General Joseph Joffre (1852-1931) was a French general in WWI serving as Commander-in-Chief of the French forces from 1914-1916. After crushing losses at the Somme and Verdun, he was given a "cover promotion" to Marshal of France, an antiquated title that had not been used since 1870, to get him out of the war.

The names of a number of French villages around Verdun are seen on the battle map at 3:48 on the DVD. These are all real villages, though "Fleury" is misspelled as "Fleurg" here!

The motorcycle parked near Indy at 6:19 on the DVD appears to be one custom-made for the episode.

The French propaganda poster pasted to the wall that Indy is bouncing a ball off of reads, "Pour la France, versez votre or : l'or combat pour la victoire." This translates to, "For France, deposit your gold: gold fights for victory." This was a real world WWI poster used in France.    The poster is seen again at 21:41.
Poster in this episode	WWI French propaganda poster

The French troops are seen carrying Lebel 1886 rifles.

The Battle of Verdun, portions of which are seen in this episode, lasted from February 21 to December 18, 1916. It was the longest battle of WWI.

A french private named Michel gives Indy a box of mementos to deliver to his wife in Marseille if he should die in the upcoming battle. In the televised episode, Indy sees the man shot on the battlefield, but we're not told if he actually died. In the novelization and the comic book adaptation, the man's death is confirmed. Indy delivers the box to Michel's wife in the novelization of the next episode, "The Mata Hari Affair".

The explanation provided by Jean-Marc about how the war started and why so many countries are involved is essentially accurate.

As the camera passes across the couriers' bunks at night, one of the bunks is seen to have some photos taped up on the struts. At 17:59 on the DVD, a photo of a woman with her butt exposed is seen! Pretty risque for a youth-oriented TV series of the early 1990s!

At 18:08 on the DVD, notice that as Indy writes his letter to Ned, the paper is setting upon Indy's journal as a writing surface. Notice also, the thumb seen clutching the journal and paper looks much older than young Indy's hand should look!

Ned Lawrence was Lawrence of Arabia, whom Indy befriended when he was 9 years old in "My First Adventure".

The German fighter pilot in his Fokker biplane fires his fuselage-mounted Maxim MG08/15 Spandau machine guns at Indy at 22:36 on the DVD. The comic book adaptation of this episode identifies the pilot as Oberlt. Hermann Goering. Goering (1893-1946) was an actual German fighter pilot in WWI and he would go on to become president of the Reichstag (German legislature), including under Adolf Hitler from 1934-1945.

Sergeant Jean DeMille tells Indy he is from Cannes.

According to the novelization and comic book adaptation, Sergeant DeMille calls the 105-millimeter gun he's caring for by the name of Marie.

Sergeant DeMille tells Indy about the German Big Bertha gun. "Big Bertha" was the nickname for the Krupp AG 420 millimeter howitzer used by Germany in WWI.

    On his spy mission, Indy eavesdrops on a conversation between Kapitans Oetzmann and Lehmann in the German trenches. The last names of these two kapitans are given in the British junior novelization, The Day of Destiny (see the note about this book under the Field of Death novelization study below). Oetzmann is given different first names in two different sources,  "Klausi" in the comic book adaptation, and "Gunter" in the novelization of "The Mata Hari Affair". The Field of Death novelization gives the first name of Lehmann as "Klaus", the comic book adaptation gives him "Gustav", and the novelization of "The Mata Hari Affair" gives him "Werner".

    In the episode, Oetzmann refers to Lehmann as "Hans". But this may have been an ad-lib, as the actor who played Lehmann was Hans Meyer.

In the televised episode, Oetzmann mentions his girlfriend, Heidi. In the comic book adaptation, Lehmann tells Oetzmann about his own girlfriend, Gretl.

At 31:25 on the DVD, we hear the end of an apparently amusing statement by Oetzmann, "...or laugh at their stupidity!" The Field of Death novelization gives us the full statement: "If the French want to attack tomorrow, let them attack. I don't know whether to applaud their courage or laugh at their stupidity."

The aerial photo of Fort Douaumont the generals look at at 37:23 on the DVD is an actual one of the site from 1916.

Notes from the adult novelization of this episode, The Mata Hari Affair by James Luceno The events of "Demons of Deception" are covered on pages 1-87. (The page numbers come from the 1st printing, July 1992)

Characters appearing in the novel not mentioned in the televised episode

Fantomas

escadrille pilot (named as Pat Redfield in the "The Mata Hari Affair" portion of the novel)

Emile (dies in this novel)

Tom Carren (ambulance corps volunteer)

Captain Renaud

Henry Jones, Sr. (mentioned only)

Anna Jones (mentioned only, deceased)

Baba

Major Twinbury

Corporal Tuak

Corporal Remann

complaining woman at soiree

Girard 

Didja Notice?

