re: Verdun, February 21, 1916. How long could you stand the bombardment of a million shells?

The one timeline I would love to see would be the Germans breaking through on the Marne in 1914 and we see a quick end to this war. No Russian revolution, the Ottoman Empire isnt broken apart by European powers, no rise of Nazism, I could go on and on.

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But I honestly think the advancements these militaries had made between the Civil War and WW1 push it a hair past the civil war. The new technology combined with the outdated tactics being used put these men in an absolute meat grinder and no one had the wherewithal to stop and say, "hmm, we may need to try something else."

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Been doing some reading on the Civil War lately and apparently that is where trench warfare had it's beginnings. For most of the war however, you had lines of men walking across fields into the face of cannons firing double grapeshot rounds. Simply insane and it's surprising even more were not killed.

WW1 saw it taken to the next level with long range howitzers firing much larger shells.

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Been doing some reading on the Civil War lately and apparently that is where trench warfare had it's beginnings.

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I visited the Wilderness battlefield in northern Virginia last weekend and it was surreal seeing the remnants of Union and Confederate trenches in the woods. That's the battle where trench warfare truly began. By the time the two armies were in Petersburg a month and a half later, some of those trenches were beginning to resemble the ones we would see in World War I some 50 years later.

No way I could have handled that. I would have died for sure. Talk about hell on earth. Only place worse I can think of would be Stalingrad in the 20th century.

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Hard to describe the mixture of emotions one gets by visiting that area.

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I imagine the very area has a feel to it. An energy. An aura of the past

There is a movie called Regeneration (released in the US as Behind the Lines) I think you would appreciate. Two of the characters are Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon where they meet in a psychiatric war hospital.

Yes, and I’m not much into sensitivity of place but it’s sobering.

There is a huge Ossuary at Douaumont there. It has a subfloor with glass windows showing the bones beneath the floor of the entire structure.

An estimated 130k I think at Douaumont alone, if I recall correctly.

While looking at some of the previously linked videos, I Came across this video of a sculptor makes masking for those disfigured.

Sculptor making masks

WW1 fans should watch the newest Kingsman on HBO Max or Hulu