" up, to justify his failure, and mutinies had nothing to do with Verdun

[@ianfinrir8724]

Every city, every town, every village in France has at least one memorial to the fallen of WWI.

[@shibre9543]

Vive la France !

[@PootleMoonpig]

It terrifies me to realise what we're capable of in times of battle. R.I.P to all the brave souls that fought and died here, I hope to visit this place one day and honour the memory of the fallen

[@riffdigger2133]

Excellent commentary while holding the camera getting angles, walking up terrain with scholarly information while you catch your breath. Amazing work. Thank you.

[@KarlBunker]

Great video. I'm surprised The Great War channel didn't manage a tour of these forts.

[@Aramis419]

KarlBunker Yeah! Where’s Indy&Co.?

[@moosemoss8521]

It may be hard to get a video license due to people trying to vandalize places like that

[@axelpatrickb.pingol3228]

Or they didn't have the time and money for such trips.

[@ePiiCeaglepwner]

They kinda did: /watch?v=hnou6szKDEc

[@moosemoss8521]

Ohlourdes Padua that too

[@Colonel_Obvious]

I visited Vaux, Douamont and other spots around Verdun when I was stationed in Germany. I concur with the statement they are worth your time. At the time, 93 years after the battle of Verdun, the landscape shows the scars of battle like few other places I’ve seen. The moonscape of the forests all around the area are witness to the horror of WWI. Trench lines, shell craters, former towns, c-wire, pickets, shells, and other detritus still litter the forests. It is truly sobering.

[@samholdsworth3957]

I'm here for Ian, staying for the history and education! Thanks

[@bobjones5674]

The noise in that fort must've been incredible. Shouts, screams, explosions, and rifle fire in narrow, concrete hallways. Entirely deafening.

[@tripleog9557]

I don’t think I’ve ever herd Ian out of breath like this ,not even after some of those though 2GACM .... it’s ok brother catch your breath cuz this is a great bit of content... thank you good sir

[@lllordllloyd]

You are right... it's hard to imagine the emotional impact of being in places like this... you are RIGHT THERE in the footsteps of these guys as they performed the actions you've only read about, and can barely understand. Ian is a sensitive and cerebral interpreter of these events. We are lucky to have a guy like him doing these videos.

[@Rixoli]

@Triple OG he mentioned elsewhere in the comments that he had a short time to walk everything as a tour was ongoing elsewhere in the fort that he had to get back to.

[@prof2yousmithe444]

Ian, I have been a military historian of some sort or another, and I must say, fighting inside that fort, must have been hell on Earth. I cannot envision a scene from that. What an absolute nightmare! War is hell anyway. This? There are no words! I knew the fort was captured but never thought of the human cost. Fighting that close? Amazing anyone survived at all! Thanks for sharing this.

[@bobwampler3387]

I’m glad these sites have been maintained. Amazing history.

[@martinjf467]

There seems to be work going on at what is for me the best of the Verdun forts - Fort du Regret, at this time. If it is eventually opened to the public it will blow your mind as it clearly shows every stage of the build and subsequent modifications in the Verdun fort work and it is VERY intact.

[@crimsonhalo13]

Thanks so much for taking the time to film and post this!

[@jean-michelnicolas9999]

Thanks Ian for taking interest in my country history and avoiding the usual "surrender jokes". I live near Belfort, and I'll welcome you with open arms if you come in the region. I'll show you our castle that resisted heroically for 103 days to the German invasion of 1870. As a target shooter I have a few guns, notably a MAS 36 like new (not even thrown on the ground once :p ) but of course nothing that would impress an American (laws are very restrictive here). Cheers and keep the good work.

[@jameshay7247]

I can't imagine living in a country that brags about a debacle like France suffered in 1870! x)

[@jameshay7247]

The Alamo bought time for Sam Houston- who won the war and Texas independence. France and Germany ground through four years of bloody stalemate because each country wanted the other to pay their war bonds. Hardly the same thing.