This book was a mass market paperback novelization of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles episodes "Verdun, September 1916" ("Demons of Deception") and "Paris, October 1916" ("The Mata Hari Affair"). The book is divided into Parts 1 (Verdun) and II (Paris).

The book is labeled as Book One, implying there was an intention of more adult novelizations of the episodes to come, but it never happened.

Part 1 (Verdun) opens with a quote attributed to Napoleon, "One night in Paris will make up for all of this." This was allegedly said by French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte reflecting on the vast number of casualties on the battlefield after the 1812 Battle of Borodino.

Indy is to be assigned as a courier at the French Army's General Staff Headquarters in Souilly. The town hall of Souilly, about 12 miles south of Verdun, actually did serve as General Staff Headquarters during the war. In the book and televised episode, it is inside an elegant chateau (shot at Duchov Castle in Duchov, Czech Republic).

Page 3 mentions several locations around Souilly and Verdun: Fort Souville, Troyon, the Meuse River, and Bar-le-Duc. These were all important locations and landmarks in the Battle of Verdun.

Also mentioned on page 3 are Berliet trucks. Berliet was a French manufacturer of military vehicles from 1899-1967.

Page 4 describes Indy having a scar on his lower lip from the errant crack of a lion tamer's whip. This accident occurred when he first tried to use a bullwhip in "The Cross of Coronado".

Page 4 mentions that some people mistakenly thought that "Indy" was short for "independence" or for the 500-mile auto race that was currently celebrating its fifth year. The 500-mile auto race is, of course, the Indianapolis 500, held yearly at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in the Indianapolis, Indiana, suburb of Speedway.

On page 5, jasta is an abbreviation for the German word Jagdstaffel, any air fighter squadron of the German Luftstreitkräfte (air service) during WWI.

    Indy ponders whether the German pilot who's after him is the one the French call Fantomas who went after General Mangin's red Opel coupe a week ago between Souilly and the Verdun citadel. "Fantomas" appears to be a fictitious nickname as far as German pilots go; the word means "ghost" in French. The next paragraph remarks that some have identified Fantomas with Manfred von Richtofen, Oswald Boelcke, or Max Immelmann. Baron Von Richtofen (1892-1918) was the famous WWI German flying ace nicknamed the Red Baron for the color of his plane. Boelcke (1891-1918) was another WWI German flying ace, now known as the father of air combat. Immelmann (1890-1916) was a German WWI flying ace who lends his name to the "Immelmann turn", an aerobatic maneuver.

   The plane chasing Indy is said to be equipped with twin Spandau machine guns and a powerful Le Rhone rotary engine salvaged from a French Voisin. "Spandau" refers to Spandau Arsenal, the center for small arms development for Imperial Germany from 1722-1919. Aéroplanes Voisin was a French aircraft manufacturing company from 1905-1918.

    Possibly, this pilot is the same one who shoots at Indy again later on and is identified as Oberlt. Hermann Goring in the comic book adaptation.

   The Verdun citadel is a double ring of fortresses built in the center of Verdun in the 17th Century.

On page 6, the French phrase chemin de fer is a term for a railway, literally, "iron path".

Page 6 mentions Fort Tavannes, St. Michel, and Souville. These were all French forts near Verdun.

On page 7, Indy reflects on the British tommies at the Somme referring to antiaircraft fire as "Archie", from a clamorous character in a famed music hall song. "Tommy" is a British slang term for "soldier". "Archie" derives from the music hall song "Archibald! Certainly Not" by George Robey.

Indy's wish for a dawn patrol Stork out of nearby Nancy is a reference to a morning patrol of a French air fighter squadron from the French city of Nancy.

Indy is saved from the Fokker by a French Nieuport Bebe. "Bebe" was the nickname for the Nieuport 11 biplane fighter craft. Nieuport was a French airplane manufacturer from 1908-1937.

On page 9, "de Rose" is a reference to Charles de Tricornot de Rose, holder of the first military pilot license in 1910.

Indy realizes the plane and pilot that rescues him is part of the Escadrille Américaine (soon to be known as the Lafayette Escadrille).  This was a French Air Force unit during WWI led by French commander, Captain Georges Thénault, made up of largely American volunteer pilots, hoping to raise the interest of the American public into advocating against neutrality in the war and join the Allies. Indy will become a temporary member of the Lafayette Escadrille in "Attack of the Hawkmen".

