Douaumont National Cemetery, Ossuary, and Fort, and into Belgium

Off to the national Cemetery and Ossuary at Douaumont, near Verdun (France). The Cemetery is vast, with 15000 graves, mostly French or French Colonial.  One section was muslim graves, whose headstones faced east, which puts them out of line with the other graves, and makes a poignant sight. The ossuary, an enormous building, (shaped almost like a submarine with a huge conning tower), contains the bones of 130,000 unidentified soldiers.   The bones are stored in a half-cellar, which can be seen through ground level windows. (Gruesome indeed).  The ossuary is also a memorial of the Battle of Verdun, with personal accounts and stories from the 10 month conflict which swung backwards and forwards: some forts were lost to the Germans, and later recaptured.

We went from there to visit Fort Douaumont, which is only about a kilometre away.  The fort, built in the shape of a pentagon, is really a series of underground passages and chambers housing everything needed to fight during WW1. Barracks, power plant, bakery, infirmary, a well, meeting rooms, and of course the gun emplacements and ammo. They were completely self-sufficient.  The surface of the fort still bears the scars of artillery bombardment: although now grown over with grass, the extent of the shelling can still be appreciated.

The aire for the night was in Arlon, just inside Belgium, close to the Luxembourg border.  A pleasant enough rural town, and free electricity at the aire, courtesy of the Sapeurs Pompiers ( Fire Service).