Original subtitles

(unsettling music)

From 1914 to 1918,

Europe was at war with herself.

Just one year after the outbreak of war,

two million men have already died,

and many more have been amputated, gassed,

or, as the men shown here, shell shocked

and damaged for life by the deadly machine gun attacks.

(heavy gunfire) (soldiers shouting)

(booming)

In 1916, with the battles of Verdun and the Somme,

the war enters the industrial era,

and the 20th century faces the apocalypse.

(dramatic orchestral music)

Each day, filmmakers undertake

dangerous missions over the front.

Amongst them is future director Jean Renoir.

He is 20 years old and participates

in brutal artillery attacks.

Renoir later writes,

"The memory of these hideous acts makes me ill.

"We empathized with the German fighters

"who suffered as much as we did."

(carriage clacking)

Jean Renoir, like Verdun's first German prisoners,

wonders what the outcome of the battle will be.

Victory?

Defeat?

Or a grand illusion?

(unsettling music)

(horses neighing)

March 4th, 1916.

Two weeks after the onset of the German attack on Verdun,

General Petain faces a serious logistical problem.

From his headquarters in Souville,

he can see that the main street is totally blocked.

This is the only way to move supplies

and men to the battlefield.

Petain takes decisive measures.

For the first time in the history of war,

the work horse is replaced by the engine.

Petain immediately requisitions 4,000 trucks

to urgently supply the front with reinforcements

that are converging from all over France.

(soldiers marching)

Petain wants to ensure that the men are regularly relayed,

so they are physically able to go the distance.

From early March 1916 onwards,

the number of troops increases from 200,000 to 400,000 men.

(unsettling music)

Petain defines what he refers to as his line of resistance,

a defensive line to the left and right of the Meuse.

Under no circumstances will the Germans

be allowed to cross it.

Petain breaks up the battlefield into sectors

and links them together by means

of a proper communications network.

Through these first urgent initiatives,

a measure of confidence is restored in the French camp,

but the front line is still hellish.

(heavy gunfire)

The heavy German cannons keep shelling.

Verdun has literally become a duel to the death

between the two most powerful armies in history.

(loud booming)

The German troops are exhausted.

Certain units have had no rest since the attack began,

but the orders remain the same: keep moving forward.

(pistol fires)

(soldiers shouting)

On March 5th, 1916, one week after the fall of Douaumont,

the Germans take the village around the fort.

The last French fighters are captured.

(somber music)

Among them is a 26-year-old captain, Charles de Gaulle.

Wounded, he's evacuated to Germany

with hundreds of his comrades.

But first, he's declared dead and decorated posthumously.

Petain pens the following declaration:

"Captain de Gaulle,

"known for his high intellectual and moral value,

"has fallen in the fray,

"an exceptional officer in every respect."

March 6, 1916.

A new German assault concentrates on six kilometers

of frontline on the left bank of the Meuse.

(heavy gunfire)

(booming)

Petain later writes in his book, "The Battle of Verdun,"

"After a bombing assault comparable

"to that of February 21st,

"the German infantry expected to make easy progress

"in the death zone created by the shells,

"but instead finds itself blocked

"by our cannons' intense and precise fire.

"The rampart is holding up."

(cannons booming)

(shells clanking)

(soft music)

The Kronprinz, son of the empire,

in charge of the German attack on Verdun,

bitterly witnesses this setback.

His army is trapped.

The deadly breakthrough he planned will not happen.

Joffre arrives in Souville on March 10th.

Petain writes, "Joffre and I

"were in a permanent state of crisis."

According to Joffre, although the army must hold Verdun,

The real priority is still the Somme offensive.

Petain, on the other hand, keeps demanding mean and means

in order to resist at Verdun.

Thanks to his trucks, he organizes

an incredible noria.

The trucks continually drive along

this 55-kilometer-long, seven-meter-wide stretch of road

nicknamed "the sacred way" by author Maurice Barres.