Describing Colonel Barc's uniform and accoutrements on page 12: vareuse is French for "tunic"; a Sam Brown (sic) is a leather belt with supporting strap on the right shoulder, named for its inventor, British Indian Army general Sam Browne; Burberry is a high end fashion company, most famous for its trench coat, designed by company founder Thomas Burberry for the British military during WWI.

On pages 12-13, the Allied leadership are said to have mixed foreign troops together throughout the theater of battle to show and encourage comradeship, such as at the Ypres Salient, Belgium (a military salient is a piece of land that juts into opposition territory) and at the Somme (as seen in "Trenches of Hell"). Page 13 mentions the Foreign Legionnaires. 

On page 13, Colonel Barc gives Indy an Adrian helmet to replace his cap, as he is at the front now, "...and men have been known to get hurt out here." The Adrian helmet is the steel helmet issued to French soldiers from WWI through WWII. (Photo from Wikipedia.)

Page 13 implies that Indy's hair has been cropped close (as it should be as a solider), but throughout the TV series he maintains his cool-looking, long-fringed, undercut hair style (though on page 25, Indy still thinks of his hair as "longish" and, on page 43, Captain Renaud tells him to get a haircut).

On page 15, abri is French for "shelter".

The war trenches are said to run from Nieuport, Belgium to Beuenevisin on the Swiss border. I've been unable to confirm a location called Beuenevisin.

On page 16, Indy thinks of H.G. Wells and Henri Bergson. H.G. Wells (1866-1946) was a British writer known especially for his science-fiction stories and popular science essays. Henri Bergson (1859-1941) was a French philosopher.

On page 18, "Vickers and Lewis machines" is a reference to types of machine guns used in WWI.

On page 18, Indy accidentally bumps into a pair of brancardiers as a he races through the trenches to deliver Colonel Barc's message to Major Gaston. Brancardier is a French term for "stretcher-bearer".

    Page 19 describes a number of objects scattered about Gaston's abri, such as Linnemann entrenching tools and tin pannikers. A Linnemann entrenching tool is a type of digging spade. I've been unable to determine what tin pannikers are.

    Also in the abri, is a table littered with whiskey flasks, wine bottles, and empty Goldflake packets. "Goldflake" refers to Gold Flake brand Indian cigarettes.

The cannons and artillery shells mentioned on page 20 were all actual types used in WWI.

The Tissot gas mask mentioned on page 20 was named for its inventor, Dr. Jules Tissot (1870-1950).

Lebel and Lee-Enfield were actual rifles used during the war, as stated on page 21.

On page 22, jäger is German for "hunter".

On page 23, kronprinz is German for "crown prince". During WWI, German Crown Prince Wilhelm was the commander of the German 5th Army and the Army Group German Crown Prince and began in the Verdun offensive.

On page 23, stollen and sturmtruppen are German for "tunnels" and "stormtroopers".

On page 24, a French soldier remarks on the endlessness of the war and that the wives and mistresses of the munitions makers and other profiteers are shopping in the Faubourg St-Honoré. The Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré is a street in Paris known as the home of the major global fashion houses.

On pages 24-25, Indy reflects on having met a British soldier-poet named Siegfried Sassoon at the Somme. This was in "Trenches of Hell".

Indy wonders if the war will drag on and on, encompassing the whole world like something out of an H.G. Wells novel. He is thinking of the aforementioned Wells' 1897 science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds, about an invasion of Earth by an extra-terrestrial race from the planet Mars.

    On page 25, Michel hands Indy the box that is to go to his wife, Nicole, and tells him that he bought the ring in it in the resort town of Vittel. He also tells Indy that Nicole lives on the rue Jacob near Saint Germain des-Pres. Saint Germain des-Pres is one of the administrative quarters of the 6th arrondissement of Paris and rue Jacob does lie near it.

    Here, the soldier is referred to as Michel, but in the portion of the novel that adapts "The Mata Hari Affair", when Indy delivers the box to Nicole, the man's name is said to be Marcel de Mourney. 

In Chapter 4, Indy is carrying a Browning revolver.

On page 31, General Mangin remarks on his recent suggestion of concentrating an attack on Froideterre. Froideterre is a town in eastern France.

Page 31 has Mangin seated at a Louis Quinze table at the staff headquarters in the town hall of Souilly. Louis Quinze is a decorative art style of French Rococo, dating back to the reign of King Louis XV of France (1723–1774).

