![]() Map of the German offensive, February-April 1916 In December 1915, Verdun was identified by German Chief of the General Staff General Erich von Falkenhayn as the ideal target for a powerful blow against France. In autumn 1915, believing the fortresses outdated, Joffre stripped the Verdun forts of most of their guns and garrisons to feed his Champagne Offensive. French commander-in-chief General Joseph Joffre resisted pressure to strengthen its trench line, which was recognized as weak. Verdun was left surrounded by German-held territory on three sides and supplied by inadequate road and rail links to the rear. In 1914, the initial fighting came to a halt at trench lines outside the fortified perimeter. In the late 19th century, concentric rings of modern forts armored in steel and concrete had been built around Verdun as part of a defensive line following the Franco-Prussian War. In 1916, the historic fortress town of Verdun, standing on the Meuse River, was an exposed, lightly held outpost of France's eastern defenses. The battle was a costly French victory, as the French reclaimed the Verdun fortresses, and the German offensive would be halted. The 303-day battle saw around 377,231 French and 337,000 Germans become casualties, with an average of 70,000 casualties being made each month a later estimate stated that as many as 976,000 people were lost at Verdun. #VERDUN BATTLE CRACK#Over 100,000 French troops were lost at Douaumont alone, and the Germans began to crack as their supply lines were thinned out by the concurrent Battle of the Somme. 120,000 shells were fired at the fort, which was the site of a bloody French assault, and it was not until 24 October that the entire fortress was recaptured by the French. Fort Douaumont changed hands several times, as did the double ring of 28 fortresses around Verdun. French artillery bombarded German troops on the east bank of the Meuse River, and general Philippe Petain ordered that no withdrawals were to be made instead, the French would counterattack until victorious. The Germans captured Fort Douaumont in the first three days of the offensive, but their advance was slowed by a costly French defense. The ground was littered with bodies in all stages of decomposition.The Battle of Verdun (21 February-18 December 1916) was a major battle of World War I that occurred when the Imperial German Army assaulted the French fortress town of Verdun on the German border, hoping to lure the French Army into a battle of annihilation instead, it would be the largest and longest battle of the war, and it would see catastrophic losses on both sides. The soldiers were situated in a fighting zone visible from all sides, and they were bombarded from all directions they had no trenches, for they had no opportunity to dig them under continuous fire. It was the most terrible battle of attrition (Materialschlacht) of World War I, and it offered the most dreadful conditions that fighting men had ever encountered. Soldiers later called this battle the “hell of Verdun.” It turned into a type of warfare that the world had never seen before, nor has seen again - despite World War II, despite Stalingrad. The young Hessian soldier was proved right. He thus gave the signal to begin the German strike against Verdun. On this day, February 21, 1916, Wilhelm, the crown prince of the German Empire, personally ordered a naval gun to fire the first shot. The forests surrounding the battlefield had been transformed into a blinding, deafening firestorm. They could provide no precise information, for wherever they looked, German artillery was firing. French reconnaissance planes were helpless as they tried to locate the batteries that delivered this heavy fire. More than 1,200 artillery pieces, including those of the heaviest caliber, fired in continuous bombardment a large share of the more than 2.5 million shells that had been brought to the front in 1,300 ammunition trains over a period of seven weeks. The heaviest artillery fire ever seen had already begun some hours earlier. “There's going to be a battle here, the likes of which the world has never seen,” wrote a young Hessian soldier to his mother as he prepared to attack with his companions in the early afternoon. ![]()
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