Voie Sacrée
February 1916: facing being overwhelmed by German advances, and the town of Verdun was right in the line of fire during. The town was all but completely cut off, a kink in the front line which surrounded it on three sides. With a ferocious battle that would last for most of the year, the French knew that if the town fell to the oppressors, then it was more than likely that the whole of France would follow.
With a need to replenish troops, ammunition and supplies, the number of options available to the allied forces was greatly reduced thanks to the position of the front line. The main east-west N3 trunk road and the main railways were under German control, and the only other route was a small narrow-gauge railway that was already at capacity bringing in food and those supplies that could be carried. The only other option was a small, winding, cobbled lane that ran south to Bar-le-Duc.
A need to upgrade
Before the breakout of war, the D6 was a local road linking the towns of Verdun and Bar-le-Duc. Much of the traffic was on foot or by horse and cart. Come February 1916, the looming threat of a battle around Verdun necessitated rapid planning on how to transport masses of equipment and thousands of men to the front line.
Theis was particularly concerning as none of the railways were suitable - the main line through Verdun was repeatedly cut-off by German attack, and the branch line south to Commercy ran through the Saint-Mihiel salient. This left the Varniot, a narrow gauge railway that was could only handle 800 tons at a time.
It would be influencial officer Captain Aimé Doumenc who committed to ferrying a daily minimum of 12,000 troops and 2,000 tonnes of equipement. His approach would be an adaptation of the Marne taxis scheme from 1914, which saw hundreds of Parisien taxis shuttle soldiers to the front line to counter a German advance.
There was one catch - his Automobile Section was to be given complete control over the road. Doing this allowed access to the railway termini at Bar-le-Duc and Baudonvilliers, 53 and 71 kilometres south of Verdun; the Varniot would be kept free for the transport of food to the front.
Keeping things moving
Within days of battle starting, the French military managed to amass nearly 4000 vehicles from a start of just 170. By the time the war ended in 1918, this swelled to a fleet of 100,000. Trucks would come from pretty much every French manufacturer, as well as a number of international marques.
Soldiers and supplies were brought to Baudonvilliers and Bar-le-Duc by train where they would board the Automobile Service's fleet for onward transit to the front. Such was the number of vehicles making the journey that the frequency of service was on average every 14 seconds, and double that at the most crucial times. This continuous stream, which was christened noira, would occur for hours at a time, day and night.
Drawing of the noira at night
At the northen end, a simple junction at Moulin Brûlé - 8km west of Verdun - where the D6 met the N3 trunk road was upgraded to a large roundabout gyratory known as le tourniquet; camouflaged from German eyes, this turning circle was designed to accommodate up to 40 vehicles at a time without ever backing up onto La Route. From there, alighting soldiers would walk the final 15 - 20 kilometres to the front, being replaced on the trucks with injured colleagues to be sent back to the medical facilities at Bar.
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"The picture of the attack on
Verdun that will always stay with me is that of the Grand Route north from
Bar-le-Duc, covered with snow and ice, constantly filled with two colums of
trucks, one going towards the north and the other towards the south and
which rolled and bobbled back and forth with the graceless, uncertain
strength of baby elephants. |
Keeping such a significant movement of vehicles required constant upkeep and regulation of the road itself. As the road was 71 km long, it had to be split up into managable sections, six in total. Each section was handed over to a commanding officer, each with a handful of sergeants, a team of pilots, and a large team of maintenance officers.
Those maintenance crews worked in shifts to ensure they were always on call; repairs were undertaken whenever needed, day or night. Shovelling limestone gravel quarried locally, this had to be thrown down in whatever gaps in traffic were available; a total of 700,000 tonnes of limestone would be used during the campaign. Not only that, the crews were responsible for signage and lighting along their stretch - beacons and low level spotlights were permitted away from the front line, but dimmer blue lighting was mandated further north.
Those using the D6 were required to adhere to strict rules, all designed to prevent any disruption. The most prominent regulation that only military vehicles were permitted to use la Route. All civilian traffic and pedestrians were confined to side roads, and could only cross the road at appoved crossing points that were under constant surveillance. It meant that anyone who lived in the villages along the D6 had their lives regulated by the road.
