Le Linge Battlefield

Today, we visited Le Linge battlefield in the Vosges mountains of Alsace.

It was one of the bloodiest of WW1, with 17,000 soldiers losing their lives in three months in 1915, on this fortified, rocky hilltop. The Germans had established trenches there to defend against the French moving back into Alsace. Flame throwers and gas were used there for the first time in modern day battles. The French were hopelessly outgunned and out equipped.

As I walked the trenches, I tried imagining what it must have been like for these young men -- on both sides. War is only glamourous on TV.

The entire hilltop is considered a cemetery as most of the dead have not been recovered.