Verdun: The Most Brutal Battle of World War 1

[@duncancurtis5971]

Slight correction it wasn't yet a Soviet army, still Tsarist at Brusilov which, ironically was the very last victory for imperial Russia before it fell to bits in 1917.

[@kremepye3613]

Also alot of the photos are from the ww2 webmacht and hier

[@ag7898]

​@@kremepye3613and a lot of AI and video from even the most current conflicts as I easily counted a half dozen times we saw T-72 tanks.

[@ag7898]

If I recall correctly, the Russian army didn't even fully become Soviet until I want to say 1921 when the Russian Civil War ended.

[@MichaelEilers]

@@ag7898 I agree, modern weapons and arms should not be shown in the video, really pointless. Try to be at least baseline level better than “History Channel” which already sets the bar very, very low.

[@Gidi66]

​@@ag7898Trotsky reformed the red army into an proper military (instead of a civilian mob/milita) in 1919/1920 the white army would continue to be completely decided, between a mix of monarchist/imperialists/republicans/liberals/ect and where defeated and the USSR was founded in December of 1922.

[@karakarakiri9568]

My Great grand father fought in Verdun. He was gassed and wounded by mortar shrapnels. He was released from service because he was too badly injuried. It took him weeks to come back home by feet, he walked almost 600km. Once home everybody though he was going to die from his wounds. He practically slept for 3 entire weeks, but ended up surviving. I still have his helmet (we also had his gun too, but my grand parents house got robbed)

[@spointz8936]

Wow. Which country?

[@cherrydragon3120]

​​@@spointz8936i assume france, cudnt walk 600KM to england trough the north sea. And 600km is not enough to make it to Holland. Holland was neutral anyways soo that leaves probably only belgiumas viable option left

[@NapoleonicWargaming]

​@cherrydragon3120 600km will get from Verdun to the vast majority of Germany (eg Munich is 531km from Verdun). I'd guess he fought for the Germans.

[@widodoakrom3938]

WOW

[@karakarakiri9568]

@@spointz8936 France. He was from the south west.

[@HumbleAshe]

What is pretty telling about the devastation of Verdun is the fact that much of the forests and fields that were the epicenter of the battle haven’t fully recovered yet. I saw a video discussing the aftermath of parts of France due to all the ordinance or ammo that was leftover. So much ammunition and bombs (which could be unwittingly detonated) have remain untouched in the ground, and the soil has been polluted by the pollution from the war that in some parts, plant growth has been stunted.

[@NSUSashiel]

It is called the "Red Zone", and yes it is still a dangerous place to even dig a hole. According to Wikipedia, "The zone rouge was defined just after the war as "Completely devastated. Damage to properties: 100%. Damage to Agriculture: 100%. Impossible to clean. Human life impossible"

[@cookingonthecheapcheap6921]

I highly recommend looking up Real Time Histories day by day WW1 series if you're interested in the topic.

[@Paigeofmaces]

French farmers living near WW1 battlefields have to metal detect in their farm fields before ploughing as there's so much ordinance in the soil. The programme I was watching thought it'd take 200 years to fully clean up from WW1!

[@trolleriffic]

@@Paigeofmaces I don't know whether it was a wiki article that mentioned an estimate that some areas would take 700 years to clear at current rates.

[@Lazbotable]

@@Paigeofmaces in 2019 a potato chip factory in Hong Kong received a shipment of French grown potatoes, inside a hand grenade dating from ww1 was found.

[@DarkDomain]

Great narration and historical information as always, however the editor for the video really dropped the ball on this one. Many modern war clips sprinkled into a world war 1 video takes away from the subject matter being talked about, showing pictures from world war 2 also doesn't help, or showing a map of Vichy France when talking about the trenchline. It's like the editor decided to troll the audience.

[@emielpeper9248]

Yeah, felt the same. Noticed with the M4 wielding soldiers, then noticed a t-72 popping up somewhere. Kinda takes you out of it :/

[@robertsollory7475]

I Was going to say all that....but you put it better than I would have done.

[@danielratcliff136]

I was also confused and trying to figure out what Vichy France was doing in WW1.

[@quantaluxvision]

Checked the comments section for this comment! I noticed the Vichy France map, and was like "wait a second!" That and the modern soldier clips. Makes no sense.

[@BIOStheZerg]

Well, even calling the Tzar's Russians "Soviets" is not exactly great, this is one of Simon's weaker ones!

