Hello again dear readers, for what wiĺ be the last instalment in my Remembrance Walk BLOG.
A gentle 13 and a half miles today, took me to the Verdun battlefield and cemetery, before finally reaching Verdun-sur-Meuse and the final stop on my walk.
Before I describe the Day, let's get the statistics out of the way. Over the past nineteen days, I have walked 678,446 steps and covered a distance of 336.86 miles (542.124 km).
I have lost count of the number of cemeteries and memorials I have visited and the number of dead they honoured (all I can say is that best guess puts the total around the 500,000 mark - half a million fathers, sons, brothers, uncles who never got to go home).
So this morning dawned sunny and bright and after a croissant and some cheese on baguette I started a leisurely stroll through the Verdun forest to the main area of the battle of Verdun.
This battle was the longest and bloodiest of the whole war (look it up for all the stats) and took place to the North of Verdun on the high forested landscape. During the battle, nine villages were completely destroyed, never to be re-inhabited or rebuilt.
The death toll on both sides was enormous and the Battle of the Somme was instigated to draw German troops away from Verdun to allow the French to regroup.
The whole forest had been heavily fortified by the French after the Franco-prussian war, to provide defence against German aggression, so you don't have to walk far to find forts scarred by the battle.
The Cemetery and chapel at Douaumont are huge and, uniquely, the unidentified remains found around the battlefield after the war are housed in the building with viewing windows for the public to see the remains (The French government decided every Frenchman who died had a right to a final resting place and relatives of those never identified could perhaps gain some solace knowing that within this vast structure their loved ones body lay). There are estimated to be remains of between 130,000 and 160,000 men here.
After spending a couple of hours walking around the site, one becomes almost 'punch drunk' by the sheer scale of slaughter that occurred in this area. I placed my tribute to them all and headed through the forest to Verdun.
A couple of hours walking brought me to my final destination Verdun, tomorrow I catch the train home.
When I came up with the idea of this walk, I had no real idea whether I could complete it and, very little knowledge of the Great War other than it was awful and savage.
My walk has allowed me to test myself and push on when at times I would rather have quit. I was driven on by the knowledge that 100 years ago, hundreds of thousands of men COULD NOT quit and I should honour them by continuing (after all, No one was raining shell's on my head!)
I have also learnt a huge amount about the war, where and how it was fought and, most importantly, how lucky we all are, thanks in no small part to those that fought and many that did not return.
I thank them all.
THEY SHALL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN
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