The Battle of Verdun in 1916 was the second bloodiest battle of World War I: more than 700,000 dead in total.<\/p>\n
That brutal battle was surpassed by an even greater one that same year: the Battle of the Somme, in which more than a million soldiers died. In the case of Verdun<\/strong>, combatants from both sides (French and German) are buried in several cemeteries. The largest burial site from that battle is the Douaumont Ossuary, the largest military cemetery in France.<\/strong> It was built in 1920 and contains the graves of 16,142 identified French soldiers who fell in that battle. In addition, it contains the remains of more than 130,000 French and German soldiers who could not be identified<\/strong>. Let's imagine for a moment the tragedy of so many families who did not even know where their loved ones were buried.<\/p>\n On the occasion of the construction of the Douamont Ossuary, the corpse of an unidentified French soldier was selected on November 8, 1920<\/strong> by Auguste Thin, a 21-year-old soldier who belonged to the 132nd Infantry Regiment. The remains of that anonymous soldier were transferred to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris<\/strong>, being buried under the arch, in what is known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which represents all the soldiers who fell for France.<\/p>\n
\n