[@GrievousReborn]

As the drum roll started on that day Heard a hundred miles away A million shells were fired And the green fields turned to grey The bombardment lasted all day long Yet the forts were standing strong Heavily defended Now the trap's been sprung and the battle has begun Descend into darkness 303 days below the sun Fields of Verdun, and the battle has begun Nowhere to run, father and son Fall one by one under the gun Thy will be done (thy will be done), and the judgement has begun Nowhere to run, father and son Fall one by one, fields of Verdun Though a million shells have scarred the land No one has the upper hand From the ground above to trenches Where the soldiers make their stand As the trenches slowly turn to mud And then quickly start to flood Death awaits in every corner As they die in the mud, fill the trenches with blood Descend into darkness 303 days below the sun Fields of Verdun, and the battle has begun Nowhere to run, father and son Fall one by one under the gun Thy will be done (thy will be done), and the judgement has begun Nowhere to run, father and son Fall one by one, fields of Verdun Fields of execution turned to wasteland from the grass Thou shalt go no further it was said, "They shall not pass!" The spirit of resistance and the madness of the war So go ahead, face the lead, join the dead Though you die where you lie, never asking why Descend into darkness 303 days below the sun Fields of Verdun, and the battle has begun Nowhere to run, father and son Fall one by one under the gun Thy will be done (thy will be done), and the judgement has begun Nowhere to run, father and son Fall one by one, fields of Verdun

[@andersjjensen]

Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well.

[@History_with_Sirius]

Was wondering how long it would take someone to make a reference to that song. 😂 Not long at all.

[@keeganaldrich404]

SABATON!!!!

[@amrastheluckywoof5524]

This is Verdun. Here, THEY SHALL NOT PASS...

[@Blue13GBG12]

As a Swede I'm proud to see Sabaton lyrics in the comments

[@philmcgrill3000]

The editor dropped the ball on this one. Lots of images and videos from WW2 up to the modern era (the WW2 bits are the most disingenuous since they look “old timey” enough). The script was also a little rough because on at least one occasion, Simon refers to the “Soviets” when it would have still been the Russians (this was 1916, after all). Big fan of the channel, but this video falls short of your team’s usual excellence.

[@PhenomRom]

Are you unironically mad that he referred to russians as Soviet’s

[@PET_-rp9rx]

@@PhenomRom are you unironically mad that this bloke pointed out something that was completely and blatantly false?

[@IntoTheTrail]

​@@PhenomRomyou still got time to delete this dumb comment

[@roblowe8295]

You people are being Autistic about what are effectively semantical differences.

[@GolBDeze]

Also random red bull can peeking from the left :D

[@TROOPERfarcry]

I did a Wikipedia of this battle, and by my math, the battle cost 100-lives per hour, for 302 days straight. (714,231 lives lost _IN_ Verdun). The numbers could conceivable be set at 2-lives-per-minute if the death-toll includes the surrounding area instead of _JUST_ Verdun.

[@Beryllahawk]

The thing that horrifies me on top of all that was explained here is this - "shell shock" wasn't yet a wide spread, accepted idea, PTSD wasn't even a term, and MANY of those generals, so comfortable hundreds of miles from the death and destruction, simply declared that these survivors of the worst hell on earth were just wimps. It feels like the greatest evil of World War One was the complete disregard for the lives of the common soldiers, on every side of the conflict. Some of the most heart breaking and bitter poetry I've ever read came out of this war specifically. And a hundred years later, we seem to have learned very little towards truly putting an end to all wars :(

[@AnthroGearhead]

Cmon now, wont you be pleasant too if you were a war general, living in secured places and luxury, without consequences ?

[@Beryllahawk]

@@DeepTissueExplorer Fair point. Kind of leaves a bad taste in the mouth, but you're right.

[@cheeki3998]

ah yes, the german and french t-72's that took place during the battle of verdun

[@mikecrase3047]

Having visited Verdun all I can say one really needs to visit and your the area to take in the full extent of the battle. There are still areas people are not allowed because of unexploded ammo and gas canisters.

[@Im-just-Stardust]

Dude I was watching old videos of Simon. This man i not aging. I feel like he will keep creating channels for eternity. LOVE IT!

[@isisnmagic1812]

As good as Simon is in giving information and narration, the modern videos spoiled this overall.

[@tim-tim-timmy6571]

I went to Verdun during a school trip when I was kid. Thousands of graves were in line, in a monument, bones of soldiers were on display. There are hundreds of thousands of them. We went to a village nearby and what was left was a gigantic crater with smaller craters on the inside. To this day, it is still not safe to venture in the woods around the city as many artillery ammunitions are buried and could detonate. We went to a fort and our guide shot on the inside a riffle with dummy ammunitions. The noise was insane. He told us that it was nothing compared to the artillery ammunitions detonating on the fort, day and night, over and over. I can't image anyone getting out of here sane.

