Battle of Verdun

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{{Warbox |conflict=Battle of Verdun |partof=World War I |campaign= |image=Image:German dead at Verdun.jpg |caption= |date=21 February 1916 – 19 December 1916 |place=Verdun-sur-Meuse, France |result=French victory |combatant1=France |combatant2=Germany |commander1=Philippe Pétain
Robert Nivelle |commander2=Erich von Falkenhayn |strength1=About 30,000 on 21 February 1916 |strength2=About 150,000 on 21 February 1916 |casualties1=162,000 dead or missing,
214,000–380,000 wounded |casualties2=100,000 dead,
236,000–334,000 wounded or missing }} "They shall not pass" — Robert Nivelle

The Battle of Verdun was a major battle of the Western Front in World War I. The battle was fought between the German and French armies between February 21 and 19 December 1916 around Verdun-sur-Meuse in northeast France. It resulted in more than a quarter of a million deaths and about half a million wounded. It was the longest battle of World War I, and the second bloodiest after the Battle of the Somme (1916).

1 Background
2 Battle
3 Casualties
4 Significance
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

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Background

After the Germans failed to achieve a quick victory in 1914, the war of movement soon bogged down into a stalemate on the Western Front. Trench warfare was developed and neither side could achieve a breakthrough.

In 1915 all attempts to force a breakthrough—by the Germans at Ypres, by the British at Neuve Chapelle and by the French at Champagne—had failed, with terrible casualties the only result.

The German Chief of Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, believed that although a breakthrough might no longer be possible, nonetheless the French could be defeated if they suffered enough casualties. He therefore planned to attack a position from which the French could not retreat, for both strategic reasons and reasons of national pride, and so impose a ruinous battle of attrition on the French armies. The town of Verdun-sur-Meuse was chosen for this "bleeding white" of the French: the town, surrounded by a ring of forts, was an important stronghold that projected into the German lines and guarded the direct route to Paris. Rather than a traditional military victory, Verdun was planned as a vehicle for destroying the French army. Falkenhayn wrote to the Kaiser:

"The string in France has reached breaking point. A mass breakthrough—which in any case is beyond our means—is unnecessary. 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. If they do so the forces of France will bleed to death."

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Battle

Image:Battle of Verdun map.png

Image:Verdun burning 1916.jpg Verdun was poorly defended because artillery guns had been removed from the local fortifications, but good intelligence and a delay in the German attack due to bad weather gave the French time to rush two divisions of 30th Corps, the 72nd and 51st, to the area.

The battle began on 21 February 1916 with a nine-hour artillery bombardment firing 1,000,000 shells by 1,200 guns on a front of 40 km, followed by an attack by three army corps (the 3rd, 7th, and 18th). The Germans used flamethrowers for the first time to clear the French trenches. By 23 February the Germans had advanced three miles capturing the Bois des Caures after two French battalions led by Colonel Émile Driant had held them up for two days, and pushed the French defenders back to Samogneux, Beaumont, and Ornes. Poor communications meant that only now did the French command realise the seriousness of the attack.

On 24 February the French defenders of 30th Corps fell back again from their second line of defence, but were saved from disaster by the appearance of the 20th Corps under General Balfourier. Intended as relief, the new arrivals were thrown into combat immediately. That evening French Army chief of staff, General De Castelnau, advised his boss, Joffre, that the French Second Army under General Phillipe Petain, ought to be sent to man the Verdun sector. On 25 February the German 24th (Brandenburg) Infantry Regiment captured a centre-piece of France's fortifications—Fort Douaumont.

The chief of staff of the French Army, General de Castelnau, appointed General Philippe Pétain commander of the Verdun area and ordered the French Second Army to the battle sector. The German attack was slowed down at the village of Douaumont by the tenacious defense of the French 33rd Infantry Regiment and heavy snowfall. This gave the French time to bring up 90,000 men and 23,000 tonnes of ammunition from the railhead at Bar-le-Duc to Verdun.

As in so many other offensives on the Western Front, by advancing, the German troops had lost effective artillery cover. With the battlefield turned into a sea of mud through continual shelling it was very hard to move guns forward. The advance also brought the Germans into range of French artillery on the west bank of the Meuse. Each new advance thus became costlier than the previous one as the attacking German Fifth Army units, often attacking in massed crowds southward down the east bank, were cut down ruthlessly from their flank by Petain's guns on the opposite, or west, side of the Meuse valley. When the village of Douaumont was finally captured on 2 March 1916 four German regiments had been virtually destroyed.

Image:Le Mort Homme 1916.jpg

Unable to make any further progress against Verdun frontally, the Germans turned to the flanks, attacking the hill of Le Mort Homme on 6 March and Fort Vaux on 8 March. In three months of savage fighting the Germans captured the villages of Cumières and Chattancourt to the west of Verdun, and Fort Vaux to the east surrendered on 7 June. The losses were terrible on both sides. Pétain attempted to spare his troops by remaining on the defensive, but he was relieved on 1 May and replaced with the more attack-minded General Robert Nivelle.

The Germans' next objective was Fort Souville. On 22 June 1916 they shelled the French defences with the poison gas diphosgene, and attacked the next day with 60,000 men, taking the battery of Thiaumont and the village of Fleury. But they were unable to capture Souville, though the fighting around it continued until 6 September.

The opening of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916 forced the Germans to withdraw some of their artillery from Verdun to counter the combined Anglo-French offensive to the north.

By the autumn, the German soldiers were exhausted and Falkenhayn had been replaced as chief of staff by Paul von Hindenburg and as commander at Verdun by General Erich Ludendorff.

The French launched a counter-offensive on 21 October 1916. Fort Douaumont was bombarded with new 400 mm guns (brought up on rails and directed by spotter planes), and captured on 24 October. On 2 November the Germans lost Fort Vaux and retreated. A final French offensive beginning on 11 December drove the Germans back to their starting positions.

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Casualties

In the mathematics of the war, it was crucial that the smaller and more slowly increasing populations of the Central Powers inflict many more casualties on their adversaries than they themselves suffered. At Verdun, Germany did inflict more casualties on the French than they incurred—but not in the 2:1 ratio that they had hoped for, despite the fact that the German army grossly outnumbered the French troops.

France's losses were appalling, however. It was the perceived humanity of Field Marshal Philippe Pétain who insisted that troops be regularly rotated in the face of such horror that helped seal his reputation. The rotation of forces meant that 70% of France's army went through "the wringer of Verdun", as opposed to the 25% of the German forces who saw action there.

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Significance

The battle of Verdun also known as the 'Mincing Machine of Verdun' or 'Meuse Mill' became a symbol of French determination, inspired by the sacrifice of the defenders.

The successes of the fixed fortification system led to the adoption of the Maginot Line as the preferred method of defence along the Franco-German border during the inter-war years.

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References

Alistair Horne, The Price of Glory, ISBN 0140170413
William Martin, Verdun 1916, "They shall not pass"; Osprey Campaign Series #93, Osprey Publishing, 2001.
John Mosier, The Myth of the Great War, ISBN 0060084332
Anthony Clayton Paths of Glory - The French Army 1914 - 18, ISBN 0304366528

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