The generals' uniforms are described as less glamorous than those worn during the turn of the century Boer War. This war, the second of the Boer Wars, was fought from 1899–1902, among the British and the Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. It seems a bit odd that author Luceno is comparing the French uniforms of Mangin and Neville with those of a British war the French were not involved in in any significant way.

Page 32 traces General Nivelle's career from Ecole Polytechnique and the War College to Alsace, Soissons, and Quennevières. This is all true of Nivelle's trajectory in the French military.

On page 32, d'accord is French for "okay".

On page 32, Nivelle fumes, "If General Petain had spent less time brooding over casualty lists and more time securing results, we could have pushed the Germans to the Rhine by now." The Rhine is a river that forms part of the border between France and Germany.

On page 33, Nivelle's adjutant passes on the message from General Petain that the Grand Quartier Général is impatient for intelligence on the Verdun counteroffensive. The Grand Quartier Général was the general headquarters of the French Army during the war, located in Chantilly.

Page 33 includes a mini-biography in paragraph form of General Petain: born in Cauchy-a-la-Tour, Pas de Calais in 1856; a pupil of the Dominican fathers of Arcueil; graduate of the War College; a lieutenant of the Chasserus a Pied. This is all true.

On page 34, Nivelle says he's sorry Petain could not join he and Mangin for a brandy, as it is an 1856 vintage. Possibly this is a reference to both his own and Petain's birth year of 1856.

On page 35, Petain remarks on German artillery positions in the Hardaumont woods. The Hardaumont is an actual woods near Fort Douamont.

Petain chastises Nivelle and Mangin for fighting the war the way Julius Caesar or Napoleon would...in a time before the enemy had machine guns. Julius Caesar (100–44 BC) was a military leader and dictator of the Roman Republic. Napoleon Bonaparte was the high general, First Consul, and Emperor of France from 1799-1814.

On page 36, Nivelle accuses Petain of talking like von Falkenhayn. Erich von Falkenhayn (1861-1922) was the Chief of the German General Staff from 1914-1916 and he believed that the nation could not win the war by a decisive victory, but only by a war of attrition and a compromise peace.

Page 36 has two paragraphs describing the career up to that point of General Mangin. It is largely accurate as far as I can tell.

On pages 36-37, Petain misses the presence of Charles de Gaulle, captured during the seizure of Douamont and imprisoned at Dusterstadt in Bavaria, from which he had made an escape attempt alongside a Belgian corporal. This is a reference to the events of "Prisoner of War". As far as I can find, Petain having awarded Captain de Gaulle the Croix de Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur in absentia is fictitious.

The history of Verdun on pages 38-39 is roughly accurate.

The targets for attack pointed out by Mangin on pages 39-40 are largely real places near Verdun, though a couple I was unable to identify.

On page 41, Normandy and Brittany are historical cultural regions on the coastline of northern France. I've been unable to confirm that Verdun's population was specifically evacuated to these two regions. Civilians probably took it upon themselves to evacuate to cities and towns all over France, away from the eastern front.

Mentions of Notre Dame and the Bishop's Palace in Verdun are references to Verdun Cathedral (also known as Notre-Dame de Verdun) and the Episcopal Palace.

The St. Paul barracks, where soldiers would get a week off from the trenches, I presume refers to the Abbey of St Paul.

The star-shaped citadel of Verdun is an actual bastion fort built in 1670, often used to house soldiers in time of war.

On page 43, Tom Carren says, "Par ici...tout droit." This is French for "Over there...straight on."

Carren tells Indy he's from Newark, New Jersey.

Page 45 relates that Indy's escape on bicycle from the German internment camp in Bavaria (as seen in "Prisoner of War"), has taken on legendary status and garnered him his current motorcycle courier role.

Page 45 also relates Indy's prowess on horseback which he'd perfected when he'd lived in Utah and where he'd earned his Life Badge in the Boy Scouts, acquired the scar on his chin, and affected a fedora. Indy is depicted living in Utah with his father in several of the Young Indiana Jones junior novels and his scar and fedora acquisitions were depicted in "The Cross of Coronado". In "The Cross of Coronado", Indy was at the Star Scout level of the Boy Scouts; Life Scout would be the next level up from there. By the time of Princess of Peril in the summer of 1913, Indy is said to be an Eagle Scout, the highest attainable rank.

The Maconochie and Pearl biscuits on which Indy reflects on page 46 are real world food items.

