Voie Sacrée

After March 1916, along the 72 km (45 mi) of the "Voie Sacrée", transport vehicles were on the move day and night ferrying troops, armaments, and supplies to the Verdun battlefield.

This preemptive roadway improvement in 1915, plus success in organizing the transport system on the road (a mission supervised by colonel Maurice de Barescut, the Chief of Staff of the French Second Army), is what saved Verdun in 1916.

Automobile repair shops in Bar-le-Duc and Troyes worked ceaselessly as did hydraulic presses that renewed the truck's solid rubber tyres.

The city hall in the village of Souilly, on the Voie Sacrée, served as headquarters to Generals Philippe Pétain and Robert Nivelle during the Battle of Verdun.

A large, well-preserved, two-storey stone building fronting on the "Voie Sacree", the Souilly city hall is still in official use today.