Several Magazine Covers
Idea and concept by Great War Society editor Mike Hanlon
The battle of Verdun in 1916 is said to have been one of the greatest and most protracted battles in the history of warfare. It certainly cost the lives of many hundreds of thousands of combattants on both sides and caused destruction to homes and landscapes on an unprecidented scale. After the war the battle became a national symbol for France, both for those believing in national glory as well as for those endeavoring to show the utter futility of warfare. The gigantic and at times desperate scale of the fighting was apparent to contemporaries, even if the myth and bitter symbolism of the battle of Verdun would mainly be created in the post-war period.
In this section we will show a collection of pages taken from Great War newsmagazines, French and British, which show photos and illustrations pertaining to the fighting at Verdun in 1916. Many of the now famous photos of the fighting were published at the time by such outstanding magazines as the French 'L'Ilustration' or 'Le Miroir' though in a different lay-out than one finds in modern-day history books. Most photos published in magazines in 1916 however are now mostly forgotten. The intention in this following extensive collection of pages from Great War magazines, is to give an idea of what people at the time of the battle itself read about and what kind of illustrative material they would have seen in print.
It's also very interesting from a modern day point of view, for there were many aspects to this great battle, some not so obvious, others surprisingly moving and stirring. During the battle of Verdun, in contrast to the previous war years, many photos of actual combat in the front lines were taken. French magazines especially published many moving and for the times ground-breaking shots of weary but grimly determined poilus in front-line trenches and of battered and shattered forts and desolate shell-torn landscapes and villages. Consider this section to be a tribute to the many, no doubt valouress and foolhardy war-time photographers, who must have risked their lives under dangerous conditions, to record some of the many varied heroic and everyday events that went into making the battle of Verdun such a momentous episode in the history of the Great War.
Almost all graphics in the following links will be of integral magazine pages as they originally appeared in print. Some minimal retouching has been done to make the titles more legible. For more information on the individual magazines themselves, please refer to the links given seperately for each or else see the following pages on : French Magazines / British Magazines
Placed as an afterthought, but growing in number, are a number of text articles, excerpts or even whole books that were published during the war itself on the fighting in Verdun. Many are stirring eyewitness accounts in French.
Many thanks to Great War Society editor Mike Hanlon for suggesting this original approach.
Fireman in Verdun during a bombardment : 3 different magazine layouts of the same famous photograph
French Magazines
- 'Illustration'
- *see link to 'Illustration'
- Page 01 / Page 02 / Page 03 / Page 04 Page 05 / Page 06 / Page 07 / Page 08 Page 09 / Page 10 / Page 11 / Page 12 Page 13 / Page 14 / Page 15 / Page 16
- 'Le Miroir'
- *see link to 'Le Miroir'
- Page 01 / Page 02 / Page 03 / Page 04 / Page 05 / Page 06 / Page 07 / Page 08 / Page 09
- Page 10 / Page 11 / Page 12 / Page 13 / Page 14 / Page 15
- 'Le Pays de France'
- *see link to 'Le Pays de France'
- Page 01 / Page 02 / Page 03 / Page 04 / Page 05 / Page 06 / Page 07 / Page 08 / Page 09
- Page 10 / Page 11 / Page 12 / Page 13 / Page 14 / Page 15
- 'Panorama de la Guerre'
- *see link to 'Panorama de la Guerre'
- Page 01 / Page 02 / Page 03 / Page 04 / Page 05 / Page 06 / Page 07 / Page 08 / Page 09
- 'Le Petit Journal'
- *see link to 'Le Petit Journal'
- Page 01
- from a British and French magazine :
- French children watch as German prisoners pass by / on guard in Verdun
British Magazines
- 'The Illustrated War News'
- *see link to 'Illustrated War News'
- Page 01 / Page 02 / Page 03 / Page 04 / Page 05 / Page 06 / Page 07 / Page 08 / Page 09
- Page 10 / Page 11
- 'The War Illustrated'
- *see link to 'The War Illustrated'
- Page 01 / Page 02 / Page 03 / Page 04 / Page 05 / Page 06 / Page 07 / Page 08 / Page 09
- 'The War Budget'
- *see link to 'The War Budget'
- Page 01 / Page 02 / Page 03
- 'The War of the Nations'
- *see link to 'War of the Nations'
- Page 01
American Magazines
- 'Deutsch-Amerika'
- *see link to 'Deutsch-Amerika'
- Page 01
the moat of fort Vaux - the same photo in German and French magazines
German Magazines
- 'Die Wochenschau'
- *see link to 'Die Wochenschau'
- Page 01
- 'Die Woche'
- *see link to 'Die Woche'
- Page 01
a runner approaches fort Vaux
Text Articles
Many thanks to Great War Society editor Mike Hanlon for suggesting this original approach.
