A HUNDRED YEARS AGO…….
I posted this story a while ago,I often think of this experience,and I still have no explanation for it.It’s 100 years ago this month since the Battle for Verdun started and I thought I’d like to share this event.
I was a history teacher for many years,in a fairly tough Comprehensive school.History is still my passion,and I always wanted to share the love with my teenage students,it gave them an idea of where they came from,and their place in the world,it introduced them to bias and opened their eyes to other stories and cultures.We visited many places together,and every year we toured the First World War battle sites.
One year,the main study was Verdun,a French city with a ring of strong defensive forts,many of them underground. The city boasted it had never been taken by an enemy.The Germans decided to throw their force against Verdun,encouraging the French to protect this icon of freedom.The battle dragged on for months,with the death of thousands on both sides.
When we visited one of the forts,Vaux,it was late in the day and I found myself alone,complete with a self guide text,hurrying to catch up with the rest of the party.The first room was described as ‘a dormitory for troops.’ I felt a real heaviness in the air,and felt that the room was full of men talking,moving around and I could almost see them,smell their cigarettes.They felt very close,yet far away,if that makes sense.
I moved on-you had to go through the fort to reach the exit and I didn’t want to linger.As I passed through,the strange feelings grew worse…there was a feeling of pain and horror in a chamber where operations had been carried out.I began to have a headache,started to feel panicky.There was a narrow tunnel leading to the surface,it had a wooden cross on the floor with a wreath of flowers draped over it.The words came into my mind…’This is the gateway to Hell.’I felt sick and started to hyperventilate,I wanted to be away from that place but couldn’t move.I don’t know how long I was there,must have been some time because another history teacher came to find me and had to help me out……I later read that the tunnel was the way the German troops regularly attacked the defenders of the fort.
The experience has left a huge effect on me.I’ve been to lots of places where I’ve felt close to the past,in temples,plague houses,pyramids,castles…..and I have never been affected in that way.I have no idea how I came to pick up these feelings and emotions,it’s something I can’t understand and will never forget.
How interesting Maize. I have sometimes felt that touching the past was surreal. Several places and historical sites give the feel. I was most struck when I stood in the village of Orador Sur Glans. A French village left as it was in 1944. Three of us, including an aged French citizen, felt the past was almost tangible. Quite added to by the complete silence we shared. And the spot where Lawrnce crashed to his death on his Brough Superior. Uncanny.
Yes,I agree, some places do have an atmosphere…I’ve felt that,but nothing like I experienced in Fort Vaux……so strong, so upsetting.Interesting to hear how places affected you!Thanks for this!
Hi Maize
Some have theories about how buildings can ‘record’ events and emotions from the past and release them again years later – this from Wikipedia
“The Stone Tape theory is the speculation that ghosts and hauntings are analogous to tape recordings, and that electrical mental impressions released during emotional or traumatic events can somehow be “stored” in moist rocks and other items and “replayed” under certain conditions.”
Maybe you acted as a conduit?
Perhaps that is why so many castles and prisons – even hospitals – have the reputation of being haunted. I have an open mind about such matters but it is an interesting idea.
I’ve read about the Stone Tape theory,Owl, never actually been proved,but interesting to consider?
Either Stone Tapes (which I personally think is an entirely feasible explanation) or perhaps something triggered by a smell. After all as a history teacher you’d have more knowledge of events and conditions there and some smell just triggered a memory for you.
Way……I read widely about the Great War,studied the literature,watched films and videos,the men of my family of that generation were deeply involved,I researched 2 theses for degrees,so yes,I’m personally involved in the conflict,so maybe I’m very open to suggestion?
Plus Verdun is a national shrine for the French…it has a very oppressive atmosphere,there’s a huge ossuary for the millions of bones rescued from the site…I have a vivid imagination…..and stone tapes? All of these things may have affected me.Believe me,I’ve gone into all of this……..but I’ve bever been affected like this,ever.I don’t know…but there definitely things beyond our philosophy…
Hi Maize, a few years ago I was in Norfolk with my grandson he would be about 12……..we were exploring a castle where the ground floor had been converted to a small café……there was a small annex off it with nothing in it…….my grandson immediately put his hand on his head and said nana I have a headache, you could see him visibly pale, we stepped out of the annex and he was fine…..I have had too many experiences of those kind of feelings, sounds and smells, you just know that something bad has happened in the building at some time, even in a house I viewed that was for sale, i never got past the kitchen and got out as quick as I could…… I have never seen anything and don’t want too either……nooooooooo……
Strange,these feelings,star…they just make you wonder….they can’t all be a fanciful imagination….
Thanks Maisie, the office I used to work at in town until 1997 was 7 story’s high and each floor was in a semi-circular shape so that you couldn’t see very far wherever you were sat. On one rare occasion a small number of staff were asked to come in at the weekend for a special job but by Sunday afternoon I found myself alone in the building – or believed that to be the case.
There were various exits on each floor and some lead to another empty office complex. I suddenly felt very uneasy, there were strange noises, creaking and at one point I heard the lift ‘ping’ but no-one emerged. On looking out of the window I suddenly caught glimpse of a figure in an upper floor window (you could see the windows due to the curvature of the building). I couldn’t see a face it was almost as if the figure was hooded – then it evaporated. I was later told that there had been reports of such anomalies before and it’s reported that the office was built on (and possibly disturbed) the burial site of plague victims and an earlier monastery. I never volunteered for the special work again.
Shaun……Im a believer…..in ‘something’ over and above our understanding……thanks for the response!
My grandparents(long dead now) told the story of Grandma having a sister who was in the USA (I know not why) – One day when sitting in their dining room both my grandparents
witnessed what must have been and apparition – for Grandmas sister in America appeared their window – only
momentarily and then vanished.
It transpired that she died in the USA on that day and at that time!
Strange that!
Drummer
Drummer,I’ve heard many descriptions of the dead visiting their relatives at the moment of death,and of coming to them when they themselves were close to death.I’d a lovely friend,an old lady who was very practical,down to earth and she told you how things were,no frills.One night, she’d been in bed reading when she saw her husband,dead for many years, sitting at the bottom of the bed,watching her.
She simply told him to go away,she wasn’t ready yet…and he did,but she died shortly afterwards.
Hi Maize,I have read a lot of history of the 1st WW but mainly limited to the Australian contribution.It is easy to see the awful conditions the troops had to endure,the squallor and privations yet carry out the instructions issued from afar where reality was no less than a pawn on a chess board.I believe the brave men of that conflict are entitled to leave a feeling of despair and anger within the rock,sand or clay where they endured.Maybe sometime in the future when they decide to call a war nobody will come.
Thanks for the comments, Sylvester,my sentiments exactly!
Nature Maize is a wonderful landscape gardener.