Contributed by Gerard Demaison
First Presented to the Great War Society Chapters




Voie Sacree
Narrow Guage Railroad to Right


A favorable strategic factor that influenced the German High Command into attacking Verdun in February 1916, was the precarious nature of Verdun's lines of supplies. All standard gauge railway lines, on the French side, were either interrupted by the front lines or within range of German artillery. We will examine the respective roles of the road and of local railway lines in supplying the Verdun Salient during 1916. The myth is that the Road alone, later to be called the "Vole Sacree" exclusively supplied Verdun during the German onslaught in 1916. Reality is that during the Spring of 1916 it was indeed the" Vole Sacree" road which carried about 78 % of the traffic. The rest ( about 22 % ) was carried by a metric gauge railway paralleling the "Vole Sacree" : the" Chemin de Fer Meusien" However, after June 1916, a newly built standard gauge railway line took over, thus relegating the" Vole Sacree" to carrying mostly light trucks and motor car traffic. Furthermore it can be shown that it is both the Road and the local railway lines, together, that made it possible to rotate 221 French infantry divisions ( about 2 million men) in and out of the Verdun salient. during the year 1916 alone.

Within 3 weeks following the beginning of the battle ( February 21, 1916 ), the French General Staff permanently assigned a force of about 420.000 troops into the Verdun Salient , plus 1,700 pieces of artillery. Those were accompanied by 136.000 horses and mules. Each infantry division had to be rotated every 2 1/2 weeks and also fed and supplied with artillery ammunition. Artillery was essential, particularly 75mm artillery since it proved to be the decisive factor in repelling the German assaults. Altogether, 23 million shells (16 million being 75's) were tired by French artillery at Verdun, between February and October 1916 only. All these had to be transported onto the battlefield, the final miles being under fire and generally by horse drawn caissons.


Typical Truck Enroute to Verdun

This interlinked logistical system using both the Road and local railway lines, was initially organized under the direction of general Petain ,during February and March of 1916. Furthermore Petain had also ordered, in early March 1916, the construction of a relief standard-gauge railway line situated beyond the reach of German artillery. This new emergency line was opened up for traffic in record time ( 4 months), in July 1916. This standard gauge by-pass (the "Nettancourt-Dugny" line) brought lasting relief to the logistical difficulty of defending the Verdun salient. Eventually, this relief railway line was extensively used by the AEF, in 1918, during the preparation of both the Saint Mihiel and Meuse- Argonne offensives.

THE ROAD ( LA VOlE SACREE)

The term "Vole Sacree "was coined by writer George Bernanos after the War. The officers, chauffeurs and all military personnel, in 1916, commonly called it "La Route "(the Road). At the time it was just a small, narrow local" departementale" (county maintained) road . It is now a National Road maintained by the French State as a military monument..

The Road was 75 kms long ( approx.46 miles). Average width: 7 metres ( approx: 22 feet) allowing for 2 lanes only. Surface : crushed stone. A small army ( 8,000 men) of military laborers (older soldiers, colonials) threw 700,000 tons of crushed stone over the road in 10' months.

The freight system was made up of 3,900 vehicles, including about 3,000 trucks ( mostly by Berliet but also by Renault, Latil and Schneider) generally in the 2 tons and 3 tons of load categories. Those were all equipped with solid rubber tires. Also present on the Road : 30 repair trucks, 8 mobile tire replacement shops, several hundred civilian buses and 800 small ambulances ( often Ford Model T's run by the American Ambulance Service). The truck drivers, mechanics etc.. and their officers added up to about 8,800 men, all dedicated to keeping the Road working and open.


Maintaining the Roadway

The military personnel movements on the Road were about 90,000 men / week, on the average. The freight output on the Road was about 50,000 tons / week.. The average cumulative distance logged by the whole trucking system on the Road was 1 million kilometers ( 600.000 miles) per week. The heavy freight consisted mostly of artillery ammunition: 75 mm brass-cased ammunition pre-packaged in wooden crates, while larger caliber projectiles were shipped unboxed and separated from their powder charges . The latter were transported in special trucks. The traffic never stopped on the Road. It went on night and day, but at a fairly low speed ( about 15 miles per hour on the average) .During the peak months, the average traffic flow was of 6,000 trucks I day, or 250 trucks! hour ,or 1 truck every 14 seconds. Breakdowns resulted in the vehicles being pushed off the road not to interrupt the flow of traffic. Repair trucks were posted at regular intervals along the Road.

The Road was often under attack by airplanes. To dissuade the enemy , besides installing fixed machine gun posts, several small military airfields were located alongside the Road for protection.. Seven (7) Nieuport fighter squadrons had been permanently assigned to the Verdun sector, in large part to protect the Road. Those squadrons included the famous" Escadrille Americaine" (the future Lafayette Escadrille) It was based on its own airfield near Bar-le-Duc, close to the Road.

THE "MEUSIEN "RAILWAY

It virtually paralleled the Road between Verdun and Bar-le-Du. The track was 1 meter wide, somewhat less than the standard railroad track width (1.44 meter). The "Meusien" was a local single track system and the trains had to cross each other in the intermediary stations existing on the line. Seventy five steam locomotives and 800 flat trucks and box cars composed its rolling stock during the Verdun Battle.

The" Meusien" transported all the food supplies ( 45,0000 tons / month) , most of the artillery pieces, artillery ammunition ( 10,000 tons/month) as well as many return troops including the wounded (about 40.000 men / month).


Memorial to the Narrow Gauge Railway into Verdun

On the average 14.000 tons of freight per week were transported by the "Meusien" railway ( about 35 trains! day). This compared with the 50,000 tons / week of freight transported by trucks on the Road. The latter, however had reached its full capacity by late March 1916. So the "Meusien" gave a critical edge , in early 1916. which otherwise would have been impossible to find elsewhere.

THE RELIEF STANDARD GAUGE RAILWAY (The "Nettancourt-Dugny" Line) - Begun in March 1916. this relief standard gauge line by-passed the standard gauge peacetime tracks feeding into Verdun from the West and South. Those had been interrupted by the front lines ( at Saint Mihiel) or were under enemy artillery shelling range (at Aubreville and Dombasle). Work on the standard gauge relief line ( or by-pass) begun from both ends, at Nettancourt and Dugny, in early March 1916 . It was completed in record time by June 1916 . The heavy truck traffic on the Road eased up to be replaced by regular railway traffic on the" Nettancourt-Dugny" by-pass line. Furthermore, this new by-pass rail line permitted the emplacement of two sixteen inch (16 ") railway guns, near the railway station at Balleycourt, to the west of Verdun.. It is their hammering which permanently forced the Germans out of Fort Douaumont and Fort de Vaux, during October 1916.

Sources and Thanks: Photos from regular contributors Tony Langley and Ray Menzer.



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