Verdun Tours - The Battles of Champagne

The Battles of Champagne

Overlooked by most battlefield travellers, the chalky hills of Champagne form the backdrop to numerous major events in World War I.

This is where the French army fought for its life on four separate occasions in battles that caused half a million French and German casualties.

It is where 16,000 Russians were sent to support the French. They are remembered by a Russian chapel and cemetery and by remembrance ceremonies that still take place each year.

It is where "the corporals of Souain" were executed in April 1915 in a notorious event that gave rise to Stanley Kubrik's film "Paths of Glory".

American units also fought here in October 1918, liberating Blanc Mont and Telegraph Hill.

With a one-day tour we could show you the principal sites of the battlefields such as the Russian chapel and cemetery, the hills of Blanc Mont and Navarin Farm, the German cemetery at St. Etienne and an American memorial room in a village in the battlefield.


Russian chapel	French monument to the Champagne battles	St. Etienne German cemetery

With a tour of two days or more, we can show you some of the lesser-known sites in this area or follow the actions of particular regiments or men.

”…Have you ever heard an infantry battalion go singing toward the front line under a summer moon? In the early days of our war we were wont to sing. Now we old hands, who had been there a time or two, left it to the replacements.

The hush still hung around them as they began to ascend the long gray slope ahead. There was no cover. Ahead of them, towards Blanc Mont ridge, where the other battalions had gone was tumult and clangor but here it was quiet.

The first shell came screaming down from the right and the silent ridge on the left exploded into rifle and machine gun fire….”

From “Suddenly We Didn’t Want To Die: Memoirs of a World War I Marine” by EE Mackin. Copyright Presidio Press 1993