Verdun or Ypres

Spent an entire day touring the Verdun battlefield and Fort Douamont (sp?) in '07 with Christina Holstein, a private tour guide who had written a book on the battle and fort, and really brought the history to life. We did it in a long day trip from Paris. Didn't go to Ypres, so can't speak to that.

I am also going to Normandy for a few days.

I think it is sad that many of the WWI sites are passing out of the collective memory. It is understandable, especially from an American perspective as the US involvement was later and not as costly as other nations or later involvement in WWII.

Many may not know this but the largest (in terms of graves) US cemetery is Europe is the WWI cemetery of Meuse-Argonne near Verdun.

In fact the battle for this land was the costliest battle in US history. More battle deaths than either Gettysburg or Normandy.

Michael: Good points and interesting stats. Your subject line said "Verdun" so I didn't know whether you meant the 1916 battle between the Germans and French or the 1918 battle of the Meuse-Argonne involving US forces.

Now that you have clarified that your interests include the Meuse-Argonne, I'd recommend that, if you have to choose between Verdun or Ypres, you go to the Verdun area simply because in the Verdun area you can see both the 1916 Verdun battlefield and the 1918 Meuse-Argonne battlefield about 20 miles away from Verdun.

This is not how every traveler would want to spend part of the European vacation. But I feel, for myself only, that the remembrance of going there is worth it to me, because I'd like to do my small part in not letting the world forget about the horrors of war that these young men and boys had to suffer.

In the 1916 Verdun battle, the French suffered 370,000 total casualties (the total of killed, missing and wounded) with about 160,000 killed. Total German casualties were only slightly less at 340,000.

It's been said that in both France and Germany the Verdun battle came to symbolize the horrors of modern war, with its systematic use of machine guns and other automatic weapons.

As you probably know, in the 1918 Meuse-Argonne battle, total US casualties were 120,000--about 25,000 killed and 95,000 wounded.

Unfortunately, the people of the world would have to go through even worse only 20 to 25 years after these horrific WW1 battles, when 50 million humans (soldiers and civilians in all countries, including Russia and China) would die in the years 1939 - 1945.