Land Battles

[John]

Could anyone tell me if the battles in Europe in WW2 were fought on the same battle fields as WW1 ??

[Kyt]

The Somme was heavily fought over in 1940, as was Arras. Arras is one of the Battle Honours of the Royal Highland Fusiliers

Verdun was also fighting occurred, including where the future-French president Mitterrand was was wounded.

And there must be many more areas during 1940 and 1944. However, as to exact battlefields I don't know

[Adrian Roberts]

I once visited a place called Hill 60, near Hooge, a few miles from Ypres, where there was very heavy fighting in WW1, particularly around time of thje battles of Loos and Neuve Chappelle in 1915.

In WW2 the same patch of ground - its not much bigger than a tennis court -was fought over again. Additionally, among the memorials to the major battles, there is one to a couple of Resistance fighters killed in a skirmish with the Germans in WW2

Battle of Hill 60 (Western Front) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Ferhilt]

Here are some neat interactive maps from PBS on WWI battle areas
The Great War . Maps & Battles . The Battle of the Somme | PBS

[John]

Thank you all for the wonderful info you have supplied me re my question on land battles. I was thinking that if a major battle had been fought in two world wars over the same piece of land imagine the amount of killed in action or wounded in action and the missing in action. My mind boggles.

[Adrian Roberts]

At least three VCs were won in Hill 60 actions in WW1.

I imagine that on the Eastern Front there were even more areas fought over both times.

And the Ardennes Forest was the scene of major battles in the winter of '44, of some of the earliest battles in 1914, and of course the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

And don't even think about how much Afghanistan and Iraq have been fought over in the past two centuries.....