[@Olderaccount17]

I was there back in June. The small village you speak of is (was) Fleury, and the fort was probably fort Douamont. Breathtaking place. Sadly, I had to finish my day in kind of a rush, as I needed to return my bike and that damn rental closed at 18:30. Didn't get to go into the fort nor spend much time at Fleury.

[@NoMoreCrumbs]

So much of this battle feels like the sort of thing you'd read about in a fantasy novel. Falkenhayn, the German commander, stated that his purpose was to "bleed the French white" with this battle. He named it "Unternehmen Gericht," "Operation Judgement" in English

[@spjr99]

That is so cool lol

[@carlbrittain1993]

This battle gives me the closest vibes to how the DeathKorps of Krieg fight of anything I've worked come across.

[@Gidi66]

Falkenhayn believed in a breakthrough, when this didn't occur he heard of others whispering behind his back about him being a failure and he then penned a letter and handed it to the kaizer, this letter is the first time he mentioned Verdun as an attempt to bleed french dry, the emperor didn't by this and suspended him for an investigation, the German army then sacked him and replaced him with the hero's of the eastern front, Hindenburg and Ludendorff.

[@dinsdalemontypiranha4349]

@@Gidi66 Thank you for sharing this. I'm pretty intuitive sometimes, and when it was first mentioned that his intent was to bleed the French dry by a battle of attrition, I thought "That doesn't sound right." It seemed to me that any sane military commander would want as quick and painless a victory as possible. Of course, not all military commanders are sane. Adolf Hitler's attitude towards the Battle of Stalingrad comes first to mind.

[@Gidi66]

@@dinsdalemontypiranha4349 most historians believe that the "bleed the French dry" was him attempting to walk back his earlier promises of victory with out wasting more German soldiers lives, the last time the army liked what he was proposing and sent all available reserves and freshly academy graduates to Verdun to fill the empty spots in the German units there/rotate the German ones out and replace them with new units, this promises of victory and not wasting German lives was something he could not achieve, he tried to spin it as a thing of keeping the French busy for later German operations against the British - but the German army had already sent the reserves for such an operation to the battle of Verdun. So him giving the letter to the emperor was more of a case of him trying to go over the military higher ups/minister of war, as the Kaiser was the the highest ranked officer - by divine appointment as kaiser - the Kaiser didn't care however. Also the Kaiser's direct heir for the empire fought at Verdun, as a major general, he was quite successful and earned praise from German officers and generals for his conduct for being more soldier like than royal, he took some forts the Germans went around and left in the rear/flank of their main assault. He was well liked, just a shame he and a lot of other royals cosied up to the Nazi's in the believe that the Nazis would restore the monarchy.

[@slaphappychappy]

I've been to Verdun. A sobering place to visit. The Douaumont Ossuary and cemetery nearby really drive home the horror of this battle.

[@AlanKTomkins]

One of my favourites from Warographics... Please, do more from WWI and WWII

[@mitchellneu]

🎵Descend into darkness 303 days below the sun Fields Of Verdun And the battle has begun Nowhere to run, father and son Fall one by one under the gun Thy will be done And the judgement has begun Nowhere to run, father and son Fall one by one, Fields Of Verdun🎵 - Sabaton, “Fields Of Verdun”

[@timw.8135]

Fields of execution turned to wasteland from the grass Thou shalt go no further it was said they shall not pass The spirit of resistance and the madness of the war So… Go ahead! Face the lead! Join the dead! Though you die! Where you lie! Never asking why! - Sabaton "Fields of Verdun"

[@zeppelinmage]

Ah, I see you are a man of culture as well.

[@slimdiddyd]

Sabaton is cringe

[@1HuntingShark]

Was scrolling looking for a Sabaton reference. Thank you for completing my wish

[@mitchellneu]

@@1HuntingShark No problem friendo, it’s always nice to meet a fellow Sabaton fan

[@Blackpearlmatt]

Verdun, all summed up in one phrase - “Ils ne passeront pas” or “they shall not pass”

[@Freakingbean]

I drive a tracked machine that's called a marshmaster. It goes about the same speed as a ww1 tank, and when I work under the transmission lines I think of how long of a drive it must Have felt like rumbling across no mans land. Going a quarter mile takes a good minute.

[@DerSchleier]

You do realize No Man's Land was a war zone... right? Armour was targeted by every available direct fire and indirect fire platform as it crawled across the crater-scape...

[@Freakingbean]

@DerSchleier na man I thought it was a field of flowers

[@DerSchleier]

@@Freakingbean I know... I was just being ridiculous for brevity. Hehe. I envisioned you rolling across the crater zone safely on your way to work... with war being raged all around you. 😬

[@nicholasmartin3626]

Love the pictures of ww2 Vichy France, modern t72s, and ect lol. With that said, great video though, love Simon’s channels!

