How to use this map:
Make sure the image is centered over France. Click the option for 3D map in the upper right-hand corner, and hold shift while dragging to change the camera angle. Use the cursor to hover over individual lines to discover information about the soldiers of Verdun, such as their birthplaces, units, ranks, and where they fought.
About This Project:
The aim of this project was to demonstrate the geographical scope of manpower required to fight the battles of World War 1, commonly referred to as the “first modern war.” The longest of these battles was fought over possession of the French city of Verdun in 1916, which lasted over 9 months and claimed the lives of roughly 300,000 people. Included in this map are the names of 100 French soldiers who either fought at, or were killed in action during the battle.
The 3D interactive map provides a stunning visualization of the variety of towns and cities from which soldiers of Verdun originated from. These particular soldiers were not chosen for their backgrounds, so the equal distribution of their birthplaces is a testament to the nationwide recruitment necessary for modern warfare. Using this map we can observe that the majority of birthplaces are located within the regions of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Hauts-de-France, with the only region not represented being the island of Corsica. Additionally, Paris has the largest concentration of soldiers born in the same city, followed by Lyon.
The two soldiers who were not born inside of France are members of the 1st and 2nd Algerian Rifle Regiments, colonial units of French Algeria. Along with the Zouaves and Tirailleurs, these colonial divisions lost tens of thousands of soldiers during the battle of Verdun, however many of these deaths are still unaccounted for to this day.
The most common unit that appears in the dataset is the 344th Infantry Regiment, with the most common rank being that of Private 2nd Class. The highest rank listed is that of Lieutenant-Colonel Émile Driant, who became the first high ranking officer to die during the battle.
In Verdun itself, the areas with the most combatants engaged in fighting are shown using a heat map. The most common location listed is Fleury-devant-Douaumont, which witnessed heavy action throughout the duration of the battle. The town of Fleury was completely destroyed by shellfire in 1916 and has never been rebuilt.
In order to find and compile this data I relied on a number of sources which included memoires, battlefield memorials, and cemetery records. The vast majority of background information was taken from the French Ministry of Defense’s Memoires des Hommes database, which provides photographs of the original death certificates for soldiers of the First World War and other conflicts. During the course of my research I found it difficult to locate primary sources confirming that soldiers who had survived the battle had actually fought there, and turned my focus to death records which are more easily verifiable. This means that of the 100 names listed, only a handful actually survived the conflict.
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