On page 46, a bouquet of primroses and violets is set in an empty Beaujolais bottle on the mess hall table. Beaujolais is a type of French wine.

On pages 46-47, Indy reflects on the time he spent in Paris eight years earlier with his parents, where he'd met a number of artists and capered with them at the Moulin Rouge. This visit occurred in "Passion for Life", though the Moulin Rouge, a famed Paris cabaret, was not depicted there.

On page 47, a French corporal, on hearing of the 20,000 casualties on the first day of fighting at the Somme when Indy was there, says, "Ce triste, n'est-ca pas." This is French for, "This is sad, is it not."

On page 48, Jean-Marc mistakenly refers to the assassination of the king of Austria in Belgrade and Indy immediately corrects him, telling him it was the archduke who was assassinated, in Sarajevo. Indy would be well-informed about this because his first love, Princess Sophie of Austria, is daughter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (as seen in "The Perils of Cupid").

The history of WWI up to this point as given by Indy on pages 48-49 is accurate.

On page 50, the gramophone playing in the dormitory plays cylinders of Elgar and Schubert, though Indy would have preferred Irving Berlin or George Cohan. Edward Elgar (1857-1934) and Franz Schubert (1797-1828) were English and Austrian classical composers. Irving Berlin (1888-1989) was an American composer and songwriter. George Cohan (1878-1942) was an American entertainer, doing everything from acting, singing, and dancing, to songwriting himself.

On page 50, Indy thinks that not much of anything he could do would impress his father. One exception might be if he visited the site of the Piltdown man discovery. Piltdown man was the fraudulent discovery of the fossil skull of a supposed early human near Piltdown, England by amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson in 1912.

On page 51, Indy thinks back on being made by his father to read such texts as James Frazer's Golden Bough, Albert Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity, and Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams. These are all real world texts. Indy also met Sigmund Freud in 1908 in "The Perils of Cupid".

On pages 51-52, Indy reviews in his mind a number of historic events and people that had taken a significant place on the world stage since he was born. All of them are real. A few more details about some include: the U.S. president who was assassinated was William McKinley in 1901; Halley's Comet passed by Earth in 1910; the Panama Canal opened officially in 1914; the 800-foot high Woolworth Building was completed in 1912 (and which Indy visited in September 1913 in The Metropolitan Violin).

On page 52, Indy sees in the dormitory postcards of the Follies Berger (a cabaret in Paris), a La Vie Parisien (a risque weekly French magazine) rendering of a naked woman, poster of Theca Bara (an American silent film actress) as "the Vamp" (Bara's nickname due to her sultry roles), Pearl White in a pith helmet (an American silent film actress who often portrayed adventurous women), Isadora Duncan in veils (an American dancer), and Mata Hari (Dutch exotic dancer, with whom Indy will have an affair in "The Mata Hari Affair"). The photograph of Mata Hari that Indy had first seen on his way to Mexico, as described here as well, was seen in "Spring Break Adventure".

A paragraph on page 52 briefly describes events from some of Indy's recent adventures: he rode with Pancho Villa, met Remy and learned of the "war worth fighting" from Ned Lawrence (of Arabia) in "Spring Break Adventure", met Teddy Roosevelt in "Safari Sleuth", and met Krishnamurti in "Journey of Radiance".

Indy reflects on what happened to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in Bolivia. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were train and bank robbers in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. They were killed in a shootout with the Bolivian Army in 1908.

Indy also reflects on reading not only the tomes his father forced on him, but also the boyhood classics such as The Call of the Wild, Tarzan of the Apes, The Four Feathers, and Peter Pan, as well as dime novels starring such fictional characters as Nick Carter (a private detective), Bowery Billy (a teen detective), and Frank Merriwell (an ace athlete who fought bullies and also solved mysteries). The books listed are all real world books. Indy met the author of The Call of the Wild, Jack London, in The Phantom of the Klondike.

An American named Lovering Hill and a French doctor supervise a pick up station for casualties in Bras, about three miles from Verdun. Lovering Hill was a real life figure. Bras is a small town on the Meuse River.

Carren drives Indy to visit Remy in the hospital in a Ford truck that was a gift from Henry Ford himself, an opponent of the war. Henry Ford (1863-1947) was the founder of Ford Motor Company, who helped perfect the assembly line manufacturing process of automobiles.

Carren enjoys talking about New York City.

Quatre-Cheminées shelter mentioned on page 55 is a real world war shelter from WWI in between Fort Douamont and Bras.

The Pied du Gravier ravine mentioned by Carren is an actual ravine near Quatre-Cheminées.