[@BattNW]

I visited Verdun in 2022. The returned vegetation cannot hide the unnatural landscape caused a century ago. The huge mausoleum with hundreds of thousands of unknown remains stood above fields of graves. It is a testament to the power that humanity has to enacts its will. I just hope we learn from this. Unfortunately, Putin has chosen not to learn...

[@spjr99]

Nobody has learned. We are supposed to "learn a lesson" after every war and tragic event. The lesson is the same. The rich exterminate the poor for their profit

[@spjr99]

Always poor young men dying at the hands of rich old nefarious morally corrupted evil people

[@widodoakrom3938]

Pretty sad with Putin case

[@Bikelife_LX]

I was there in2012 with my class

[@anibalraymundo6155]

Your comment is as ignorant as you claim Putin to be.

[@samking7213]

I've not been to Verdun. I've been to many of the battlefields that involved Australians, though. Ypres really stands out to me, the utter destruction and then the rebuilding to exactly how it was pre-war. If you were to go to any little town or Hamlet in Australia and look at the memorial to the "glorious" dead, then you soon realise that a whole generation was wiped out.

[@misere4]

Australians?

[@joshuaowens7210]

​@@misere4😅😅😅😅😅😅

[@Chris-xz8fm]

Please do one about Passchendaele Ridge and the Canadians.

[@samking7213]

@@Chris-xz8fm that would be good.

[@stonebud]

AUSTRALIANS

[@m.c.martin]

I’ve been waiting for WWI Battle Videos! 🙌🏼

[@The_Republic_of_Ireland]

Video length: 19:18. Very nice

[@BaneofBots]

Verdun, the Somme and Passchendaele are not only the 3 worst battles in WW1, but easily rank among the worst battles in all of history, alongside Stalingrad and Berlin.

[@davidsigalow7349]

The memorial at Verdun sits atop the bones of 100,00 unknown dead. It is a sad and profound place.

[@grapefruitinstrument1394]

2:47 Wtf is Vichy France doing in a WW1 video?

[@georgemetcalf8763]

I was wondering if anyone else caught that.

[@justinvetrini7569]

Though a million shells have scarred the land No one has the upper hand From the ground above to trenches Where the soldiers make their stand As the trenches slowly turn to mud And then quickly start to flood Death awaits in every corner As they die in the mud, fill the trenches with blood Sabaton- Fields of Verdun

[@LiveFreeOrDie2A]

16 years old When I went to the war To fight for a land fit for heroes God on my side And a gun in my hand Chasing my days down to zero And I marched And I fought And I bled And I died And I never did get Any older But I knew at the time That a year in the line Was a long enough life For a soldier We all volunteered And we wrote down our names And we added two years to our ages Eager for life And ahead of the game Ready for history's pages And we brawled And we fought And we whorled 'til we stood Ten thousand shoulder to shoulder A thirst for the Hun We were food for the gun And that's what you are When you are soldiers I heard my friend cry And he sank to his knees Coughing blood as he screamed For his mother And I fell by his side And that's how we died Clinging like kids to each other And I lay in the mud And the guts and the blood And I wept as his body grew colder And I called for my mother And she never came Though it wasn't my fault And I wasn't to blame And the day's not half over And ten thousand slain And now there's nobody Remembers our names And that's how it is for a soldier -1916, Motörhead

[@instrumental94]

Loved the video! If anyone wants to know this part of history more in depth the great war channel is absolutely incredible they covered the events of ww1 in real time week by week about 10 min episode per week so they were able to go into great amount of detail about all the battles that happened not just the western front

[@Dumpes]

I got to walk around the battlefield in 2019 for about 6-7 hours and it was one of the best moments of my life. I loved every second of it. The trenches are still there to an extent and I stumbled upon an unexploded shell on a “less traveled path”. It was an amazing time

[@kremepye3613]

It's an eiree feeling to walk over old battlefields

[@fr2ncm9]

Another great job Simon. Please do a video on the Battle of the Hurtgen Forrest. It was a five month long WW 2 battle that led to more U.S casualties than the Battle of the Bulge and the Normandy landing combined, yet not many people know about it.

[@davonmulder8458]

Yes this one please!

[@buncer]

This.

[@Rvns556]

I have been waiting for this since I’ve found all your channels. Yes… just yes.

[@michaelprice9884]

Another well presented episode. Keep them coming.

[@davidbiren2062]

Great content spoiled a little by non-period footage. I would rather have seen more stills than modern footage.

[@noi000]

Good point.

[@ukaszkaminski4405]

Ya. Someone thought all it takes is making footage black and white.