(trucks rumbling)

Some drivers stay behind the wheel

for up to 75 consecutive hours.

The road crumbles and collapses

under the weight of the trucks.

Petain launches massive roadworks.

He opens quarries in order to consolidate

and broaden the road, with the help of the territorials,

nicknamed "granddads."

These men are no longer of fighting age

but are capable of carrying out this hard labor.

They are assisted by a small army of workers

from French Indochina, modern-day Vietnam,

which was a colony at the time.

These very same Annamites have been hired

at the Chateau de Versailles to transform the gardens

into a vegetable patch and grow potatoes for the poilus.

The army requisitions all livestock.

Since the beginning of the war,

each soldier has consumed the equivalent of an entire cow.

Those 330 kilos of meat

are supposed to bring strength and vigor to these men,

who are subject to such brutal fighting.

(cows lowing)

(ax thumps)

(chain clanking)

The men and women forced into this war

are not the only ones who suffer.

The August 14th call to arms

included a general requisition of all animals.

(dogs barking)

(dog whimpering)

Horses will die by the thousands.

As well as the dogs, trained to transport water,

which is in such shortage in Verdun.

The older ones are unable to carry munitions.

They are trained to hunt rats, sniff out deadly gases,

and even to test protective masks.

(dog barking)

But more importantly,

they are faithful companions in the trenches.

(gentle string music)

The most famous dog is Napoleon,

the Verdun artillery men's mascot.

In Paris, trains filled with refugees

arrive at the Gare de l'Est.

They tell everyone of the hellish shelling.

(train whistle blows)

In their own words, they describe droves of German soldiers

swarming the Meuse River,

and the poilus' courageous resistance.

Everyone worries about the men stuck in the Verdun furnace.

It's up to the French press to reassure them.

The weekly paper with the widest circulation,

L'Illustration, devotes an entire section

of its March 11th, 1916 issue

to the man presented at the savior of Verdun.

The magazine claims, "He is a conscientious man,

"concerned with the wellbeing of his men."

(somber music)

Even the German newspapers take an interest in him.

A respectable Berlin daily, the Vossische Zeitung writes,

"The fighting is no longer between two armies

"but between two people.

"Victory will come down to two factors: will and courage.

"In this combat with equal quantities of men and equipment,

"moral superiority is what will make the difference."

On March 24th, 1916, Raymond Poincare,

President of the French Republic,

and General Joffre invite Prince Alexander

of Serbia to Verdun.

The Serbians are experiencing setbacks on their front.

It's time to show the prince and his people

that the French army is holding its own

against the German invader.

(somber music)

Joffre, whose headquarters

are far from the muddy battlefield,

still accuses Petain of diverting forces

from his project of attacking on the Somme

and continually requesting more manpower.

(dramatic music)

(soldiers marching)

For the troops, the ordeal is always the same.

They carry 20 kilos of weapons and equipment on their backs,

plus two-liter containers of water and wine,

not to mention a triple ration of food,

because they don't know how long they'll be at the front

or if they'll every make it back.

(somber music)

The uphill road to Verdun

is a never-ending walk through the mud,

from the foothills to the lines along the ridge

pounded by enemy fire.

In this devastated landscape under constant shelling,

the men lose their bearings.

(dramatic music)

The maps are useless.

The shell holds are everywhere,

providing combat positions ...

or final resting places.

Second Lieutenant de Beaucourt

of the 170th Infantry Regiment writes,

"Verdun's clay, tenacious and treacherous,

"swallows up the men.

"It is soft and sticky under my feet,

"and with every step, I feel I am sinking further,

"sucked down into this horrific clay.

"I know there is no one left

"in this constantly bombed wasteland.

"I am overcome with the most intense

"sense of dread I have ever known.

"I can picture myself being engulfed

"into a slow and lonely death."

(digging)

The men in their holes envy the pilots fighting in the sky,

but airborne chivalry is just an illusion.

The fighting is fierce, the pilots shoot at each other

from a distance of 10 meters.

