Bayonet Trench

Bayonet Trench is a First World War memorial near Verdun, France. The 1920 concrete structure encloses the graves of French soldiers who died on the site, which was a military trench, in June 1916 during the Battle of Verdun. Twenty-one soldiers were buried by German troops within the trench, a common practice at the time. After the war, the graves were discovered with rifles protruding from the ground. This led to the myth that the French soldiers had been buried alive when their trench collapsed during bombardment and died standing with their rifles in their hands. After the war, fourteen of the dead were identified and buried in war cemeteries. The remaining seven dead are buried in the memorial where they were found. The memorial was commissioned by American banker George Franklin Rand and designed by French architect André Ventre.