Video: world remembers horror of First World War

Children cheered, bugles sounded and the Prince of Wales inspected the guard, yet an air of improvisation tinged the pageantry at President Sarkozy’s ceremony at Verdun to commemorate the 1918 Armistice.

It would have helped had the French President and his wife, Carla Bruni, been on time for the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. But the silence came at 11.10am, after their helicopter brought them late to the hillside monument at the battlefield.

That was not the only hitch. Speaking outside the ossuary that contains the unidentified remains of 130,000 French and German soldiers, Mr Sarkozy hailed Britain’s sacrifice in the Great War. “France will never forget the English, Scottish and Irish soldiers who fought on our soil as if it was their own,” he said.

Times Archive, 1916: The Battle of Verdun

Lord Northcliffe's eye-witness account

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There was no mention of the Welsh, whose Prince, with the Duchess of Cornwall, was present, along with Quentin Bryce, the Australian Governor-General, for Mr Sarkozy’s break with the tradition of Paris-based remembrance days. Mr Sarkozy hailed Australia, New Zealand and the United States — but the Élysée irked the Australians by spelling Ms Bryce’s name wrong in the programme.

Mr Sarkozy wanted to use the 90th anniversary — the first with no surviving French Great War veteran — to salute the rebirth of Europe, following the example of the late President Mitterrand who in 1984 marked Franco-German reconciliation by holding hands with Helmut Kohl, then German Chancellor, at the spot.

However, Angela Merkel declined Mr Sarkozy’s invitation and sent Peter Müller, the president of Germany’s Upper House. This was said to reflect the low-key Chancellor’s exasperation with France’s ultra-dynamic leader.

President Sarkozy accompanied Mr Müller to the nearby German cemetery, driving through the pretty rolling landscape where 60 million shells fell during the 11-month battle in 1916.

The Prince of Wales and his entourage wore blue cornflowers, the French symbol of remembrance — a tradition begun in 1916 when two women, moved by the soldiers’ terrible wounds, sold artificial bleuets to raise funds — along with their poppies.

The absence of military contingents from the other combatant nations kept the flavour mainly French, however, at what Mr Sarkozy intended as an international event.

The President, who has told schools to give priority to remembrance of France’s wartime exploits, paid emotional tribute to the eight million who died in la der des ders — the supposed war to end all wars. He spoke of the mud and horror of the fields of Verdun, where 300,000 French and Germans were killed. He also paid tribute to the 600 French soldiers executed by their own side.

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