Sacred Road Voie Sacree memorial between Verdun and Bar le Duc. France. Oct 2014
Sacred Road Voie Sacree memorial between Verdun and Bar le Duc. France. Oct 2014 Memorial marks the Verdun end of the 57km highway from Bar Le Duc. Tens of thousands of trucks carried arms and food to relieve Verdun during WWI. 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. During the initial crisis of 21 February to 22 March, 600 trucks per day had already delivered 48,000 tons of ammunition, 6,400 tons of other material and 263,000 men to the battlefield. Beginning on February 21, all horse drawn traffic and troop movements on foot had been ordered off the road leaving it open for truck and motor car traffic only. After March 1916, one truck passed every 14 seconds, submitting the road to considerable wear and tear. Quarries had to be opened nearby to supply the road with crushed stone. Over the course of ten months, 16 labour battalions worked to keep the road in good shape and order. The road had been recognized since 1915 as the only reliable vehicular road that remained in existence to supply Verdun safely. All the standard gauge railway lines that could reach Verdun had already been interrupted by German forces in late 1914. To compensate for this precarious situation the road had been widened to 23 feet during 1915, so it could accommodate the continuous up and down flow of two lines of truck traffic. 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.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Verdun France
Photo credit: © BRIAN HARRIS / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: bar, bar-le-duc, brian, duc, harris, le, road, sacred, sacree, sacré, verdun, voie, ww1, wwi
