🔄FROM THE ARCHIVE: A region in France devastated by battle undergoes an ecological makeover.
The Battle of Verdun lasted 10 months, leveling parts of northeastern France in 1916. The German attack stretched across nine villages, including Verdun. Ullstein Bild/Granger NYCThe Battle of Verdun in northeastern France was one of the longest and bloodiest clashes of World War I, claiming roughly 300,000 lives. It also decimated the landscape: Intense artillery fire felled nearly all of the region’s trees, and millions of exploding shells left deep depressions, exposing the limestone bedrock.
After 10 months of intense fighting, the destruction of the landscape was so complete that some pilots flying over said it resembled a moonscape. Human remains, unexploded shells and rusted barbed wire littered the enormous battlefield, which encompassed nine destroyed French villages, including Verdun. Lead and arsenic, from bullets and bombs, permeated the soil.
The area was largely left alone for decades. Most of the visitors were hunters and war remembrance groups. Meanwhile, the vestiges of war began to be concealed by the returning flora and growth of the planted trees.In 2013, to prepare for the war’s centenary, the French National Forests Office arranged an aerial survey of the Verdun forest. During spring, a small plane flew low over the trees, equipped with a laser that emitted thousands of near-infrared pulses each second.
The maps are so good that there’s concern about them falling into the wrong hands. “It’s controversial to release these data because they might be used by grave robbers illegally looking for artifacts,” Hupy says. Pools of water form in decades-old impressions left by artillery bombardments during WWI. Broker/Alamy Stock Photo
The forest is also the site of several memorials, including a cemetery with over 16,000 graves and an ossuary filled with the remains of soldiers on both sides of the battle. And the ground itself is considered sacred, a final resting place for roughly 80,000 soldiers whose bodies were never recovered.
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