[@earthling33]

This channel is superb. However, I really miss Biographics and Geographics

[@yayhandles]

To be fair, both of those channels have been around for half a decade and covered gobs of topics. What about TopTenz, though? ;P

[@earthling33]

@@yayhandles but there are so many other people, and so many other places 😀

[@cjfs1992]

I'm still waiting for the biographics on Glenn T Seaborg. Been asking for almost two years 😢

[@earthling33]

@@cjfs1992 I just Googled him, and now I want to see it too 🙂

[@Henry-yf2np]

@@cjfs1992Who is that?

[@aarononeal9830]

It is so important to add the first hand accounts of war. Because we must never forget how terrible war is

[@GrouchyBear411]

Thank you Simon! This insanity should never be forgotten, nor should anyone stop talking about it. 🇫🇷 🇩🇪

[@alexisjuillard4816]

Man i'm french american living in france for the last half of my life (27), and believe me the memory of the first ww remains, oh so painful. British remember it, but not as much as french people, whose blood was spilled on their own land, whose wifes and children were abused or killed during the occupation, whose men died by the many millions. But even for a french dude, who's a nerd of history and particularly the 2 ww, even then i have a hard time imagining the germans storming a village with HALF A MILLION MEN. WTF?!?! How many people lived there before lol, 100, 200, 1000? Imagine that sort of tiny place hosting half a million infantry and, i suppose, another half or close if defending Frenchman. Unbelievable

[@DogmaticAtheist]

Good one👍 People must know about these things..

[@markhough1027]

Now this is brilliant. Love historical battles. And would love to see more bios on ww1 generals.

[@austintaylor1204]

Check out the Western Front Association. Amazing talks and videos on WW1 battles.

[@ambition112]

0:51: 💥 The Battle of Verdun in World War One was a long and devastating battle that exposed the horrors of war and the inefficiency of modern weapons. 3:42: ⚔ The Germans planned a focused assault on the city of Adan to break through the French defense and take Paris. 7:05: 🔥 The French defense in Badon was initially forced to pull back, but General Philippe Paton organized a new defensive line and successfully slowed down the German advance. 10:22: ✅ The French successfully repelled German attacks and reclaimed Verdun after a year-long battle in World War One. 13:49: 😢 The battle on the western front was not just about territorial gains, but also about the horrific conditions and immense loss of life experienced by the soldiers. 17:14: 💔 The battle of Adom had a devastating psychological toll on soldiers from both sides, resulting in immense suffering and trauma. Recap by Tammy AI

[@pierren___]

Philippe Pétain*

[@nils9853]

Sorry but the picture choice this time is awful. Why use stock material of modern Jets or tanks? There is enough original material. Also what is the picture of Vichy France doing in this video? That's 25 years later...

[@Yakub121993]

Modern video footage or at least the wrong era? Great video, just seems a bit odd

[@ygts]

Went there on a trip in high school. Since we were the only ones that showed actual interest, the teachers took the four of us to a small patch of forest (100m2/1000sqft) to dig some stiff up, and already on such a small patch we found bottles, bullets, a grenade, etc etc etc. All four of us have some of it now. Made me realise just how insanely much there is still in the soil there

[@nborr258]

Hey Simon/Warographics it seems you've got your footage mixed up at 00:36. The soldiers shown there seem to belong to Panzergrenadier division Großdeutschland as evidenced by the decals on their helmet as well as the general look of the the helmet

[@andersjjensen]

The footage was complete garbage in this episode. They should have just kept the camera on Simon. Everyone knows actual footage from WWI is very sparse, and that's OK. But posting footage from Ukraine of a burned out T73B3 is just pure BS.

[@bass779]

The whole video is full of gross errors. T-72, "Soviets", plenty of modern soldiers with plate carriers

[@sameerpratapsingh]

It's the first time I've seen Simon get emotional.. tragedy as all wars are.. hope we learn the value of peace.

[@Nate-lt1bq]

Great video, but there is plenty of colorized WWI footage out there so you don’t have to use all this random modern footage for no reason. Also, your map is of WWII France, not WWI. Just seems like the editing on this one was really sloppy and rushed.

[@SwearingenTurnings]

Why is there footage of modern tanks here?

[@hellomoto2084]

And Soviets attcaking ? With Brits and french the Germans . Yeah right , but do know that as soon as Russian empire fell , Vladimir Lenin pulled out the new USSR from the first world war immediately. Soviet didn't fight the Germans, not in WW1. It's sequal is a different issue though.