[@user-yk7dc9hu2k]

Pretty much anybody who is even casually into world war history knows how hard the French fought and that all the surrender jokes are just stupid bullshit from people who don't understand history. 🇺🇸🇲🇫

[@singleproppilot]

In both wars, the French soldiers fought valiantly, but they were let down by their leaders.

[@Thafuface]

Thanks very much for showing this Ian. Incredible what people had to go through in those days.

[@ChaosPootato]

Can you imagine building a brick/mortar wall while armed combat is going on like 10 meters from you... These guys had balls of steel (for size reference, see part of said balls at 4:00)

[@WolfePaws]

They seem pretty well built, too. "35 degrees for the grenade hole, Phillipe, not 45 degrees! Recommence!" screamed the sergeant, leading his third Forlorn Hope.

[@shawnr771]

Hope they had quick set mortar.

[@chrisjones6002]

That was a really smart idea, I'm sure it helped them hold out longer. It does seem strange that the fort didn't have something like that already in the design.

[@sethrich5998]

Chris Jones To be fair the fort was built prior to grenades or machine guns being invented. Firing ports in the halls would be rather useless with single shot and repeating bolt actions available when the fort was built. Clearly the intent was true hand to hand combat once inside. Of course the invention of emplaced machine guns and grenades by WWI would change that tactic to benefit from the additional walls and ports.

[@chrisjones6002]

Seth Rich that's interesting thanks. I'm sure some kind of grenades were around when it was built but not the modern ones we would recognize. Maybe they weren't expecting enemies to get inside the fort so they didn't plan for that. Or like you said they would have expected to defend it in close quarters if they made it inside.

[@shadowstorm657]

Videos like this are truly amazing. Thank you Ian for taking the time to show us a piece of history.

[@StanislavG.]

Best history channel on YT!

[@rosicroix777]

Great video . TY Ian for enlightening us on this aspect of warfare during WWI . History books concentrate mainly on the trench warfare & air warfare of the period & the battles for the fortifications receive very little mention even though these forts were key points in the trench systems .

[@grendelgrendelsson5493]

What an horrific place to fight for both sides. That is worse than house to house fighting.Can you imagine the bullets following and ricocheting along the lines of the walls? Trying to ricochet your rounds from the ceilings above the improvised walls? Poor bloody lads.

[@meeeplo]

and the sound of guns and grenades echoing in these small hallways

[@grendelgrendelsson5493]

Awful. They must have heard them in their dreams for the rest of their lives.

[@QwertyBoredom122]

I dunno about that, you should read some of the accounts from the Iraqi soldiers fighting in the Battle of Mosul, some of that could easily give this a run for its money on being a worse hell.

[@grendelgrendelsson5493]

I just think it's the being confined that really gets to me. I always found corridors and rooms too easy for an ambush. The Tunnel Rats in Vietnam is my idea of hell.

[@Rixoli]

Its even more stunning when you realize that the deathtoll for the french was only in the lower 160s to the German's 2.7 thousand. That they held the line against that kind've firepower is absolutely stunning.

[@ericplaysbass]

Thank you Ian, for reminding us that war is more than guns.

[@wabbit234]

I wonder if those turret fragments have just sat in the same place that they fell in from the explosion. I'm kind of surprised they are still there 100 years later, despite being so heavy.

[@moosemaimer]

You'd think someone would have reclaimed the metal during the next war, considering everything was in such short supply.

[@deepbludreams]

Too heavy to move and the french had no need for it during WW2, remember they never had a last stand need for metal, France was basically taken without a scratch to the place, in too short of a time to even require making new arms, there was basically zilch french military production during that short war.

[@pteppig]

Maybe there was no shortage in France, but in Germany, they were short on quality steel

[@lllordllloyd]

Same place, there are photos going down the years and the Verdun battlefield is like a giant museum in itself, fenced off, planted with trees and left.

[@wahidtrynaheghugh260]

username it’s probably not worth the man hours and manpower required to get a few big pieces like that. You wouldn’t get a single tank from that piece lying on the ground, so the men and machines to move it would be better used elsewhere.

[@jims9249]

Thanks for the tour of this incredible site.

[@Themanwithnoscreenname]

>concrete spalding< Oh, holy shit, and it's still sound enough to walk under a century later. That alone should give anyone looking at it some pause.