(rapid gunfire)

(planes buzzing)

(rapid gunfire)

Not buckled to their seats,

they sometimes fall out of their planes.

At first, german Fokkers ruled the Verdun skies.

(planes buzzing)

But Petain acquired better planes, Nieuports,

which have turned the situation around.

(propellors buzzing)

Pilots who succeed in shooting down

five enemy places are called aces.

Verdun's most honored ace is a 21-year-old

Second Lieutenant, Jean Navarre.

Navarre is the first French pilot

to score over 10 airborne victories.

He will pull of 30 hits before being seriously injured.

He becomes the poilus' guardian angel.

They celebrate his feats using model airplanes

and nickname him "The Sentinel of Verdun."

Solider Henri Louis, 25th Chasseur Battalion writes,

"When Navarre couldn't find any targets,

"he made sure his flights still served a purpose.

"He would entertain the soldiers kneeling in the trenches.

"He put his heart into it, using his exceptional skills

"to show these poor men he was thinking of them."

April 9, 1916, the Germans attack again,

this time on both sides of the Meuse,

trapping Verdun in a pincer movement.

Artillery fighting lasts all through the night.

(loud booming)

At dawn on April 10th, the lines have barely moved.

The French find a last letter on the body

of a German lieutenant from the 71st Infantry Regiment.

"I have been living in filth

"and unable to wash for the past eight days.

"A deathly sorrow reigns over this hell.

"We will not take Verdun. It would cost too many lives.

"In order to win, we would need to fight for months."

Petain addresses his men.

He declares, "The Kronprinz's crazed attacks

"have been stymied everywhere.

"Be brave. We will beat them."

Be brave. We will beat them.

The propaganda machine immediately broadcasts

Petain's historical words.

The mutinous soldiers of 1917 parody his declaration

around on posters and postcards:

"Our leaders, we will beat them."

At headquarters in Chantilly,

Joffre finds it increasingly difficult

to put up with Petain's never-ending requests

for reinforcements.

His reputation is turning him into Joffre's potential rival.

To avoid upsetting public opinion,

Joffre names Petain Commander of Army Group Centre.

This promotion is designed to sideline him.

(soldiers marching)

On May 1st, 1916, Petain is replaced

by 60-year-old General Robert Nivelle.

An ambitious and particularly obedient graduate

of the Polytechnique Institute,

he asks for fewer men and receives more artillery.

The Germans, on the other hand, believe that the outcome

of the battle will play out on the Left Bank.

They launch assault after assault

all through the month of May.

The focus specifically on a hill called Mort Homme.

295 meters high and a kilometer wide,

it dominates the entire Meuse valley.

Lieutenant Louis Maufrais, a 27-year-old military physician

is stationed at the Mort Homme emergency medical post.

It will be his worst war experience ever.

On May 20th, the Germans launch a massive artillery attack.

(artillery blasting)

Louis Maufrais describes the scene:

"Around 11 o'clock,

"the bombing takes on an extraordinary pace.

"We can't even count the strikes.

"There are at least 20 per minute.

"They hammer at our head

"and our entire central nervous system.

"we are shattered like mere puppets. We all feel faint.

"I watch as my fellow soldiers slip into unconsciousness,

"one after the other.

"For six consecutive hours we've been subjected

"to impacts, gas, and constant vibrations.

"Anyone would go mad."

(booming)

(unsettling music)

Maufrais wakes up along with his men.

How is this possible? How did they survive?

But for many, insanity awaits.

A report from the clinical society for mental health:

"One of our patients who received a concussion at Verdun

"had to be placed in a psychiatric ward.

"He is highly disoriented and delirious.

"He has no recollection of his life in the combat zone.

"His last memory dates from 10 days before his regiment

"was transferred to the Meuse region."

Delirium, or total loss of identity,

is the most common problem among these shattered men,

who will never recover their mental faculties.

In this apocalyptic landscape,

the earth swallows up the men.

