Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0126Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of a group os soldiers relaxing, there is a large supply train of vehicles that strech to the horizon in the background. Above the image "W77 (Star)" ist printed, below the image "18678 French Troops and Transport on "The Sacred Road." During the Battle of Verdun, 1916." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company Copyrighted Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
18678
FRENCH TROOPS RESTING AFTER A COMBET WITH "FRITZ"
It is not too much to say that the white road winding away before us, solidly packed with -nctor trucks, or as the French call them "camions", saved Verdun for France in the terrible battle summer of 1916, and so perhaps saved the Allies from then losing the war. For Verdun, with its circle of great forts on the hills around, was the most vital point on the French battle front, and if the Crown Prince of Germany had been able to caputre it when he fell upon it with 7 army corps and 3,000 guns in February, 1916, he would have broken through the center of the Allied armies and anything might have happened.
The German artillery cut the railraod lines by which Verdun was supplied with troops, ammunition and food. Even the sublime courage of the French soldiers, voiced in their immortal battle-cry, "Ils ne Passeront pas!" ("They shall not pass!") would have availed nothing if a new supply line could not have been found. Then this splended highway was utilized, winding out southwest from Verdun through the little valley, sheltereed from shell fire, which we see in the distance. So precious it was that the French soldiers gave it the neame "La Voie Sacree" (The Sacred Road). By it the 250,000 defenders of the great fortress were supplied thorugh all the months of the awful struggle; the thousands of wounded were taken to the rear, fresh troops marched in and those weary from battle came to rest and refit.
Before us we see the Sacred Road in the very height of the battle, trembling benath the wheels of trucks going back for more suppplies, fresh troops in the distance marching toward the sound to the guns, and tired poilus on their way out resting for a moement with stacked rifles.
Copyright by The Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection