already in that first week, verdun was already verdun.s is what the battle was really about, and the broad canvas of the six months of german attacking and six months of french counter attacking, what that canvas leaves out. great losses. great losses demand great causes. the newspapers of both sides came up with these. amongrvival of the nation the french, the recovery of an old dramatic city -- germanic city among the germans, and they attributed causes to the enemy to each other. eyes, the french were attempting to avenge the defeat of 1870 and in some french eyes, the germans were trying to save the dynasty. in one french paper, only 2 weeks into the battle, in early march, the editor said that, he said quite correctly, but no one quite understood the strategic value of verdun. nobody quite knew why it mattered so much. and yet the whole world was watching it. it has become a symbol of what was unclear. there was really no other way of understanding what was going on, and the tenacity with which the men were fighting for it. in fact,

politician paul remadier was an impeccable choice, having won the decoration himself during the defense of verdun. and churchill wept with emotion during his speech. he was particularly delighted by the apocryphal story that any holder of the military medal if incapacitated by drink had the right to be driven home without charge by the police. there is a photograph of churchill weeping on the 7th of may, 1948 at the congress of europe, at the hague. and there was another moment of emotion for churchill during a conservative party meeting the same month. the council of europe at strasbourg in 1949, a book recalls how he was acclaimed in the city by cheering crowds. he wept. he spoke in french and gave wisdom and guidance to the council. when on returning to office in 1951, churchill learns that the canadian government had decided that rule britannia should no longer be played by the royal canadian air force or the canadian navy. he had the by now defense minister, british defense minister lord ismay complain to the canadian prime minister. he almost decided that he would cancel his visit to ottawa