[@hey9433]

That really puts into perspective how strong the French engineering that was put into the fort was, and simultaneously demonstrates the power of those German artillery and mortars impacting the bunker. With gaping indents in the ceilings from the shells and mortars it still being completely safe over 100 years later, this battle was literally the definition of "When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object".

[@MrTapanes]

Ian, I absolutely love these museum tours. These displays of the conditions and effects of warfare are sobering and a reminder that the tools of war, while technologically and historically fascinating, were nonetheless used to horrific effect as they were designed. You provide an important portal in looking back at our history in an informative and entertaining manner, while still being respectful of those that used and suffered from these weapons.

[@Spidouz]

I know plenty of people like to make fun of French (and because the maginot line was useless once German went around it), but it was really something and there were many bloody places of hell before to surrender. You really realize it once you visit those sites and measure how big it was and then how terrible the fights probably were.

[@anuvisraa5786]

the maginot was not useless , the german where forced to move arround

[@Spidouz]

anuvis raa true, I meant once they came around it was useless because all opening for guns, etc... were all pointed in the “wrong direction”. Germans outsmarted it.

[@benclifford9414]

The southern alps version of the maginot line on the Italian border worked really well and held of the Italian alpine divisions. And only stopped doing so after France capitulated to the Germans

[@ArmandDupin]

You're aware the Fort de Vaux and the Maginot Line are from two different wars?

[@martinjf467]

@@anuvisraa5786 Yes, that is so. Well said sir. As I understand it the Maginot Line was intended to force the Germans to advance across ground the French could defend easily, that being why there is not much at all north of the Ardenne. And as such it suceeded in it's design criteria exactly as you say. And they did not reckon on the Germans being able to advance through the difficult Ardenne terrain with anything but infantry. I suppose it all went pear shaped due to the quantum leap in tank technology the German's embraced so enthusiastically in the 1930s.

[@utubeaccess7]

I could watch you detail this fort (or any other) for hours and hours Ian. Thanks

[@chumccurry1765]

Great video, gonna visit the site.

[@TheWolfsnack]

but can you run up the stairs like Ian and not get out of breath?

[@jerrell1169]

You should check out Fehlma

[@blueband8114]

Chu McCurry Do whole area is fantastic for anyone interested in WW1.

[@chumccurry1765]

Andy Uk Will do it , if get enough time.

[@chumccurry1765]

Denis O'Brien It's doable.

[@stratcat3216]

Those pictures of the actual people that were down there... just wow. Thanks for sharing.

[@wattasz6348]

Very sad war. Cant imagine what both sides went through.

[@YouTubeViolates1A]

That ominous wind draft's hum is an eerie reminder of those horrible events in that barbaric time.

[@danielwilson5102]

You should cover the red zone (Zone Rouge) in France. Not a lot of people know about that.

[@murphy7801]

Just looked it up, super interesting. Estimates till it's safe to inhabit 300-700 years....wow

[@affy3298]

Having just finished reading the memoirs Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker last week these videos on the French fortifications at Verdun seem very appropriate! Hell of a fortification for a hell of a war. Thanks, Ian!

[@Kevin-ix4qz]

I can't even begin to imagine how loud it would've been inside During a gunfight. And then grenades going off..... Wow

[@wh8787]

Very informative for such a short video, and on something that I guess a lot of people (myself included) had no idea happened. You give a very sober description of the hellish conditions that the people who fought here experienced, I think it's always important to examine the human experience of historical events.

[@walterdavis4808]

My wife and i used to have exchange students from france and belgum out for the summer, none of them had ever visited the old battlefields or knew very much about ww1 or 2 or any other history for that matter

[@seductivesnake1]

Walter Davis that’s sad

[@TheRifOL]

Walter Davis i

[@51WCDodge]

Never look at your own doorstep. To us it's history to others where they live. Causes problems then and now.