Verdun's clay has become a living necropolis,

constantly reshaped by the shells,

the living mixed with the dead, French with German.

Soldier Paul Edigoffer writes,

"There are rotting corpses everywhere.

"We trample them without noticing,

"until our foot sinks into something soft.

"Then we think, 'Here rests a comrade, a man just like me.'

"The sweet, nauseating stench of rot

"clings to our uniforms."

"God has left the battlefield," writes Blaise Cendrars

in his book, "The Bloody Hand."

(digging)

Father George Henocque is everywhere.

The poilus have nicknamed him "Ace Chaplain."

(chatting)

He hears the confessions of those leaving for the frontline.

He administers the last rites for the dying.

Following each attack, he blesses the ground

for lack of actual bodies,

pummeled into the clay by the shell storm.

France is one of the first warring nations

to have mobilized its clergy.

There are priests, rabbis, and imams.

A simple soldier of the secular French republic says,

"Once the shells and bullets made me face death,

"I embraced religion."

(unsettling music)

The french troops still think things may improve.

But the situation only gets worse.

(dramatic music)

Verdun's new commander, General Nivelle,

shown here with his deputy, the reliable General Guillaumat,

wants to kick off his mission with a spectacular feat.

He assigns one of his most rugged officers,

49-year-old General Charles Mangin,

to recapture Fort Douaumont.

Thanks to the full mobilization of French industry,

iron-clad logistics, and an endless noria of trucks,

millions of shells have been stockpiled.

Three months after the German attack,

1,000 tons of shells per day fall on Fort Douaumont

(cannons booming)

The massive stone and concrete structure,

with 2,000 Germans inside ...

sinks into the ground.

(booming)

On May 22nd, 1916, Mangin sets his men in motion.

(booming)

Here again, the powerful artillery has little effect

on the well-protected Germans.

Four days later, 4,500 French soldiers

have been taken out of action.

Their bodies are not filmed.

The armies cameramen prefer to show the corpses

of a few unfortunate German fighters.

(fly buzzing)

(digging)

One June 2nd, the Germans launch another attack,

managing to penetrate French defenses

all the way to Fort Vaux,

a mere eight kilometers from Verdun.

Inside the fort, 600 French soldiers are crammed together

in dreadful conditions.

Their only hope is this last homing pigeon,

one of Fort Veux's heroes.

Commander Raynal, who leads the French defense

sends this flying telegram on June 4th.

On a tiny piece of paper, he has written,

"Get us out of here now."

Commander Raynal's pigeon achieves the impossible,

flying through the bullets and gas.

The bird is starving, and his unwavering instinct

sends him to find food back at his military dovecote,

in the Verdun citadel.

During these times, when all telephone lines are cut

and runners can't get through,

homing pigeons are the only way to transmit messages.

Buses and trailers serve as mobile dovecotes.

A strong bond links the birds to their military handlers.

This handler doesn't know that, one day,

these pigeons will be carriers

of the deadly Spanish flu virus that will kill millions.

Commander Raynal's homing pigeon

receives a Legion of Honor ring

before ultimately falling victim to asphyxiant gas.

But the reinforcements won't make it to Fort Veux.

On June 7th, 1916, the 250 survivors surrender,

weakened and ill from thirst and exposure to gas.

The Kronprinz, who was counting on this victory,

decides in a grand gesture to have his soldiers present arms

to the valiant French troops being taken into captivity.

The French are in trouble in Verdun,

like their Italian allies on the Austrian border.

To relieve the Western Front,

they are counting on their other allies, the Russians,

who launch a large-scale offensive.

(heavy gunfire)

On June 4th, 600,000 Russian soldiers

and 60,000 cavalrymen launch the attack.

They strike first at the Austro-Hungarian Empire's troops,

fighting alongside the Germans.

(horses clopping) (soldiers shouting)

The Russians take thousands of Austrian prisoners.

The men are sent into captivity on foot,

except for the officers,

who are transported in horse-drawn carriages.

