These politics are a main topic in They Shall Not Pass, by the prominent war correspondent and historian Frank H. Simonds (1878-1936), who earlier wrote the 1914 book The Great War: The First Phase.
Simonds, who worked for the New York Tribune, personally visited Verdun in northeast France on April 6, 1916.
He also visited the nearby area of Nancy, where a significant battle that was fought in 1914 in the early days of World War I helped France reclaim part of the Lorraine territory that it had lost about 40 years earlier in the Franco-Prussian War.
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| Fort Douaumont, Verdun, 1916 |
In Verdun, Simonds of course did not realize that he was reporting on the first part of a battle that would last through much of 1916. But he did have a clear understanding of the political factors that contributed to the length of the battle.
Simonds repeatedly stated that Verdun had no military value for the French army, because its surrounding forts were no match for the modern artillery of the Germans.
But the city and its forts still had much historical significance for France, which was why Germany attacked it. He wrote:
(The French politician) recognized that the German people would be roused to new hope and confidence by the capture of a great fortress, and that the French would be equally depressed by losing what they believed was a great fortress.At the time Simonds was reporting, the French had successfully resisted most of the German attack on Verdun, which had "roused national confidence, hope, faith, as nothing else since the present conflict began."
During his travels through war-torn France, Simonds developed many perspectives on the effects of war on France that gradually appeared as he moved eastward. He would pass from villages and cities with no war-related property damage to places that had been devastated beyond recognition.
But even in places with no property damage, Simonds noticed changes in the demographics of the population. Most of the people that he saw working on farms and elsewhere were older men, women, and children.
Most of the younger men had been called to fight. When soldiers started appearing on Simonds's journey to Verdun, he noticed that these soldiers were mostly in their thirties, because of the toll that the nearly two-year-old war had taken on men in their late teens and twenties.
Many of these younger men were buried in graves that increased in number as Simonds travelled towards Verdun. First there were individual graves, for both French and German troops. Then, the carnage of the war was made more apparent by the appearance of mass graves.
In many places, life had seemingly ended, but elsewhere, life went on as well as possible.
In a field, a farmer plowed around graves. In municipalities like Nancy, people still tried to lead their pre-war lives, even when a German airplane (Taube) flew over the town:
But the Taube turned away, the [anti-aircraft] guns fired less and less frequently, the people in the streets drifted away, the children to school, the men to work, the women to wait. It was just a detail in their lives, as familiar as the incoming steamer to the commuters on the North River ferryboats. Some portion of the war has been the day's history of Nancy for nearly two years now.At times, Simonds seemed to be in a time warp. He'd visit the site of fierce fighting, and struggled to understand how such a peaceful spot could be the scene of such horrific conflict. These moments of reflection are jostled by the realization that actual fighting was still going on just a few miles away.
Simonds, who served as a private during the Spanish-American War, showed much appreciation for the military efforts of the French. He met Philippe Pétain, who commanded the French troops during the Battle of Verdun and who is credited with the inspirational phrase that Simonds used for the title of his book.
The trench warfare style of fighting was noted by Simonds when he wrote that the French soldier had "to stand, to hold, to die not in the onrush but on the spot."
They Shall Not Pass includes a detailed description of the famous supply road to Verdun that has been called the "Sacred Way." Simonds remarked that it ran so efficiently that it felt like a machine.
The Philadelphia Inquirer praised They Shall Not Pass on June 24, 1916:
Mr. Simonds has brought to his task a large equipment of military knowledge, familiarity with the campaigns of history, a close knowledge of the territory where all the fighting has been going on and most of all, a ripe judgment based on facts and not in the least affected by personal prejudices.
They Shall Not Pass was published around June 3, 1916, when a review of the book appeared in The Brooklyn (New York) Daily Eagle. Front page headlines in that edition of the Daily Eagle included:
- 8,000 LIVES LOST IN NAVAL BATTLE; 150 SHIPS ENGAGED; ZEPPELINS AIDED GERMANY IN 3-to-1 VICTORY (Battle of Jutland in North Sea between British and Germans)
- FRENCH POSITION AT FORT OF VAUX IS PENETRATED / Germans Gain Possession of Strategic Point East of Meuse / PARIS CONCEDES THIS / Reports Repulse of All German Attacks Elsewhere—Teuton Losses Heavy / 103rd Day of Verdun Battle
Online versions:
Newspaper information from newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/)
Photograph of Fort Douaumont by "Photographisches Bild- und Film-Amt" [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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