#iart

French soldier’s canteen. it appears that a bullet hole has punctured the metal. I’ve found myself wondering if the soldier carrying this canteen was struck by the bullet and if so, did he survive?

Found deep in the forest on the Verdun battlefield, this is probably a spool for telephone or electrical wiring or possibly for barbed wire.

Deep in the forests on the Verdun battlefield one still finds soldiers’ belongings lying on the ground where they were left a century ago.

It was raining and cold on a December day several years ago. My friend, the author and preeminent battlefield guide Iain McHenry and I had explored a dense forest on the Verdun battlefield to find a bunker complex that we saw on a wartime map. We found the bunker but it was around lunchtime. Iain drove into Verdun for a bite to eat and I chose to continue taking photographs. I wandered into the forest and before long was completely disoriented, lost and a bit anxious. While wandering about I stepped into a small clearing and there was this large, live shell just lying there as if a hundred years ago was yesterday. I cherish these moments of discovery when one finds traces of the past that have been untouched by time. I eventually found my way back to a dirt road but learned a lesson never to go into the forest without a portable GPS. It can be dangerous.

Toilets inside one of the French forts ringing Verdun.

Sentry post at the entrance to one of the forts that formed the defensive perimeter around Verdun. There have been eerie moments during this project when the interval of a hundred years seems to vanish and, for a split second, the feeling of being there in the battle a hundred years ago comes over you. Looking out this portal, I experienced one of those moments.

Now in complete darkness, I wonder what purpose this large room inside Verdun’s Fort Souville served during WWI?

It’s amazing to discover rail lines that spanned many kilometers deep underground from a hundred years ago. It’s like an imaginary century-old underground world that was in fact real.