[@pdittrich]

thats somewhat usual though. You kinda get bombarded (hah!) with all that in history class in school, and for most people it will always have that "school feeling" to it. Even in your own town, yeah you know theres been fighting here in one World War or the other, the city hall probably has a section of wall somewhere with bullets still embedded into it as a memorial, but you don't really care. Its not actually exciting when every town has that though. Also, especially on continental Europe, most everyone would rather forget about all that sooner than later, the Germans because they started the whole mess, twice, and everyone else because they all initially lost to the Germans, embarassingly hard at that. Exceptions being the Russians and the British, with their "we held out and we won in the end" attitude.

[@kenibnanak5554]

Same is true on many American kids.

[@maxidecimus1527]

I am not sure about what I am saying but in my mind De Gaulles fought near this fort when he was captain. It's always a pleasure to watch your videos. Thank's from France

[@LordSummerIsle73]

The French went through hell like this and people still call them cowards

[@LordSummerIsle73]

@ELIE KOPTER exactly. They were truly some of the most brave people to ever live

[@ianfinrir8724]

Rudyard Kipling once said of the French that "War is their business."

[@csabaweisz8791]

It makes me remember Fort Douamount in the Verdun game, I have spent lots and lots of minutes in the cover of the brick barricades in the corridor with my MG

[@ArenaOfTheAncients]

Hi Ian, thanks for the great insights. Small detail: The battle of Verdun took place from February to December 1916 - NOT in 1917.

[@convertible4925]

It says 1916 dummy

[@John-mf6ky]

God, I don't think I could stay sane fighting in those conditions. Seeing those barracks really made me think about what it would be like to be living and fighting day in and day out there.. horrifying

[@ZeroSuitSamo]

Could they not have dug a well when they built the fort? I feel like even if it wasn't enough to fully supply it, it would be good to have a backup water source on site.

[@ZeroSuitSamo]

TheRealColBosch gotcha. Still though, it seems like it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a watersource in an area you know you will be defending.

[@dustypluskrat7423]

Even if they’d dug a well, it would eventually end up in German hands when the French were pushed away and deeper into the fort itself

[@ZeroSuitSamo]

Tyja Brown maybe, or maybe they would run out of ammo and surrender before they got pushed that far. But it was a lack of water that forced the surrender so it seems like having a well would have helped.

[@hamm6033]

As you seen the landscape it would have to been dug at the lower level of the fort. Then protected. A help but what carnage as the Germans had to secure it to win.

[@martinjf467]

@@ZeroSuitSamo many forts had a well or at least a huge cistern system. The cisterns are very obvious in Douamont if you do the visit there. Fort Rozelier's well is readily apparent.

[@stnlychrls]

awesome video... as someone who will never be able to go and see those historic sites, I wish the video would have been longer and shown every nook and cranny that was available to be seen. I would have loved to see this as a 1 hour video. Great video, great history lesson, great job Ian

[@dansneyd4646]

I think the teli tubbies used this as their set

[@51WCDodge]

No that's of Junction 6 of the M20 at Maidstone, known locally as Teletubby Roundabaout.

[@Adam-zi5se]

Lmfao

[@frickolis2531]

r/wooosh

[@ronaldjohnson1474]

Stupid comments.

[@punkinpunker]

Spent time at both of these sites and in the general area - there's so much evidence of battle in the surrounding woodland/old tranches etc. Quite incredible. The piece of that outer turret is huge. I have a photo of my friend sat on it - the size of a small sofa. Crazy.

[@z54964380]

Somehow I think fort like this is going to be extremely haunted

[@Crimsonedge1]

Well forget superstition and adopt the scientific method and you'll soon no longer think that way. :)

[@davidbhart]

Given the history of most of europe, every other field is probably extremely haunted.

[@AutismIsUnstoppable]

+Buck Fitches. I didnt believe in ghosts until I saw one. I wasent tripping because my brother, who was standing next to me also saw it.

[@abhroy]

Tall Dwarf , Exactly what I thought mate . Creepy crypt . And , for the cynics , use this term to search in youtube and google -- "kirlian photography soul" .

[@26OP011]

lol

[@kenhelmers2603]

I really like watching these, historically significant battle sites. Thanks Ian!

