What is the best battlefield from which to learn?

Dear Army,
Of all the battlefields in Europe, are there any that stick out as the best places to learn? To be more specific about what this question is getting after, I have been given the opportunity to go on a staff ride at almost any battlefield in Europe. (A staff ride is a guided battlefield tour with a historian where those attending are also expected to brief important aspects of the battle during the tour) The primary goal of the staff ride is to gain knowledge from the past to prepare for or avoid future battles. There are a plethora of battles to choose from, and it is probably a disservice to say there is a “best,” but that is the situation I am in. From your travels, what battlefields have you seen that can teach the best lessons? And what lessons would you choose to try and learn from the past?

Currently, I am mixing wars and debating between Normandy and Verdun because the lessons from slow, attritional warfare seem apropos to today’s current battlefields. But this question is not limited by era, war, nationality, or anything beyond European geography.

I look forward to any thoughts or recommendations.

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WWI: Vimy Ridge. Cut the Canadian chest-thumping, it is a lesson in the power of using your assets, challenging convention, self-criticism and teamwork. It is a first-rate lesson on preparation and planning. It marks a very early introduction of combined-arms warfare and platoon tactics into the British Army.

The battlefield is the best-preserved (in concrete) on the Western Front. Combine it with a visit to Beaumont Hamel, untouched since 1918 and as such the best-preserved segment of the Western Front in a ‘natural’ stare. Though a Newfoundland battlefield, it typifies the experience if the Somme and what drove the Canadian Corps to become what it became.

WW2: Go to Anzio. Failure is a harder teacher than success. Learn what not to do. Or visit the Biesbosch in the Rhine Delta. Antwerp was unuseable until the Rhine Delta was cleared, which was left to the Canadian Army. Operations around Antwerp are a good study of the drive for glory overriding practical necessities like securing the Antwerp approaches in a timely manner. Not the Allies finest hour. How can you go for the Wehrmact’s jugular without supply?

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Between Normandy and Verdun I personally would say Verdun. In my time in France, I was in Normandy twice and Verdun once. If you have not been to either, then you gotta do Normandy because I mean it’s D-Day. But Verdun would have more stuff to learn about in terms of new information/stories about both sides. The French fortresses are amazing and truly mind blowing. But overall I think that the Meuse-Argonne Offensive would be the best battlefield to learn about in Europe because it was a major part of the final Allied Offensive.

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