- Myth one. A recent French popular history calls Verdun the "greatest battle of all time".
- Myth two. French popular memory tends to dwell on Verdun as the emblematic and most destructive "French" battle of the war.
- Myth three. Verdun, the town, has been portrayed by both French and German generals and historians as a strategically and psychologically vital French stronghold.
Verdun - and the Somme - should be remembered nonetheless. Even for the internet-mobile-phone-cheap- air-fares generation, they are not distant events like Waterloo or Agincourt. As M. Le Naour points out, the infinite capacity for destruction of modern man was fully revealed for the first time at Verdun.