The Natal and the Transvaal mentioned on page 56 were British colonies in South Africa during the Boer War.

Mangin's black majordomo, Baba, was a real world figure.

The French Army's General Staff Headquarters in Souilly is said to have several large oil paintings adorning the walls, including a Tintoretto, a Titian, and a pair by Delacroix, selected by Mangin who had a keen eye for such things. Tintoretto (1518-1594) was an Italian painter, Titian (1488-1576) was a Venetian painter, and Delacroix (1798–1863) a French Romantic painter.

The Champs-Élysées mentioned by Nivelle on page 58 is a street in Paris known for its cafés, luxury shops, and theatres.

Page 59 reveals that the field hospital that cares for Remy after his injury is at Château d'Esnes. This is a real world castle in Esnes, France that did serve in such capacity during the war.

On page 60, imfirmiers is French for "nurses".

On page 61, Indy gives Remy a pack of Turkish cigarettes, telling him he traded it with an Alsatian prisoner for some bully beef. "Bully beef" is finely minced corned beef packed in a small amount of gelatin. It was an essential field ration for the British Army in WWI.

Page 61 mentions that the cantina Remy and his deceased wife, Lupe, had opened before she was killed by federales was in Mazatlán. Though Remy had described that situation to Indy in "Spring Break Adventure", the name of the city was not previously mentioned.

Page 63 relates how Indy had taken the last name of "Defense" from a "Defense de Fumer" (No Smoking) sign in the Belgian recruitment office. This was seen in "Love's Sweet Song".

On page 65, Indy tells General Mangin that he's quite fluent in both speaking and reading German, noting he's read both Schopenhauer and Nietzche in German. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) were both German philosophers.

On page 65, Indy thinks Major Twinbury is carrying a holstered Webley Mark IV revolver.

On page 66, Indy meets two black Algerian corporals of the 321st Infantry who have been receiving training at Bar-le-Duc.

    On page 66, Gaston mentions the Ravine of Death. This was the nickname given to the terrain between the French strongholds of Cote 304 and Mort-Homme on the western bank of the Meuse River.

    Mangin also mentions the Chaufour Woods. This is an area of northern France.

Major Twinbury uses the nickname "Jerry" for the Germans. This was common British slang in both world wars.

On page 68, Major Twinbury mentions German tunneling at Festubert that allowed them to plant underground mines that cost the Sirhind Brigade heavily. Festubert is a small town in northern France. The Sirhind Brigade was a brigade of the British Indian Army that fought in the war.

On page 68, Indy recalls learning to shoot Winchesters and Colt Peacemakers and even once shooting a Sharps Buffalo Rifle when he lived in Utah. Sharps was a manufacturer of single shot rifles from 1851-1881, closing with the widespread use of repeating rifles.

The Livens projectors described on page 68, which fired time-fused barrels of oil and cotton waste were actual mortar-like weapons used by the British Army in both world wars.

On page 71, Indy recalls seeing mummies when he was 9 years old in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings. This was in "My First Adventure".

Also on page 71, the Ravine of Death reminds Indy of reading Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage. This is an 1895 war novel set during the U.S. Civil War.

Barbed wire and the (non-hand cranked, full automatic) machine gun were invented in the United States, as stated on page 72, but Henry Maxim invented the fully automatic machine gun in 1884, not '89.

On page 73, Indy sees that Kapitans Oetzmann and Lehmann in the German bunker are armed with Mauser pistols.

The lyrics Gunter sings on page 73 are from a translation of a German song that is also briefly mentioned at this Deviant Art site.

    On page 74, Oetzmann and Lehmann speak in German, saying, "Nach Paris!" and "Du Wunderschone Stadt, Deutchland uber alles." These translate to "After Paris!" and "You beautiful city, Germany above all." The second phrase is from the German national anthem since 1922, "Deutschland über Alles".

    Lehmann also goes on about the old days of the war, hardened by fighting at the Marne, Yser, Champagne, and Artois. These are all rivers or regions of France.

    Racing his motorcycle across the road between Verdun and Souilly to deliver the German intelligence he's uncovered, Indy sees Berliet trucks delivering supplies and Ford and Fiat ambulances, all crowding the road. Berliet was a French manufacturer of automobiles from 1899-1978.

    Page 78 remarks that the drivers would glove their hands with Vaseline on cold night runs.

Page 79 reveals that Indy has worked out a credible counterfeit history of Henri Defense in Belgium with Remy's help. He tells General Nivelle that he is from Evergem, north of Ghent.

