battle of verdun?

Question

its for a project (and yes im doing my homework, i just cant seem to find these questions)
im supposed to make a soldiers diary, but i really do not want to be vague.
i know OBVIOUSLY the soldiers were sad, but i want to describe them with more feelings and more precise ones?
also, when did the soldiers leave their families (date) not when the battle actually started.
they say it was delayed cos of the weather, but i thought they battled no matter what.
do they mean like some sort of snowstorm?

Answer 1

You need to do what almost all of us have done:

RESEARCH!

You won't find any WW1 vets to interview so you better get reading instead of asking others to do your work.

I'm a combat veteran (Vietnam) and I never knew anyone who was sad. Many were mad and many scared but sadness would come AFTER battles, not before.

Answer 2

Verdun in WW1 cost the French half a million men's lives, it also cost the Germans just over half a million men lives.

There is a lot of information out there on the subject.

You will have to search for it, read it and then try to understand it before you compose your homework.

I visited the place in 1999 some of the damage is still visible at Fort Douamont, Trench of the Bayonets, Fort de Vaux, The Tunnels etc..etc.. Google L'Ossuaire to see the monument to the dead.

Answer 3

Read "The Price of Glory" by Sir Alistair Horne. You may be able to take some shortcuts on the Internet, but this book is a fascinating documentary of WW1 in the strategic area of Verdun, the last defense west of Paris. It tells the irony of how a supposedly impregnable French fortress.was taken by just a few German infantrymen, and how it was later lost by a few German soldiers trying to heat their coffee.