Christina Holstein's Verdun Battlefield Studies

 

Author, Guide, Historian Christina Holstein Describes
the Operation of a Gun Turret Atop Fort Douaumont

Published by Pen & Sword, 2008–2025

Reviewed by Editor/Publisher Mike Hanlon 

About the Author

Throughout the 13 years I personally led battlefield tours to the Western Front, I regularly invited Christina Holstein  to join us for a day at Verdun.  When she was available, she always captivated the group and, at the end of the day, I was invariably surprised about how much fresh information I had absorbed about the 300-day struggle. 

Once, when reading one of Christina's books, something clicked in my mind regarding a quote about American Civil War battlefields. I looked it up and found it was from Gettysburg hero Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.  I think she shares something of this attitude about Verdun.

In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate the ground. And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not, drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field to ponder and dream.

British born, our author lived and worked in Luxembourg for 30 years, during which she fell in love with the Lorraine, which drew here to its most famous historical site, the city of Verdun and the surrounding battlefield. Christina eventually became a recognized authority on the 1916 battle. The Verdun tourism bureau recommended her to travelers, and she appeared  on or assisted a number of media outlets from the BBC to the Wall Street Journal. Having spent decades gathering information about the great battle, she decided to begin publishing what she had learned. Through Pen and Sword, publishers of the Battleground mega-series, she found the perfect outlet. So far, they have published seven of her works, and I'm hoping more are on the way.

The Holstein Method

Each of the works focuses on a major aspect of the fighting in and around Verdun, not only in 1916, but also during the opening of the war and afterward in 1917. They are somewhat overlapping with respect to time and were not published sequentially, following the war's chronology. Each volume, though, has a well-written narrative that does adhere to the actual chronology of the event(s). The books are highly illustrated, with photos both from the war and from the author and her circle of battlefield enthusiasts with a multitude of helpful maps and graphics. For example, the 203-page Fort Vaux volume features nearly 200 photos and 22 illustrations.

Besides having the best qualities of  illustrated historical works, the books of the VERDUN series are also superb travel guides. As is typical, the Fort Vaux volume includes numerous tips for the traveler and three very detailed walking tour itineraries, with maps, and a similar driving tour.

In summary, each of these books is packed with information. I think a lot of credit must go to the publisher. Their layout work is outstanding.

Who Should Read the VERDUN Series?

• Anyone who has read an overview history of the battle like Alistair Horne's The Price of Glory and craves to learn more about it.

• Anyone who might have visited the battlefield on a brief tour and finds that the experience has mysteriously lingered with him and wants a deeper understanding of what transpired there.

• Anyone who has heard things like, "the longest battle of WWI"  or "the Stalingrad of the Great War" or "They Shall Not Pass," and wonders just what that was all about.

• Fortification aficionados (Verdun is deeply about forts.)

• The sort of person that loves tromping  around old battlefields to smell them, and feel them, and envision what it might have been like for those who fought and died there.

The Collection: 

(Note – these are presented in historical sequence, not the order of publication.)

Approach of the German Army – 

The Battle of the Marne – Creation of the 

St. Mihiel Salient – Heroic Fort Troyon

The Keystone – Douaumont Falls! – Stalemate 

on the Right Bank –  The Wider Battlefield

The Stronghold Retaken

An Unintended Battle – Goose Ridge –  Cote 304 

Mort Homme – An Unforgetable Monument

A Modest Trapezium – Raynal in Command
Siege, Surrender, Retaken – The French Rear

Walk in The Steps of the Combatants on the
Ridges, Ravines and Forts of the Battlefield
– Visit Centre Verdun

Col. Driant at Bois des Caures – 

Damloup Battery – Fleury Village

Rebuilding Morale – It's an Artillery War
 La Voie Sacrée—Setting the Stage for 1918

Order Any of These Titles HERE