On page 81, Indy compares General Nivelle unfavorably with George Armstrong Custer and worries that Verdun could become Nivelle's Little Big Horn. U.S. Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer, known for always riding into the sounds of the guns, led his regiment of the U.S. Cavalry into what has become famously known as Custer's Last Stand (also known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn), a battle of the Great Sioux War of 1876, in which they were soundly defeated by the allied forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indian tribes.

At the end of this episode's adaptation on page 87, Indy blows up his courier motorcycle so he can claim it was destroyed by a German pilot and walks the rest of the way to the front with General Nivelle's orders, too slowly to get them their on time for the ordered assault on Fort Douamont. In the televised episode, Indy stuffs athe orders into the bike's gas tank before setting it on fire. The novelized version makes more sense and gives Indy at least some cover to his story where he can claim he still tried to deliver the orders.

Notes from the junior novelization of this episode, Field of Death by Les Martin (The page numbers come from the 1st printing, 1992)

Didja Know?

Field of Death is a junior novelization of the "Verdun, September 1916" ("Demons of Deception") episode, published by Random House. A different junior novelization titled The Day of Destiny was written by Nigel Robinson for the UK market and published by Fantail Books. The UK novelization is fairly difficult to find and pricey in the US, so PopApostle does not have an analysis of it to accompany this episode study. 

Characters appearing in the novel not mentioned in the televised episode

French sergeant at Gare de l'Est

Sergeant of Indy's unit

hospital clerk

Sergeant Abu 

Didja Notice?

Chapter 1 is a scene not depicted in the televised episode, taking place at Gare de l'Est, a Paris railway station where French and Allied troops were shuttled to and from various points in France during the war. It still serves the French public today.

On page 5, Indy tells the French sergeant at Gare de l'Est that he was promoted to corporal in Flanders. We first learned this, after-the-fact, in "Trenches of Hell".

On page 6, Indy reflects on a postcard Remy had sent from the front in Verdun, in which Remy wrote, "It was an American general who said war is hell. He was right." It was American Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) who is said to have made the statement to graduating cadets at the Michigan Military Academy in 1879. On pages 67-68, Indy again reflects on the quote from Sherman, but also on a quote from the rival Confederate general Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), "It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it."

On page 7, Indy reflects on Ned Lawrence's belief that the war against Germany was a war that must be won. Lawrence wrote about the war to Indy in "Spring Break Adventure".

Page 7 describes how Indy came to be enlisted in the Belgian Army as Henri Defense. This occurred in "Love's Sweet Song".

Page 22 explains that the road Indy takes to Verdun to deliver the attack message to Colonel Barc was called la Voie Sacrée, translating to "the Sacred Way". This is an actual road from Bar-le-Duc to Verdun that was used extensively during the Battle of Verdun. It still exists today as a secondary road, numbered RD1916 in reference to its critical year of 1916. I have been unable to confirm whether soldiers generally referred to it as the Road to Hell as stated in the text, but I'm sure some did.

As Indy races along the Voie Sacrée on page 23, he sees that the great cathedral in Verdun is still standing. This refers to Verdun Cathedral, built in 1147.

As Indy runs through the trenches to deliver Colonel Barc's message to Major Gaston, page 26 relates that his lungs were burning and his mouth tasted of old pennies. There are many things that can cause an old penny or metallic taste in the mouth, often relating to illness or ingestion of a disagreeable substance. In this case, it may be that Indy is dehydrated from his motorcycle ride and his run through the trenches, first to Barc in the reserve trenches and then to Gaston in the front line trench.

The book refers to Gaston as a lieutenant, but the televised episode shows him with major's bars.

Page 41 states that Indy had started keeping a diary to record the things he was seeing and to make sense of them. This seems to ignore that he has been keeping his journal since his father gave it to him when he was 9 years old at the start of their world lecture tour in "My First Adventure".

In the televised episode, Indy has traded some chocolate for German cigarettes to give to Remy in the hospital. Here in this novelization, he has traded good French bread for German chocolate. I guess since this is a junior novelization, the publisher didn't want to encourage smoking!

In the televised episode, Sergeant DeMille tells Indy the Big Bertha fires a 2,000 pound shell. In the novelization, he says 900 kilogram shell, which is about equal to 2,000 pounds. It does make more sense that he would use kilograms as the unit of measure, as France uses the metric system of measurement.

Demonstrating his ability to speak German to the French officers on page 63, Indy says, in translation, "Although I am a corporal in the Belgian Army, I am very glad to be assigned to the French." He also says this in the comic book adaptation. This is part of what he says in the televised episode as well, but there he says more, too quickly for me to get a translation.

