First-Hand Accounts of the 151e R.I.
2nd Lieutenant Roger Campana
Roger Campana (class of 1913) was a 22-year-old graduate of the elite military school, St. Cyr, when he was sent with the "15-1" into Verdun in 1916. After serving a 20-day spell on the Left Bank at Fort Douaumont, the regiment was sent over to le Mort-Homme on the Right Bank. His diaries provide a glimpse into the unique formlessness of the fighting at Verdun.
The following account is taken from Campana's diary entries.
Verdun 1916
On April 6, Campana's company is sent to Point 265 (the lower of the two summits that make up le Mort-Homme) and the northerly slopes of the hill. Fortunately, they had entered at a period relative calm. This would last for two more days, during which time, Campana (a mathematician before the war) continued his studies in a dug-out by candle-light. While on patrol the night of April 7-8, the "Lieutenant Mathematician" captured two German deserters. The prisoners warned them of a coming attack. The following morning, was a warm sunny day. Campana was amazed to hear larks singing on the summit of le Mort-Homme. Suddenly, the morning calm was broken as a single shell landed and was immediately followed by a hurricane of others.
By 1100 hrs, the bombardment had intensified to a dramatic level. In a trench to his rear that he had ordered abandoned the night before, eight shells burst almost simultaneously. At noon, the Germans sent the first waves of their assault troops over the top with fixed bayonets.
"They ran forward a few meters, then under the tac-tac of our machine gun, collapsed. . . . not a single German got back to his trench."
Some surviving German soldiers attempted at first to play dead, "like rabbits," Campana noted. But sooner or later they lost their nerve and jumped up to make a rush for their own lines, only to be picked off by Campana and his men who noted that the spectacle was rather diverting. The shelling then resumed and this time their machine-gun was hit, blown away by a heavy shell. Once again the German assault waves went over the top.
"In a few minutes the slopes of Hill 265 were covered with enemy advancing on us. This time we only had our rifles to stop them, and that was not sufficient."
German soldiers made it into the first French trenches below Campana and savage hand-to-hand fighting ensued. Desperately, he fired a red flare to signal the artillery for fire-support and, for once, the 75s replied. Shells came raining down right in the middle of the advancing German waves. Yet still the enemy advanced. When they were only thirty yards away, Campana gave his men the command "baïonette au canon!" ["fix bayonets"]. At that very moment salvoes of short-falling 75 shells slammed down as French rifles continued to lay down a withering fire. Panic erupted and, like rats in a burning barn, "they ran frantically to the right and left."
A counter-attack to take back the lost trenches was immediately ordered, which Campana watched through his binoculars. The counter-attack force was lead by a young lieutenant wearing white gloves who had been a fellow classmate at St. Cyr. Soon after, Campana spotted the lieutenant sprawled out dead on the ground, with his conspicuous gloved-hands lying on his chest. Night brought a respite in the fighting, as a large, sinister red moon illuminated the butchery on the slopes of le Mort-Homme. Campana counted over 180 German corpses in front of his platoon alone. He remained in position on the summit for another week before being relieved. Later, pride filled the "Lieutenant Mathematician" as he gazed at the ragged and greatly reduced ranks of the 151e during the decoration ceremony which followed.
In fact, Campana is one of those soldiers who seemed to somehow prosper in the environment of war. Desensitization, to one's fellow man and to the brutality of war itself, is a common phenomena in all wars. At the end of his third tour at Verdun, he recounted how he morbidly photographed the body of one of his men killed by a shell that hit his own dugout. He even sent a copy of the photo to a friend to prove what a lucky escape he had had. The body had been "laid open from the shoulders to the haunches like a quartered carcass of meat in a butcher's shop window."