[@BillehBobJoe]

a 42cm shell hit that gun emplacement? good god....

[@Thafuface]

plus demo charge

[@artemis_smith]

One thing that stands out to me about this video is the quiet. All we can hear is birds and the wind and the noises Ian himself is making. From a place of almost literal hell, from a battlefield, to a place of unsettling quiet. That's the nature of battlefields, I think.

[@MostlyPennyCat]

Nice. You totally need to do some stuff here in Portsmouth, Warrior, Victory and Mary rose at the historic dockyards, parmerstons folly out at sea and on the hill (got married in one of those forts) Artillery museum, tank museum, dday museum, royal marines museum, actual Portsmouth docks with the royal navy.

[@PIERCESTORM]

James Neave lol I was just in Portsmouth

[@wierdalien1]

Chatham

[@MostlyPennyCat]

PIERCESTORM PRODUCTIONS Who you? 😊

[@51WCDodge]

Don't you DARE miss Fort Neleson! If you think Royal Amoury Leeds is imprsssiv e, I don't, Fort Nelson will blow you mind, and there is even a Forgotten Weapon The Mallet Mortar. Not to mention all the dlightful smalla rms on HMS Warrior and Bang the Naval Gun fire musuem has small arms collection from the German High Seas Fleet.

[@deezboyeed6764]

Nice I'm also a fellow Portsmouth lad.

[@ducomaritiem7160]

I've been there a lot, visiting the Verdun area, and, like Ian says, it's amazing. A good (well, a fantastic) but hard to find read on the Battle is the book "Verdun" of Georges Blond.

[@mickleblade]

the noise in those tunnels during the fighting must have been appalling, I'd assume most guys were deaf by the end.

[@rossbrook5919]

another great video. i went there myself a few years back. Must have been savage fighting in those tunnels

[@seth1422]

It would be interesting to see a film depiction of Verdun done as heroic endeavor, rather than allegory. All films about WW1 seem to start with a tone of "pointless disaster" from the beginning rather than letting it dawn on the characters and audience slowly. It makes it too hard to see things from the viewpoint of the contemporaries or understand the impossible scope of the heroism of that war.

[@Bulley]

You should check out the All Quiet on the Western Front movie from the 1930. It's not about Verdun specifically, but it definitely has that tone you're looking for. Absolutely worth watching.

[@branchsnapper2228]

I visited fort de frouard before it was open to the public. Your video brings back the eerie atmosphere of the place. Very similar interior in places.

[@ArcturusOTE]

Anyone remembered when Flakfire toured this when he was in France?

[@John-ro3vu]

I really enjoy the videos of the forts in France, Ian. I hope to see more historical videos like this on your channel in the future!

[@natexlb123]

I love the historical videos like this! Any interest in American Civil War sites / forts or WW2?

[@Sero12245]

Thankyou for sharing this historical place, I always wanted to see the before and after. If you ever get a chance I'm sure everyone would love to see passchendaele too.

[@outshimed]

"Thoroughly out of service" is a hilarious turn of phrase.

[@ronaldjohnson1474]

There's absolutely nothing hilarious about war.

[@ArtilleryChannel]

Ian, I love all of this content! Please categorize all of these videos so I don't miss out on more education like this

[@67Spectre]

EA Dice: We need some new maps for our DLC Ian: I got ya covered

[@halfmoa]

Phenomenal video. Your knowledge and storytelling ability is first class.

[@Govanmauler]

Skipping your cardio boss ?

[@ForgottenWeapons]

Just limited time to get my filming in as part of the tour I was on.

[@Govanmauler]

Forgotten Weapons 😊 it was worth the rush

[@candidmoe8741]

Tours: "This is the Reims Cathedral. You have 5 minutes"

[@blueband8114]

Govanmauler too much smoking a pipe whilst reading.

[@blacksquirrel4008]

When people ask me if I believe in ghosts I tell them “No, I’ve spent the night in Verdun, and if there were ghosts I would have been up to my neck in them.”

[@derekk.2263]

I really wonder how they transported those huge metal gun turrets to the site. At a shipyard, they have cranes built to transfer that stuff a short distance from the on site foundry to the ship. It must have been a massive undertaking to get those peices all the way to these forts, especially in the days before motorization.