[@thomasarens8296]

I still believe Verdun had a way higher casualty rate than reported… the fact that the battle was close to 12 months long and was a big reason in the French muteness I wouldn’t be shocked if casualties were downplayed by a considerable amount

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

In the 1960s, Verdun became a symbol of Franco-German reconciliation, through remembrance of common suffering and in 1980s it became a capital of peace. Organisation were formed and old museums were dedicated to the ideals of peace and human rights. On 22 September 1984, the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl (whose father had fought near Verdun) and French President Francois Mitterrand (who had been taken prisoner nearby in the Second World War), stood at the Douaumont cemetry, holding hands for several minutes in driving rain as a gesture of Franco-German reconciliation.

[@lilesmw]

Simon is a gift to history

[@gekolizzard]

For my money the bearded one is the best history teacher. Good work team. Kudos

[@awkc63]

The Battle of Verdun started. The battle took place on the hills North of Verdun-sur-Meuse in North-Eastern France. Although this battle wasn't the largest, or had the most casualties, it is remembered for a few different reasons. 1. More people died per square Kilometre during this campaign than in any other campaign during World War I. (31 people per KM²) 2. In the initial offensive, 2 out of 5 men were buried alive due to buildings collapsing from shelling. 2 more were injured in some way… and the fifth man, was awaiting his fate. 3. More flamethrowers were used by the Germans in one offensive than any other offensive in war history to date. This was the first campaign where a flamethrower offensive happened in such a big way. A total of 96 flamethrowers were used by the Germans during this time. 4. An estimated 65 million shells were fired from both sides during the 9 month campaign, making it the most during World War I. 5. A slogan used by the French during this campaign was used as Propaganda to help encourage more to enlist. This slogan was also the most used during the war. Ils ne passeront pas! (They shall not pass!) It was believed that if Verdun were to fall, then all of France would fall to the Germans. A total death count from both sides is approximately 305,000. Approximately another 552,000 - 650,000 were injured, captured or lost. The campaign lasted 302 days, to put these numbers into perspective, anywhere from 2,837 - 3,162 people were killed, injured, captured or lost PER DAY throughout the battle. This is one of the longest and most costly battles in human history.

[@risinbison1106]

You showed the WW1 museum in Kansas City. Can’t recommend this place more. Fantastic museum with excellent displays and you can go to the top of the tower.

[@michelvondenhoff9673]

Been there and surroundings. There are "destroyed village" signs to indicate that where now (shelling) craters were, once was a little village completely shelled of the face of the earth.

[@EllieMaes-Grandad]

In the area to the south is "La Voie Sacrée", along which men marched to battle and trucks fought their way with supplies, all at no small cost . . .

[@v.emiltheii-nd.8094]

And that's where "You shall not pass!" had it's origins.

[@EllieMaes-Grandad]

Pétain was the hero, although he disgraced himself as head of Vichy France in WW2.

[@wesadams5128]

WW1 is THEE scariest war in my opinion. Humans are just cannon fodder the whole time

[@montecorbit8280]

Excellent video.... Now do The Somm....

[@tommyatkins2446]

As a Great War living historian I have read many books, books about the Somme, Passchendaele and Loos, all of which are horrifying in their way. But books about Verdun are more than that, they are darker, they read differently, truly Hell on Earth | saw Georges Paul Lerouxs` painting L`enfer in a history book as a kid, it stayed with me as a reference while reading the book. Mon Brave Poilu

[@gunchbandit4422]

Do those books talk about the T-72s?

[@tommyatkins2446]

Funnily enough no. They narrate what actually happened.

[@dougredshirt3991]

0:43 is the National World War I museum in Kansas City. Well worth visiting if ever in KC. Down the road in Rose Hill on a hill is another local WWI monument. Very somber and reflective.

[@ALaughingWolf2188]

“We have been preparing for a long battle, troops and supplies arriving by train from all over Europe. We are edging forward, sleeper by sleeper, rail by rail. These are our scalpels cutting into the heart of France. We will open this country up and leave her to bleed. They have given this offensive a code name: Gerricht: Judgement. I know that this will be the battle to settle this terrible war.” The introduction to Battlefield 1’s “Devil’s Anvil” operation when playing as the Germans.

[@darknessoftruth9314]

Verdun is alive with the scream of shells. A huge black curtain of smoke has arisen like a veil across hell. An artillery assault of this scale can only mean one thing. There is going to be a battle here the likes of which the world has never seen. German deserters have been crossing the line, telling us that all leave has been canceled, that something terrible is about to happen. After the cannonade was over, of every five men two were buried alive under their shelter. It is chaos here. The smoke. the noise, the danger. All communications with our commanders have been lost. We are at a loss for what to do. It sounds like a million shells exploding at once. How can we not be afraid? Various French soldiers from Verdun Heights in the Devil's Anvil, BF1

[@ALaughingWolf2188]

@@darknessoftruth9314🤝MY MAN

[@darknessoftruth9314]

@@ALaughingWolf2188 So many chaotic moments on that map, especially on the last two flags.

