Video 2: The Bunkers and Video 3: The Forts and Trenches

Here is my second video about the German Bunkers outside Verdun. This video was fun to edit because I got to relive the trips we made into the bunkers.

Here is the script for the bunker video:

After leaving the Somme, our class ventured to Verdun.

Verdun is south east of the Somme in the historically contested Alsace Lorrain region. While the battle’s for the Somme and Verdun happened at the same time during the same war, the geography of the regions forced the armies into very different style of fighting.                 

While the Somme is a land of flat rolling hills, the terrain around Verdun is a series of cuestas. The city of Verdun lies on the Meuse River, nestled among the ridges and hills and surrounded by forts.

This geography and heavy fortification slowed the advance of the German army. They were forced to dig in and fortify their lines for the long haul.

Even now a hundred years later the ground to the north and east of Verdun is crisscrossed by a large network of German tunnels, and underground command posts.

On our class trip to Verdun we found a small collection of these bunkers------ outside the Village of Azanne-Soumazannes in an area of the forest managed by the French forest service, the Office National de Forets.

We were looking for Professor Joe Hupy’s old research site when we found our first bunker. WE were traipsing through the woods when we found a rocky mound. This was likely a bunker that was destroyed either by shelling or by a grenade. We then found an opening in the ground and decided to go inside.

The entrance to the bunker was small, but it was likely larger when it was in use. Most of the class squeezed head first into the bunker.

Inside was surprisingly roomy. At one end was a collapsed tunnel that likely led to the rubble mound we found earlier in the woods. There were also remnants of communication wires.

We then found Professor Hupy’s field sites. He used a GPS unit with the coordinates to lead us there through the forest.

After looking at the field sites we found some more bunkers.

The entrances to the bunkers were steep and often obstructed with rubble or brush. These bunkers, unlike the first one had much larger openings.

The next bunker that I explored had a very steep entrance. I was trying to steady myself on an tree and I almost fell in. In the entrance there was a very long balck pipe that was possibly used to pump concrete into the bunker from a narrow gauge rail line near by. Inside the bunker we found remenants of what may have been bunk beds or barracks of some sort.

The second bunker we entered is the largest bunker that Professor Hupy said he had ever found.

The tunnels branched in two different directions. In one direction the tunnel was collapsed, but in the other direction the tunnel turned twice and then stretched off into darkness.

Inside most of the bunkers we found remnants and artifacts. There were shovels, bottles, ration tins, and what may have been part of a grenade.

Inside the largest bunker we even found bones, but in closer inspection we decided that they belonged to an animal.

Climbing into these bunkers was dangerous. The entrances are steep and they are filled with debris. Anyone who want to attempt a similar adventure does so at their own risk. We also needed the permission of the ONF to be in this part of the woods."

Here is my video about the forts and trenches around Verdun. This video took a long time to put together because I was attempting to work off of my lap top. My computer is not new enough or fast enough to edit this type of video properly. This video was a treat for me to work on because I love working with nat sound and interviews. If there is one big think I miss in my Somme video it is natural sound. It was so windy and rainy for the majority of the time we were in the Somme that all of my nat sound was sort of ruined. 

I will post the script for this video soon. I saved it on my laptop and then forgot to send it to myself. 

Going forward:
One thing I need help on as I begin to wrap things up it putting the KLM of the stollen into my tour builder.
This week I will be putting together a retrospective of the trip and making sure all my media is finalized and connected. 

Click here for my updated Google Tour.