[imagesource:unsplash]

There’s been quite a lot of sabre rattling going on lately. Be it internationally macho-man Vladimir Putin or North Korea’s very own Kardashian-with-a-nuke, Kim Jung Un. World leaders are slow to learn and quick to forget.

Most of these rulers could do well with a stroll through Zone Rouge to remind them of what happens when elephants fight – only the grass suffers.

Zone Rouge is staggered a 170 square kilometre area that once saw some of the fiercest fightings during WW1. The Battle of Verdun as it came to be known, saw more than 300 000 French and German lives lost during 300 days of fighting. That’s a thousand people every day, for 300 days. Areas deemed to be ‘completely devastated’ were designated red zones.

 

[imagesource:wikicommons]

The area became so littered with bodies, bombs, and all kinds of newly invented chemicals, that a clean-up after the war became impossible. The villagers and farmers in the area were relocated, and until this day, nobody is allowed to live there. Zone Rouge, or Red Zone, is a testament to death and destruction.

Red Zones: Damage to properties: 100%. Damage to agriculture: 100%. Impossible to clean. Human life impossible.”

The war soon changed that and as opposing sides dug in for gruelling trench warfare, the shells never stopped raining down on the French countryside. Soon, trenches became massive graves as the ground was churned up by explosions.

“It was farmland,” says British historian and author Christina Holstein. “There was a very big garrison in Verdun, a peacetime garrison with 66,000 men, so they had to be fed. Verdun was farmed. It was not heavily forested.”

Trees, grass, and anything that stood in the way was vaporised or cut down for supplies, and seeing as this was the beginning of the industrial revolution, there were also a number of chemicals and metals used to produce weapons that completely altered the nature of Zone Rouge.

Image source: Flickr & Unsplash

Imagde source: Flickr & Unsplash

Image source: Flickr & Unsplash

Today there are still reports of farmers who stray into dangerous areas and meet with some of the discarded remnants of war. Unexploded bombs have injured a number of people in the years following the war, although most people in this region know to stay clear of the area.

Yet each year, farmers still plough up 900 tons of unexploded ordnance left over from the Great War.

‘It is estimated that around 60 million shells rained down near Verdun during the fierce battles over that city in 1916 – of which 15 million didn’t explode upon impact.’

Despite all the horror that this area has seen, and much like its no-go counterpart at Chornobyl, the Verdun of today resembles a peaceful scene as the vegetation slowly returns to hide the horror underground.

Image source: Pixhere

Maybe this is the perfect place for war-mongers to gather while they argue over who blinked first. A long stroll through Zone Rouge might just be what they need to be reminded of their humanity.

[sources:bigthink&natgeo]