[@ALaughingWolf2188]

@@darknessoftruth9314 for real, it can be so infuriating when your playing as the Germans and the French hold that last hill for all three battalions 😭

[@NoMoreCrumbs]

The German pre battle speech for the operation still gets me: "Wir haben den Schleier der Hölle gelüftet. Zeigen wir diesen Treulosen, wer die wahren Teufel sind! Kämpft bis ihr Blut den Boden tränkt! Angriff!" Or "We have raised the veil of hell. Let us show these traitorous (dogs/enemies) who the real devils are. Fight until the ground is soaked with their blood! Attack!"

[@PerfectSense77]

War… war never changes. It’s strange how a battle fought over a century ago is basically being repeated as you read this.

[@alexandrebacci6589]

Beautifully tragic storytelling. I have to congratulate Simon and the whole team, but boy oh boy...

[@alastairbrewster4274]

Brilliantly written and very sobering

[@DETRACT0RD00M]

Simon, you guys should do a video on the biggest failure of a war since the birth of humankind: the War on Drugs..

[@davidpryle3935]

The French were also involved in the bloodiest single day in the history of warfare, the battle of Borodino in 1812, during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.

[@P_Nut8421]

6:50 just checked on the maps. the route D1916 is still called the Voie Sacree still to this day. One day i'd like to visit France and drive the whole length and finish at the Verdun Soldiers monument in Verdun: the: Monument A la Victoire et aux Soldats de Verdun. i think that'll be a wonderful journey.

[@EllieMaes-Grandad]

I drove it some years ago - a most moving journey.

[@hawkshot867]

Great video... But what's with the T72 B-roll footage...?

[@chadtaylor7756]

Simons taking over KZbin 😅

[@padraigmuldoon4266]

Those modern Battlefield troops in the clips did well back in 1916 in Verdun

[@olivierdastein2604]

They could have if they hadn't been countered by the French WWI jet fighters.

[@GraniteStateofMind]

Excellent video, but why were modern Russian tanks repeatedly shown in a video about a battle that occurred between France and Germany over a century ago?

[@jmanj3917]

Good video, Brain Boy. 👍

[@constantined9015]

Hello! I have watched almost all your productions, however i think in this one you have increased the speed of the video! Am I right? Its stressful!! I like your channel anyway!

[@vikingspud]

To put things into a bit of perspective: The US has been at war somewhere in the world for most of its existence. France, a country with 1/5 the population of the US, lost more people in the four years of WW1 than the US has lost in all of its wars combined.

[@widodoakrom3938]

Really? Isn't USA lost more peoples in USA civil war against the confederation?

[@janmakowkin9031]

I knew the story behind it I find it fascinating how in a deadlocked situation, people are not able to find a logical solution to solve a stuck problem

[@JohnSmith-rw2yn]

Man Simon, that usual whit disappeared there, I thought you were going to head down the flasheart "blood, noise, endless poetry" vibe but fair play ended strong and with great respect and top stuff.

[@patkins8319]

Having been fortunate to visit sites in the western front over 20 years ago, its hard to understand the hell that the soldiers faced. As a civi walking along and being told not to stray past the red tape, yep, all the unexploded ordnance that still remains was a sobering thought. Not sure parts of the western front will be made safe in my lifetime

[@johnmichael7586]

Great narrative on this battle. However, I’m disappointed that you didn’t use contemporary film footage. The clips of modern soldiers and equipment diminished the overall quality of this video.

[@orangeboy8597]

Battle of Leyte Gulf next

[@duncancurtis5971]

And Brusilov 1916.

[@joeywheelerii9136]

​@@duncancurtis5971he already did that

[@baggieknight8411]

Wrong war Leyte Gulf was WW2

[@baggieknight8411]

And the second worse battle would be Somme where Canada got slaughtered

[@danday8596]

​@@baggieknight8411so he can only do videos on ww1....think about it

[@americanuscaesar]

Good thing you already covered the Lion of Verdun on Biographics: Philipe Petain

[@marktg98]

Such a shame that such a great general turned out to be a fascist 25 years later.

[@americanuscaesar]

@@marktg98 Fascist collaborator, there’s a difference

[@jeremymcfarlin1945]

Great stuff. Thank you

[@Arutima]

50 divisions against 75 French divisions. 800,000 causalities for the entire battle.

[@lahire4943]

75 French divisions in sequence. Meaning that 75 French divisions took part in the battle but not all at once, since there was a rotation.

