A hollow crater bright with wild flowers marks the spot where the little village school used to stand. Another, the former bakery. Today, on the ridge above Verdun in eastern France, buttercups and clover waft in the breeze where shrapnel, blood and ground flesh once scarred the soil. Swallows dart to and fro. During the Battle of Verdun in 1916, the village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont swapped hands over a dozen times, as French and German troops bombarded each other in a pitiless war of attrition to advance the front line. By the end of the battle, one of the bloodiest of the first world war, the French had lost 163,000 men and the Germans 143,000; the front line scarcely budged.
一个空心的火山口和野花鲜花标志着小乡村学校过去所在的地方。另一个是前面包店。如今，在法国东部的凡尔登上方的山脊上，微风中的毛cup和三叶草蜿蜒曲折，碎片，血液和地面肉曾经使土壤受到伤痕。燕子飞镖来回。在1916年的凡尔登战役中，弗雷里·德万特·杜阿蒙特（Fleury-Devant-Douaumont）村换了十二次，法国和德国军队在无情的消耗战中互相轰炸，以促进前线。在战斗结束时，法国人损失了163,000人，而德国人损失了143,000人，这是第一次世界大战中最血腥的人之一。前线几乎没有发芽。