Stopping anywhere on the road was
strictly prohibited, except for a vehicle failure, and speed limits were set
for each class of vehicle:
- 4 km/h for laden heavy artilliary vehicles, 8 km/h if empty;
- 15 km/h for trucks, which could be raised to a maxiumum of 25 km/h
during periods of intense fighting;
- 20 km/h for ambulances
- 30 km/h for officers' cars and other authroised vehicles.
Trucks had to travel in convoys of no more than ten, with the rear vehicle displaying a red disk. This told any subsequent lorries to hold back, as a minimum gap of 50 metres was required between each group. Doing so provided gaps for faster vehicles to overtake at designated points; trucks were not permitted to overtake the one in front, unless it had broken down and could not be hitched.
As for the lorries themselves, well, breakdowns were very frequent. They were a new technology and were worked very hard, especially when higher speed limits were in force. As many as half of all trucks would fail in service.
If the truck behind passed it, it was require to tow the stricken vehicle to the nearest wide point in the road to be left. If that wasn't possible, then it was just pushed off the road! However, mobile crews of mechanics patrolled the road to carry out any running repairs, with larger workshops along the route undertaking bigger repairs and overhauls.
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"During the Battle of Verdun , the 51 groups (nearly 9,000 vehicles, 6,000 of which were constantly moving along this continuous route) transported 90,000 men and 50,000 tonnes of equipment per week, covering a total of one million kilometers. Seven motor transport groups were thus in operation. |
The Voie Sacrée, July 2026
A road forever in history
It was in April 1916 when the name Voie Sacrée was first suggested; French politician Maurice Barrès compared it to the Sacra Via in ancient Rome, the celebrated road that was used by the Roman military to parade their triumphs in battle.
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"It is the Sacred Way. It will become legendary; it will continue to speak forever to that long Meuse plain that saw so many invasions pass by." -- Maurice Barrès |
Even the Germans were impressed with the effort placed into saving Verdun. Written in an official report:
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"Who would have thought that those damned French - completely devoid of tracks or rails - instead of abandoning a sector already considered lost, would manage to deploy a double column of trucks along a single roadway? It was an endless chain, a gigantic conveyor belt operating day and night like a loop between two pulleys, tirelessly feeding battalions, shells, and artillery to the devastated, terrifying battlefields between Bar-le-Duc and the front." |
To commemorate the road, a series of bornes (marker posts) were installed on the section of road between Bar-le-Duc and Verdun. As a tribute to the thousands of maintenance troops who helped to keep the road open, each one is topped with a replica of the Adrian helmet worn by French troops during the Great War. The first of these was inagurated in Bar-le-Duc in August 1922.
Inauguration ceremony of the voie sacrée, with President Raymond Poincaré
(centre) completing the sealing of the first borne.
This was followed in December 1923 by an act of parliament legally proclaiming the road as Voie Sacrée Nationale, classifying the road a a route nationale (albeit without a number). In 1973, the road was integrated into the newly created N35, but would be downgraded into a route départmentale in 2006 with the appropriate number D1916.
However this would be short lived, as in February 2007, the designation of Voie Sacrée Nationale was returned to the road. By decree, "this designation is to be used, as they are replaced, on road signs. It is the sole designation used in all administrative documents, of any kind, issued by government departments, services, or public institutions." It effectively re-nationalised the road, even though day-to-day management remained with the Meuse council. This decree would be enshrined in a law passed in February 2014.
A wish by the Amicales du Train de Lorraine back in 1939 was for the creation of a permanent memorial to the road. The Fédération Nationale du Train would see this trough, with a memorial constructed a short distance from the gyratory at Moulin Brûlé. Designed and carved by locals, the memoiral was finally inaugurated in 1967, having been delayed by the Second World War. It honours the roles that both the road and the narrow gauge railway had in securing victory at Verdun.
Memorial to the Voie Sacrée,
situated near Verdun. Click to view a full size photograph of the memorial.
Picture Credits
Drawing
of the noira at night is from Regarding the Battle of Verdun:
Transport of French Reserves and Ammunition by Motor Convoys, Heft
1914/16, and provided courtesy of
the State Library of Upper Austria.
Photograph of the inaugruration of Voie Sacrée is provided courtesy of
Bribliothèque Nationale de France.
Credits
Département de la Meuse council
Fédération Nationale du Train
