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11 unusual facts about Battle of Verdun


Alexander MacWilliam, Sr.

During World War I, serving at the Battle of Verdun, MacWilliam was shot in both legs while rescuing a trapped and wounded soldier.

Antoni Szymański

As a Prussian citizen, he fought on the Western Front during World War I (including the Battle of Verdun).

Arthur Bluethenthal

In 1916, a year before the United States entered World War I, he joined the French Foreign Legion and served at the Battle of Verdun with the French 129th Infantry Division.

Battle of Verdun

Two French battalions led by Colonel Émile Driant had held the bois for two days, but were forced back to Samogneux, Beaumont and Ornes.

H. A. Boucher

Born in Nashua, New Hampshire to Henry Aristide Boucher, Sr. and Helen Isabel Cameron, Boucher's father died shortly after his birth from lingering effects of exposure to mustard gas in World War I at the Battle of Verdun in 1916.

Óscar R. Benavides

President Pardo sent Benavides to Paris (1916) as an observer of World War I; he was a witness at the Battle of Verdun.

Père Marie-Benoît

Born Pierre Péteul, Father Marie-Benoît served in World War I in North Africa, and was wounded at Verdun.

Peugeot Type 1525

In total around 6,000 Peugeot trucks supplied the front at Verdun during the First World War.

Second Son

At the same time, Reacher figures that a guy who had survived unscathed the battles of Verdun and The Somme and later the Nazi occupation of France, and who lived to age 90, "has already beaten the odds".

Sidi Brahim Barracks

In 1916 the battalion was commanded by one of the great heroes of the Battle of Verdun, Lieutenant Colonel Driant.

Szymon Koszyk

He was conscripted to the German army in 1914, he fought in the Battle of Verdun and was severely wounded.


Franz Marc

Marc was on the list but was struck in the head and killed instantly by a shell splinter during the Battle of Verdun in 1916 before orders for reassignment could reach him.

Johann von Ravenstein

Ravenstein entered the First World War as a battalion adjutant officer and saw considerable action on the Western Front, participating in the battles of Verdun, the Somme, and the Champagne Offensive.

Lake Naroch Offensive

The Lake Naroch Offensive was launched at the request of the French General Joffre, in the hope that the Germans would transfer more units to the East after their attack on Verdun.

Paul Moreau-Vauthier

A veteran of the Battle of Verdun, Moreau-Vauthier had the idea in 1920 to memorialize World War I by installing a series of sculpted stones along the 650 km front from Nieuwpoort, Belgium through Moosch near Altkirch, and on to the Franco-Swiss border.