However, this coined for nothing as the ground battle raged on and became one of attrition. Pétain was then replaced by General Nivelle, a soldier who believed in a fully offensive strategy, and by the summer the French had regained some of their air supremacy. The Germans also suffered huge losses, and by the end of April they had lost 120,000 men to the French Army’s 133,000.Īs the battle entered the Spring of 1916, Pétain asked Joffre for more men but the latter refused, stating that he wanted them for a planned attack on the Somme. How can people begin to know what that one word - Hell - means.' 'People will read that the front line was Hell. 'You eat beside the dead you drink beside the dead, you relieve yourself beside the dead and you sleep beside the dead.' It is believed that 66 per cent of the French Army actually passed up this road at some time during the battle. However, 25,000 tons of supplies were move into Verdun via this road, as well as 90,000 soldiers in 6,000 vehicles. There was just a single road into Verdun and it was only 20ft wide. In fact, the fort at Douaumont, which was considered to be the most powerful in the world, was manned by just 56 elderly part-time gunners who offered no resistance.Īs the forts fell, General Philippe Pétain was put in charge of the defence of Verdun, which was no easy task. The Germans then used flame throwers for the first time, which helped them advance and capture 10,000 French prisoners. Blown into showers bellies turned inside out skulls forced into the chest as if by a blow from a club.' Cut in two or divided from top to bottom. The attack was devastating and one man wrote: On the day the war began, 1,000 german artillery guns fired on a six mile line along the French front.

On the other hand, the French had just 30,000 troops. French senior officers at the fort complex completed to Joffre but he rejected their complaints.Īround 140,000 german troops started the attack, with 1,200 artillery guns, 1,300 ammunition trains and 168 planes, which was the largest concentration of planes up to that point in history. In some respects this was right - ammunition had been moved from the forts to the Western Front and the trenches dug for defence in the area had not been finished.

While Falkenhayn’s plan was credible, it also assumed that the French would be an easy opponent that it would be them who sustained major casualties. If they do so the forces of France will bleed to death.' Within our reach there are objectives for the retention of which the French General Staff would be compelled to throw in every man they have. A mass break-through - which in any case is beyond our means - is unnecessary. 'The string in France has reached breaking point. In a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II, Falkenhayn wrote: Falkenhayn believed that the French would not allow these forts to fall and so would lost as many men as they had to in order to prevent it. The area around Verdun contained 20 major forts and 40 smaller forts that had historically protected the eastern border of France and had recently been modernised. The Battle of Verdun began on 21st February 1916 and was the result of a plan by the German Chief of General Staff, General von Falkenhayn, who wanted to “bleed France white” by launching an attack on a narrow stretch of land with historic sentiment - Verdun. 294) and index.The Battle of Verdun was the longest in World War One, with the resulting casualties and impact it had on the French Army being the main factor behind the start of the Battle of the Somme. Verdun emerges as the mid-point in the cycle of Franco-German hostility, carrying both the burden of history and - if only by the presence on the battlefield of men like Petain and de Gaulle, France's two leaders in the next war - the seeds of the future.'-BOOK JACKET. At the same time it goes beyond the narrow horizons of military history by locating the experience of Verdun in how the French had thought about themselves, their nation and their relations with their eastern neighbour since the debacle of the Franco-Prussian War. 'Ian Ousby's new book gives an account of the generals' planning and the troops' suffering. For the French in particular, it was always more than just a battle, being rather (in Paul Valery's words) 'a complete war in itself, inserted in the Great War'.'. 'Verdun was the largest, the longest and the bloodiest battle between the French and Germans in the First World War, lasting from February 1916 until the end of the year and claiming more than 700,000 casualties. The road to Verdun : France, nationalism and the First World War / Ian Ousby Book Bib ID

Battle of verdun summary