WW1 Poem:~ ’Dead Man’s Dump’ by Isaac Rosenberg ~ Verdun ’Feb 21 - Dec 18’ 1916

One hundred years ago, on February 21st, 1916, a Monday, the first shots were fired in the battle for the French fortress town of Verdun. German and French soldiers fought of every last metre of ground, making it the longest battle of the war, almost twice as long as any other encounter. In the 303 days of this so called ’meat grinder’, close to 750,000 men died, were wounded or simply disappeared, pulverised to tiny, unrecognisable bits by shelling from as far away as 17 miles, or eviscerated on the end of