In 1916, the great empires

are tearing each other to pieces, but with decorum.

Just as the Allies had hoped, General Falkenhayn,

in command of the German troops,

blocks the reinforcements slated for Verdun.

He has them quickly shipped east,

over the remarkable German railway network.

(soldiers marching)

(artillery booming)

But Falkenhayn can't seem to check the Russian offensive,

which carries on victoriously until the Autumn.

This is a great relief to the French in Verdun.

The soldiers on the Verdun Front

make the most of a well-deserved break.

Some pay a visit to their less fortunate comrades.

Others finally have the time to read letters

from their war godmothers.

(singing in foreign language)

This wave of affection is a new phenomenon,

encouraged by the army to keep up the soldiers' spirits.

Five billion postcards

in 80,000 different designs are exchanged.

This correspondence is sometimes followed by an affair,

a great love story, or a tragic death.

The army prefers the postcard format,

which is short and facilitates censorship.

Comments on the horrors of battle

or military information mustn't be leaked.

Spies could be lurking

amongst the well-intentioned godmothers.

General Petain's entourage is equally concerned

about Germany throwing a beautiful seductress into his arms.

Petain may be far from the Verdun Front

but not from the hearts of his many female conquests,

like this one, who writes, "I am thirsty for pleasure,

"for wild caresses and fiery kisses."

Another one writes, "I wish my lips were on yours,

"kissing and nibbling."

Petain has the energy and the time

to maintain ongoing relationships with 40 some odd women,

including opera singer Germaine Lubin, who recalls,

"I sang for our troops in the afternoon,

"and in the evening I attended the dinner party

"General Petain was presiding over.

"I thought he was very handsome.

"Joking around, we decided I would become his war godmother.

"I wrote and received many letters,

"which quickly became more intimate.

"He thought I was beautiful.

"That is how our love was born."

General Guillaume writes, "I can't believe Petain

"is having all these affairs in the middle of Verdun."

On June 22nd, 1916, the British army and the French forces

prepare to attack in the Somme.

4,000 cannons will shoot 10 million shells

during the course of a week.

In the first minutes of the assault, 20,000 English,

Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Canadians, New Zealanders,

South Africans, Indians, Rhodesians, Australians,

and all the men from Newfoundland will perish.

(dramatic music) (cannons blasting)

From July 1st, 1916 onwards, day after day,

month after month, repeated assaults are carried out.

(heavy gunfire)

In November, at the end of the offensive,

there are one million British,

French, and German casualties.

(digging)

Once again, a strategy built

around intensive artillery preparation

followed by massive attacks has been proven ineffective.

But the sacrifice of Allied soldiers

disrupts Germany's battle plans

by forcing it to divide its troops.

The German commander-in-chief, General von Falkenhayn,

turns his sights back on Verdun for a last-chance offensive.

Six months after the start of the battle,

on July 11th, 1916, he focuses

on the last great hurtle before Verdun, Fort Souville.

(loud booming)

At Souville, a lunar landscape cloaked in death,

the fierce French resistance

thwarts the enemies final attacks.

The exhausted Germans surrender by the thousands.

French army physician Major Leon Barosse writes,

"German prisoners file past us.

"They are hungry, thirsty, with drawn faces

"and muddy, tattered clothes.

"They want food and water.

"Our soldiers who have suffered so greatly at their hands

"hand them bread, chocolate, and water.

"They have cast aside their anger

"in a great show of generosity.

"We tend to the German wounded who are crying.

"They offer us everything they own.

"Pocketknives, cigars, matches."

But these German soldiers' distress

echoes that of their families back in Germany,

subjected to a terrible naval blockade

and ruined by military expenditures.

All food is sent to the front.

The Germans are literally dying of starvation.

They have eaten the few horses that weren't requisitioned.

The horses have been replaced

by circus zebras here in Dresden.

(clopping)

By camels.

Or elephants.

(elephants trumpeting)

Soon they, too, will be killed for food.

