re: 108 years ago today: the nightmare of Verdun began

That’s a tough call if you had to choose being a foot soldier at Verdun or Stalingrad.

The latter had more extreme weather and there was ‘no mercy’ if captured. At least in WW1 they’d smoke cigs and play soccer against each other at Christmas.

Did this on a road trip. Sorry for the audio quality

Verdun, Verdun (to the tune of Johnny Comes Marching Home

Verdun, Verdun

A million shells came falling down
Verdun Verdun
Foul craters opened in the ground
Verdun Verdun
A never ending metal rain,
That wracks your nerves and shakes your brain,
And they just keep falling down,
All around, Til they drive, you insane
Boom boom boom boom
Boom boom boom boom

They say we have to take the ground,
Verdun, Verdun,
And seize that sleepy hilltop town,
Verdun, Verdun,
The bloody work is never done,
Between the Frenchman and the hun
And the shells keep falling down,
All around, as your comrades are slain
Boom boom boom boom
Doom doom doom doom

We gain and lose it once again
Verdun, Verdun,
Each time is grinding countless men,
Achtung, Achtung,
Will this damned battle ever cease
The dead in pieces rest in peace
And the shells keep falling down,
As we march, up the hill, once again ,
Boom boom boom boom
Doom doom doom doom

A shell comes down and death flies out,
Verdun, Verdun,
Guts strewn like garland all about,
I'm done, i'm done,
I leave four children and a wife,
For bits of ground they've spent my life,
And the shells keep falling down,
All around, until nothing, remains
Doom doom doom doom,
Doom doom doom doom

Germany recovered because they were motivated entirely by revenge while Russia never was one to care about the lives of its own people.

Do you ever wonder how guys found the courage to scale the trench walls and run head first into almost certain death? You’re looking at it. I’ve only experienced a tiny fraction of the misery these guys are going through at that moment. Every breath hurts, every single inch of your body aches, there’s no end in sight. You reach a point where you just didn’t give a frick anymore…death would be an escape. Eventually, you just accept your fate and hope to take as many of the enemy to hell with you as possible. Your only guilty desire is a bullet or piece of shrapnel to the head, so that death comes quick and mostly painless.