In the American memory of WWI, the decisive moment is April 1917, marking the date the United States officially entered the war. But the story of Americans at Verdun begins much earlier, and it is far richer than the official record might suggest.
Long before their country joined the war, nearly a thousand young Americans had already made their way across the Atlantic, driven by a love of France, idealism, and a sense of moral urgency. Around 800 of them drove ambulances day and night along the treacherous road between Bar-le-Duc and Verdun, collecting the wounded from aid posts at the edge of the battlefield at constant risk to their own lives, before delivering them to rear hospitals where volunteer nurses were waiting. In the skies above, the Lafayette Escadrille, a squadron of American volunteer pilots flying under French command, flew 146 combat missions over Verdun in the summer of 1916. One of them, Victor Chapman, was killed on June 23, 1916, becoming the first American aviator to die in the war.
They came as volunteers, before they were asked, and many of them paid with their lives. The Mémorial de Verdun has long been dedicated to preserving their memory alongside that of the French and German soldiers at the center of the known story. Its current exhibition, Des mondes dans la bataille: Verdun 1916, running from April 2 to December 31, 2026, goes further still, illuminating the dozens of nationalities drawn into this battle, and honoring the singular human stories behind the history. Among them are three Americans whose destinies could not be more different, and whose courage has transcended a century, leaving behind a powerful legacy of the bond between France and the United States.
Kate Normann Derr: The Nurse Who Bore Witness
Born in New Jersey in 1886, Kate Normann Derr arrived in France in 1914, passed her nursing exams, and joined the French Red Cross. By October 1915, she was stationed at the French hospital in Vitry-le-François, caring for the most severely wounded soldiers. When the Battle of Verdun erupted in February 1916, the casualties flooded her ward.
She described what she witnessed in a book published during the war, Mademoiselle Miss, one of the earliest and most intimate accounts of the human cost of Verdun written by an American. Her testimony captures not only the physical suffering of the wounded, but the quiet heroism of the women who cared for them.
Photo from Mademoiselle Miss Continued ~ WWI nursing.
Raoul Lufbery: The Ace Above the Trenches
Raoul Gervais Lufbery was a world traveler with a foot on both sides of the Atlantic. Born in France in 1885 to a French father and an American mother, he was raised in France before living in the United States, claiming American citizenship and enlisted in the U.S. Army. By the time war broke out, he had wound his way around the world and found himself in France.
He enlisted in the French Foreign Legion in 1914 and trained as a pilot. On July 30, 1916, flying with the Lafayette Escadrille over the skies of Verdun, he shot down his first German aircraft. It was the beginning of a remarkable record: 17 confirmed victories, making him one of the most celebrated American pilots of the war. He was killed in aerial combat in 1918, just months before the armistice.
Photo from the archives of the U.S. Air Force
Eugène Bullard: The Black Swallow of Death
Eugène Bullard’s story is one of the most extraordinary of all U.S.-born volunteers to have fought for France, though one of the least recognized during most of his lifetime. Born in Georgia in 1895 into a family that had survived the worst of racial violence, Bullard left for Europe in 1912 at the age of seventeen. He made his way to France, became a boxer, and when war came, enlisted in the French Foreign Legion out of love for his adopted country.
He fought at Verdun in early 1916 and was gravely wounded in the battle for Douaumont. Undeterred, he trained as a pilot and returned to the skies over Verdun in 1917. On the fuselage of his plane, he painted the words that would define his legacy: “All blood runs red.” He shot down two enemy aircraft, though his victories were never officially confirmed. When the United States entered the war, he was barred from transferring to the U.S. Air Service on racial grounds.
Wounded again after fighting for France in WWII, Bullard returned to the United States, where he lived out the rest of his life in New York, his achievements largely unknown to his countrymen, but never forgotten by France. In 1954, he was asked to relight the Eternal Flame of the Tomb of the Unknown French Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe, and was named Knight of the Legion of Honor in New York City in 1959, with a personal visit from President-General Charles de Gaulle recognizing him as a French hero in 1960. He died in 1961, buried with the French flag and laid to rest with full honors by the Federation of French War Officers at Flushing Cemetery, New York. In 1994, General Colin Powell posthumously awarded him the rank of second lieutenant, the commission that had been denied him 77 years earlier.
Keeping the Stories of Americans at Verdun Alive – Memorial de Verdun
These three stories are among those honored at the Mémorial de Verdun, which maintains a dedicated space within the museum preserving the memory of Americans who fought for France. The Mémorial’s exhibition, Des mondes dans la bataille, ensures that the stories of those whose destinies were marked by this battle are not forgotten. As the United States celebrates 250 years of freedom, and 250 years of friendship with France, its longest-standing ally, these stories are a powerful reminder of what the two countries have given each other and sacrifices that are responsible for the shared prosperity and collaboration we enjoy today.
The Mémorial de Verdun – Champ de bataille is the institution entrusted with keeping the Verdun battlefield landscape alive. Across three sites – the Mémorial, Fort Douaumont, and Fort Vaux – it welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, offering an immersive, deeply human perspective on this past. In 2028, the Mémorial will dedicate a major exhibition entirely to the Americans who fought in Meuse and Lorraine during WWI. U.S. donors can support this work through Friends of Fondation de France with a tax-deductible gift, helping to restore these iconic sites and fund the cultural programming that ensures these stories are never forgotten. Learn more here.