[@sharlin648]

And this is why I HATE it when I see people going "Bwuurgh! French surender munkies! OLOLOL" you just point them at something like this and just remain silent.

[@otti2582]

But the french surrendered in the fort as well *Thonking*

[@dirus3142]

How long would you last in such a fight?

[@MrLoobu]

Well this is about a different story, the French bore the brunt of the fighting throughout WW1, and fought with great bravery and honour. It's WW2 when their president capitulated after the Germans blitzkrieged around all their defenses and surrounded the allied British and French armies forming at Dunkirk. There were still formidable French forces but they were very far from Paris which would have been destroyed along with the government had they not capitulated. The British lost almost all of their military equipment and the French had no more allies in Europe or hope of being reinforced even if they had fought on. It would have only meant the destruction of their country if they fought on at that point, but that's where the stereotype comes from, it has nothing to due with WW1. This is also why Many people today travel to France or to Italy to see their historical sites, because they surrendered before it could all be destroyed, the Germans never did and many of their greatest cities were basically razed to the ground.

[@user-ns3vs3bp3e]

Steven Cross ww1 they fought like hell and took such heavy casualties from being in the front for so long that nobody wanted to go through that again for ww2 (I do like how it’s often Americans that bring it up too, a country that turned up late to both wars after the allies had already made significant progress to victory)

[@rightwingchristianity9056]

They surrendered here too, frog.

[@slabbadanks5829]

this channel is the gem of gems.

[@jameshealy4594]

In the continuing battle of attackers vs defenders, the attackers almost always seem to hold the advantage. Staggering to see armour of that thickness thrown about like children's toys!

[@tillmannfischer]

It actually took a great deal of manpower and resources by the Germans to take these fortifications, so depending on how your define „favouring“, the defenders actually held the advantage until supplies ran out. And that’s where the other forts in this area came in: they were set up as artillery forts, to support each other with artillery fire, should any one of them come under attack - the idea for this goes back to the 18th century with the development of star forts and defence in depth (in fact, during the Napoleonic Wars, fortifications in this style still posed such a threat, that most attackers simply moved on, if they could ignore the protected target). This strategy obviously failed, when the Germans managed to isolate the forts, and take them out through a staggering numerical superiority.

[@ForgottenWeapons]

The Germans took about 3000 casualties seizing the fort, compared to about 50 French dead and 85 or so wounded.

[@jameshealy4594]

To some extent I agree, though with 420mm (16"!) shells being thrown around (as per the video), I would disagree that numerical superiority was the only factor at play here. I understand the concept of overlapping fields of artillery fire and the effectiveness of such a strategy, but I think in the more modern era that was beginning, smokeless powder cannons firing shells with huge amounts of the newest high explosives within were rapidly making it obsolete. That which cannot move has a huge inherent disadvantage. EDIT: OMG fangirl moment that Ian responded, that is a hugely disparate casualty list but in the cold light of day the cost of building such fortifications which can only ever defend one area must be taken into account.

[@lambastepirate]

An old rule of thumb is that as attacker you will suffer 10 to 1 casualties attacking fortified position

[@pizzerinoitaliano3049]

James Healy just think about Festung Breslau, now Wrocław in Poland. Defended longer than Berlin. Destroyed more than Warsaw, Berlin or Dresden.

[@rodi8266]

I visited verdun in 2016 Went to multiple forts (including Vaux and Douamont). walked along the trails that ran through former minefields. quite chilling

[@jacksonmacpherson6101]

Between the artillery, grenades, machine gun and rifle fire inside this fort must have been awful for the ears.

[@potatoman898]

jackson macpherson I wouldn't be surprised if they were all partially deaf.

[@kamikazecatfish8704]

this is really late but in the actual battle of verdun the 75mm guns were not present they were taken for use in the front lines

[@BennettIsAmazing]

No sound at the beginning or just me?

[@PIERCESTORM]

BennettC me too

[@osearthesp]

no words. thanks for sharing and for help enlightening a new generation