(gun blasts)

(gun blasts)

(soft music)

On August 29th, 1916,

German Emperor Wilhelm II replaces Falkenhayn

with the awe-inspiring Marshall Paul von Hindenburg.

Hindenburg defeated the Russians early on in the war.

He is always assisted by a formidable strategist,

General Erik Ludendorff.

There is no doubt in their minds they will win this war.

German forces still occupy 10 French departments.

The Allies' bloody attempts to recapture them have failed.

Verdun is now part of the German defense line,

protected by the occupied forts of Douaumont and Vaux.

But this also implies abandoning the offensive

and ordering back much of the artillery.

(horses neighing and clopping)

Retreat from any position is out of the question.

In the ruin of the forts,

transformed into insalubrious cesspools,

the German soldiers, left on their own,

live a nightmarish existence.

One of them, Arnold Zweig is a friend of Sigmund Freud,

the father of psychoanalysis.

Zweig writes ...

"We breathe misery.

"The men's underwear, mended 100 times, is falling apart.

"Food is scarce. People steal each other's rations.

"They don't even bother to fight the lice anymore.

"The worst part is that the army

"is starting to blame the Jews

"for Germany's great sadness and suffering."

(ominous music)

(soldiers marching)

The French are marching to recapture Fort Douaumont

and Fort Vaux, future symbols of victory.

The colonial troops will play an important role

in the battle's final act.

In his book "The Black Force," General Mangin wrote in 1910,

"The Negro races have survived

"in an environment of constant battle,

"therefore strengthening their fighting skills,

"which we benefit from today."

Mangin sends these men, along with other indigenous troops,

to join the poilus soldiers in the attack on Douaumont.

(soldiers charging)

As usual, General Nivelle, the Verdun Commander,

is relying on even greater artillery force.

Massive 400-millimeter caliber cannons,

mounted on tracks, firing 900-kilo shells.

(loud booming)

Following extensive artillery bombing,

the troops launch their attack on Douaumont

at the imposed speed of 100 meters in four minutes.

(dramatic music)

(heavy gunfire)

Despite heavy losses, Douaumont is recaptured in four hours

on October 24th.

(somber music)

These are the first photos taken inside the fort

after it was hit by a 400 millimeter shell.

The terrible explosion and ensuing fire

has led to the surrender of the fort.

On November 2nd, Fort Vaux is also reclaimed by the French.

(dramatic music)

10 months after the onset of Germany's attack on Verdum

on February 21st, 1916,

the French have recaptured their main forts.

French high command officially announces the end

of the Battle of Verdun on December 18th, 1916.

(wind whistling)

(soldiers marching)

The poilus, who don't realize they still have

two years of fighting, suffering, and dying ahead of them,

watch as the men they've been battling for almost a year

are sent off into captivity.

(horses clopping)

Each of these German prisoners can hum in his heart

the Imperial Army's song of the dead.

(singing in foreign language)

"I once had a comrade.

"No better will you find.

"The drum called us to battle.

"He walked at my side."

The resident of Verdun are allowed to return to their homes

or what is left of them.

But they know their town has become

the very symbol of the patriotic spirit.

For years to come, they will see countless parents,

friends, brothers, and widows

come searching for the trace of a loved one,

those the grisly statistics refer to as "the missing."

The lunar landscape of the Verdun battlefield,

filmed here in 1916, spans a mere 20 kilometers,

yet for 300 days and 300 nights,

it was the stage of World War I's worst confrontations

between French and Germans.

60 million shells were fired.

In some places, the ground level sank by seven meters.

Nine villages were leveled.

They were later declared dead for France.

Fleury, one of these villages in the Meuse,

is still officially registered with a population of zero.

2.5 million men fought at Verdun.

714,000 were killed or wounded, often disabled for life,

379,000 French, 335,000 Germans.

100 years later, Verdun remains an indelible page

in the history of heroism and human suffering.

(grass rustling)

(dramatic orchestral music)