The Poilu and His War

The French soldiers were a vital part of the "face" of the Great War and while often portrayed by many in the United States as poor fighters, which they were not! The Poilu was a brave soldier and these generalizations are simply not true -- the Poilu has always suffered under poor leadership, both in his military and from (and particularly so) his civilian government. With good leaders, the French soldier was more than capable! These Iron Men fought, and won, on such hellish battlefields as Verdun, a place where conditions were SO horrible that they simply could not be imagined -- even today! The battlefield of the Great War was truly hellish -- like nothing ever seen before, or since. Among the horrors, were poison gas and the near-constant, and massive artillery barrages which often lasted for days. During these barrages, hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of shells were fired in huge massive barrages and tens of thousands of men were killed, their shredded bodies then being buried by the next shell, which also uncovered other bodies from earlier shellings. The result was a grisly mix of bodies, body parts and gore all over the battlefield with rats, disease and horror being the enemy for both sides. The Great War was different from other wars and they say that the stench of the battlefield was truly horrible... It was in this environment that Death stalked the trenches, reaping a constant harvest of the souls he found there.