Bayonet Trench

The 1920 concrete structure encloses the graves of French soldiers who died on the site, which was a military trench, in June 1916 during the Battle of Verdun.

This led to the myth that the French soldiers had been buried alive when their trench collapsed during bombardment and died standing with their rifles in their hands.

The memorial was commissioned by American banker George Franklin Rand and designed by French architect André Ventre.

Initial success saw the French Fort Douaumont captured but the battlefield afterwards turned into a quagmire and casualties were high on both sides.

[1] By 11 June the French 137th Infantry Regiment was posted to a defensive line west of Fort Douaumont between the Morchée wood and Thiaumont farm.

The German forces buried the French dead in part of the trench, a standard practice during the war, and continued their advance.

[8] In 1929 French writer Jean Norton Cru [fr] claimed that the "Buried Alive" myth had been created by battlefield tourists.

[6][10] American banker George F. Rand, president of Marine Trust Company, heard the story of the 137th Regiment at Verdun during his trip to Europe at the time of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

[11] Rand died the next day on 11 December 1919 in a plane crash near Croydon Field as he flew back to London on the first leg of his return journey to the United States.

[8][2] Brandt went on to design the bronze burner for the eternal flame that now forms the centrepiece of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris.

The ceremony was attended by the American ambassador to France, Hugh Campbell Wallace, Generals Joseph Joffre, Ferdinand Foch, and Philippe Pétain.