[@Gidi66]

​@@lahire4943yip, the entire French army would rotate through the battle of Verdun.

[@poil8351]

which is basically a similar casualty rate to the austro hungarians in the carpathians in 1915.

[@DJScopeSOFM]

I can't remember who said it but it is still relevant and resonates with. "War is not hell. War is war and hell is hell."

[@shawnreynolds2705]

I think that is from M*A*S*H* Hawkeye said that war is worse than Hell because people in Hell deserve to be there, but in war everybody is an innocent bystander.

[@BardovBacchus]

We allow people to suffer in ways most of us would object to if they were any other animal. Worse yet, we visit horror upon each other with grim satisfaction

[@BuhurtUK]

Verdun gets so little attention into the UK. Well done Simon 👍 Thank you France.

[@EllieMaes-Grandad]

The Battle of the Somme is known in UK, maybe not that it was intended to relieve the pressure on the French at Verdun.

[@christoph7510]

2:47 do I understand something wrong or should there be a map of ww1 france and not ww2?

[@weybye91]

it should have been

[@seangannon6081]

“303 days below the sun; Fields of Verdun!”

[@Mondo762]

Great presentation Simon. And you didn't even mention the underground fighting in the tunnels. That was some crazy stuff.

[@RiffeLivingLife]

Yeah I love this Channell but can we not have so much modern footage on videos about old Battles in WW1 and WW2 let's either get period correct footage or pictures or do nothing at all and just let Simon talk but this stock footage is a bit of a hurt to your channel. It seems rushed instead of being done correctly. The writers are doing fine but whoever is choosing the footage go have a talk with them

[@Senacacrane]

What surprises me the most, is that this is a brutal war in terms of world wars.

[@_Mr.Tuvok_]

A new Simon Whistler channel I didn’t know about?

[@tofunmifamuwagun]

Simon make a video on the battle of the Somme too next time 🙏

[@natedcarr6148]

I think he actually has already done a video on the battle of the Somme. If you'll type "warographics battle of somme" (or some equivalent thereto) in the search bar, it should show. Infographics Show also has a video on it I recommend watching.

[@StarWarsFreak2111]

There is plenty of WWI footage available to use, what's with all the modern "airsoft/LARPer" footage in a WWI video?

[@blueskiestrevor5200]

It's pretty obvious you don't do a lot of research beyond Wikipedia and have someone else choose you footage and graphics. Everyone else mentioned the use of modern footage. But also you talked about tanks and airplanes having a major impact, they really didn’t till the very end of the war. Several maps shown are from WW2 not WW1. You mention Soviets which didn't exist yet. Overall this feel like a way to quickly cash in on a tragic piece of history.

[@jasongriffin4256]

Where's your video? If you think you can do it better, then do it better!

[@ashleypeadon8009]

​@@jasongriffin4256is disseminating poorly structured and inaccurate information better than not disseminating any information at all? Many would argue not!

[@jasongriffin4256]

@@ashleypeadon8009 why you guys gotta knock him for putting out info in an entertaining manner? Like I said, if you think you do it better then do it! I'll watch

[@ashleypeadon8009]

@jasongriffin4256 I mean if he wants to present inaccurate information in any entertaining manner there is a whole lot of scope for him to do it in the fiction category but if he is going to present his show as being non-fiction and about history/ war strategy, it is incumbent on him to be accurate at least to a level that can't be easily picked by anyone who knows anything about history. This is what one as a consumer of the service provided calls accountability. Same as when a diner leaves a bad review for a restaurant that serves poor food. The ability of that diner to do better is immaterial.

[@jasongriffin4256]

@@ashleypeadon8009 because he said Soviet and not Russian? Used wrong/modern footage? There really isn't footage from that war that would be usable for this video. Idk, I don't leave bad reviews even at restaurants. If I don't like something I move on and don't come back 🤷 I guess I just don't complain as much as most people, that's not a shot at anyone just my opinion.

[@Penultimeat]

Haven’t seen the full video yet, but I’m hoping they show the modern field of grass covered craters, each creating a nearly perfectly round divot. If you don’t know what they’re from it’s almost beautiful

[@sebastiandelacruz3849]

The verdun map in bf1 had the best atmosphere in any game ever.

[@dbeerewout]

I saw one comment earlier, but why the modern military footage?

[@multiyapples]

Rest in peace to those that passed away.

[@stephenremnant8151]

I would recommend The Great War channel on YT (I have no involvement with it) if you enjoyed this. It's an amazing week by week coverage of ww1 with specials as well. I've loved watching it

[@aresyen5620]

Verdun is story of sheer determination, courage and fortitude, This need to be shown to people who suggest that French are not brave, May France continue to be place of progress and democracy. Much love from India :)