In Chapter 8, we briefly meet an additional character, Sergeant Abu, a black soldier from French West Africa. He is grateful that Indy volunteered for night patrol tonight, because his own dark skin usually saw him getting picked for the job due to his natural night time camouflage.

On page 70, Indy reflects that a Ute chieftain back in Utah had shown him how to track game. The Ute are a Native American tribe that live in Utah and Colorado. Indy lived in Utah for a time with his father.

Also on page 70, the bunker in which the two German captains are conversing is said to have portraits of Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife, Kaiserin Augusta Viktoria. Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941) was the ruler of Germany at the time. Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (1858-1921) was his wife.

On page 80, Gaston tells Indy he had been planning on running in the next Olympics, but the war stopped the games from happening. He is referring to the 1916 games that had been scheduled to take place in Berlin, Germany, but the games were cancelled due to the war.

Joyful that the French attack to retake Fort Douaumont has seemingly been cancelled, Indy sings, "Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile..." The lyrics are also the title of this WWI marching song, written in 1915 by George Henry Powell. 

Notes from the comic book adaptation of this episode The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles #'s 5 and 6 Dark Horse Comics Script and Artwork by Dan Barry Inks by Gray Morrow Letters by Gail Beckett Colors by Gregory Wright and Rachelle Menashe June and July 1992

Characters appearing in the comic not mentioned in the televised episode

Gretl (mentioned only)

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles #5

On the cover of this issue, the German airplane that is trying to bomb Indy has "FOK D II" and "HILDEGARDE" stenciled on the fuselage. The D.II was a Fokker fighter aircraft produced for the German Army in 1916. HILDEGARDE is presumably the name the pilot has given his plane.

On page 4, a name plate on his desk, reveals that Colonel Barc's first initial is P.

When Major Gaston receives the orders to attack Fort Douaumont again on page 5, he exclaims, "Mother Mary!" Mary is the Biblical mother of Jesus Christ. In the televised episode, he exclaims, "Mother of God!"

Instead of Jean-Marc explaining the start of the war to Indy as in the televised episode, Indy here tells him and the other couriers the story of how he, an American, came to be in the Belgian Army. The way the courier scene is staged, it could be argued that the version seen here is what happened among the men after Jean-Marc's explanation of the war from the episode.

On page 11, panel 6, Indy briefly describes to his fellow couriers his and Remy's time in Pancho Villa's revolution in Mexico. These events were seen in "Spring Break Adventure".

Pages 12-13 have Indy explaining how he enlisted at the Belgian Army recruiting office in London with Remy. This event occurred in "Love's Sweet Song" (which was not previously adapted into comic book format).

On page 12, a sign in the Belgian recruiting office reads, "AVIS, sujets Belges, si vous etes ages de 18 ans ou plus enrole vous." This is French for "NOTICE, Belgian subjects, If you are aged 18 or over enroll now."

On page 12, panel 3, Remy says to the recruiting officer, "Bien sur. Je suis Belge," and Indy adds, "Moi aussi." This translates to "Of course. I am Belgian," and "Me too."

On page 12, panel 8, Indy says, "Oui! Non! Oui!" and "Quatre-vingt quarante!" This translates to "Yes! No! Yes!" and "Eighty forty!" Indy is obviously very nervous as he lies his way through the recruitment interview because he was trying to say 1894 as his fake year of birth.

On page 14, General Petain says, "Au revoir." This is French for "Goodbye."

On page 15, Remy says, "Could be better, mon ami." Mon ami is French for "my friend."

On page 16, Remy says, "Damned Boches!" Boches is a French term for "Germans".

On page 22, panel 3, a map on the wall behind Indy shows Ypres and Lille. Ypres is a city in Belgium and Lille a city in France.

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles #6

On page 4, the German corporal who finds Indy spying on the command bunker cries out, "Zu hilfe," as Indy punches him. Zu hilfe is German for "help".

On page 16, panel 4, a pack of Gauloise cigarettes is seen on Barc's desk. Presumably, this is meant to be Gauloises, a real world brand of French cigarettes.

On the last page of the issue, Old Indy remarks that General Nivelle ordered a different offensive in 1917 that resulted in 120,000 casualties. This was an attack on the Hindenburg Line, the strongest position Germany held.

Memorable Dialog

the problem with the good general.mp3

welcome to Verdun.mp3

they'll send me back if I feel well.mp3

are you sure you want to do this?.mp3