WW1 Remembered As Hundreds Gather For Verdun Re-Enactment

Hundreds of volunteers from 18 countries have gathered in the north-eastern French town of Verdun to remember those who fought in the First World War.

Re-enactors dressed in soldiers' uniforms brought to life a military encampment in the town and held a military parade to mark the centenary of the end of the war.

Visitors were given an insight into soldiers' daily life during the war through the reconstruction of field kitchens, First Aid posts and command posts.

Soldiers in khaki, grey or blue uniforms, depending on the country, and women wearing Red Cross nurses' uniforms were presenting authentic objects and equipment from the 1914-1918 war.

Other volunteers were dispatched on key battlefield areas around Verdun.

They did not re-enact any fighting out of respect for the sites, which have since become a symbol of peace.

Instead, German and Polish volunteers were sharing tips about military clothes and historic anecdotes with their French, Australian and English neighbours at the encampment.

The 10-month battle at Verdun - the longest in World War I - killed 163,000 French and 143,000 German soldiers and wounded hundreds of thousands of others.

Between February and December 1916, an estimated 60 million shells were fired, destroying entire villages.

The former battlefield still holds millions of unexploded shells, so that housing and farming are still forbidden in some areas.

Dozens of heads of state and government, including US President Donald Trump, are expected in Paris to commemorate the Armistice that ended the war on November 11.

Caroline Hecquet, a volunteer from northern France, stressed all countries involved in World War I share a "common suffering".

"Historical memory is in books: strategies, battles, great generals... But the memory of local people, it is fading," she said.

"People don't know any more how objects were used, how clothes looked like. That's what we want to pass on."