VERDUN, FRANCE - AUGUST 27: A sign marks where the main street once passed on the site of the former village of Bezonvaux among terrain still pockmarked by World War I artillery fire on August 27, 2014 near Verdun, France. Bezonvaux, like a host of other villages in the region, was obliterated during the intense artillery and trench warfare between the German and French armies during the Battle of Verdun in 1916 during World War I and was never rebuilt. The 10-month battle, among the most horrific on the entire Western Front, resulted in a combined casualty count of between 714,231 and 976,000 for both sides. The two armies fired an estimated 65 million artillery shells at one another, of which millions never exploded and are still strewn througout the region. France will commemorate the centenary of the battle in 2016 with events including the inauguration of a redesigned national memorial. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
