Verdun: The Most Prolonged Battle of WWI.

The First World War encompassed extreme nationalistic pride, imperialism, secret alliance, and dangerous politics, which resulted in a confrontation between countries in Europe between 1914 and 1918 (Neiberg, 2009). The battles in the Great War led to a massive loss of property, displacement of people, and deaths. The war of Verdun, fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916 between Germany and France, was the most prolonged battle fought during the First World War (Neiberg, 2009). Von Falkenhayn, the Chief of General Staff of Germany, ordered the attack on France's Verdun with a motive to "bleed France white." Falkenhayn planned to compel the French into fighting, which would make them lose a lot of soldiers and eventually lose the battle to Germany (Foley & Foley, 2005). The city of Verdun held the pride of France with its main forts, and the French would not allow its forts to fall as they protected the eastern border of the nation (Neiberg, 2009). He expected a swift battle within the shortest time considering trenches the French were digging to defend themselves were not yet complete. However, the fight took a turn around with French waging a fierce war against the German soldiers. The underestimation of the war made the battle of Verdun the most brutal and bloodiest war that went longer than expected, leading to the failure of Germany to achieve the quick victory they had anticipated.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Why Germany Started the War in Verdun

Germany's main goal was to defeat England and end the trench warfare that had begun in 1914. Germany had experienced abundant successes in 1915 against the Allies, but they still had not attained peace as France and England remained untouched. In the West, Germany held the onslaughts of Allies in Champagne and Artois (Jankowski, 2014). In the East, it had fruitfully attacked Lithuania, Clourland, Poland, and Volhynia. The German army had also crushed Bulgaria and saved Turkey from Serbia. Falkenhayn knew that by attacking France, he would have weakened England's best weapons (Jankowski, 2014). He wanted to defeat the French army before the Allies grew their power and strength, and the British deployed an entire military force. Falkenhayn believed that the allies would not be able to defeat the German's without the ninety-six divisions of France's military (Jankowski, 2014). To achieve his goal, Falkenhayn had to target a strategic French front that held great significance to the nation, and Verdun was their perfect choice. The fortress city located on River Meuse held the pride of France, and the French army would protect it to the last minute.

In addition to being the nation's fortress, the Germans had other reasons that made them choose Verdun as a perfect target. For instance, Verdun was close to Germany's Mertz, the fountain for ammunition, arms, and food (Foley & Foley, 2005). Besides, during the battle between Germany and St.Mihiel, Verdun became a better target as German soldiers surrounded it on the East, northwest, and south as compared to other French lines (Foley & Foley, 2005). Similarly, Verdun had remained defenseless with only a narrow-gauge pathway connecting the city to France's Bar-le-Duc. The railroads connecting the fortress city to France had been cut off by enemies. St. Mihiel had taken over the Lerouville line while the German artillery already took over the second line that led through Chalons (Foley & Foley, 2005). The Germans looked at Verdun as France's main fortification, and its seizure would suffocate their opponents but still compel them into sending its entire army to defend the city. Their target was to exhaust France's military leaving the nation defenseless, which would set the ground for the defeat of England.

German's Plan and Preparations for the Attack.

Falkenhayn planned to lure the French into a trap that would compel them to send more troops into the battlefield with conditions that were highly favorable for the Germans. The German military had designed the fortress city to be a battle of attrition while they organized the army to occupy the French trenches as much as possible (Jankowski, 2014). The Germans 5th army divided its targeted zone into four sectors, with three making up the main targets. VII Reserve corpses were assigned to sector A, XVIII Corps assigned to sector B while II Corps would counter sector C (Foley & Foley, 2005). Falkenhayn emphasized limiting casualties from his army by following up on every artillery bombardment they would explode to ensure the Germans were safe. As ascertained by the chief commander, "our object... was to inflict upon the enemy utmost possible injury with the least possible expenditure of lives on our part..." (Foley & Foley, 2005). The German army was to engage the French fortifications using enfilade fire and howitzers. They preserved the heavy artillery for constant ambushes on the military assembly areas and ammunition supply routes. The specialist batteries were to engage in counter-battery with the French using gas shells (Jankowski, 2014). They were to open the bombardment and build it slowly while holding back Trommelfeuer until the last minute of the battle (Foley & Foley, 2005). The army had artillery observers who would communicate to the military in the field through flares, colored balloons, or telephones after artillery bombardments on the French.

The beginning of 1916 saw Falkenhayn's plans going as expected, with the strategic deception working correctly (Jankowski, 2014). The Entente powers were not sure of where the Germans would attack that year; they thought their main offensive in 1916 would be in Russia (Foley & Foley, 2005). However, the Entente intelligence slowly awoke to the realization that the German's planned to attack the western front (Foley & Foley, 2005). Although the intelligence tried to predict a Germans' primary target in the west, the countermeasures put by Germany prevented them from determining where they would attack. Opinions of the Entente power held that the attack would happen in Champagne or perhaps Verdun and Flanders (Foley & Foley, 2005). Therefore, the French made no significant preparation to reinforce the city of Verdun for a battle, which gave the Germans a chance to proceed with their plan (Foley & Foley, 2005). The German's had every reason to be confident about the battle and the impact of their artillery as it has it proved to be deadly not only in the East but also in the areas they had attacked in the west.

The Battle

On 21 February 1916, the German troupe made its massive artillery bombardment of the French front, 40km from the Bois d'Avocourt to Etain, and launched the first infantry attack on the front (Jankowski, 2014). After surveying the damages caused by the attack, the Germans made their first move into France, invading the French lines and occupying Bois d'Haumont. The next day, the German troops took advantage of their successful entry into France, repelled a French counterattack, and razed Haumont village with artillery fire. By 23rd, Germans had invaded Wavrille, Smogneux, and Brabant-sur-Meuse villages in France (Jankowski, 2014). The invasion was followed by an overrun of the French first line of defenses, leaving thousands of French soldiers wiped off the battlefield. The Germans repeated their bombardments several days that followed, with notable successes such as the seizure of Fort Douaumont on 25 February (Jankowski, 2014). However, the army met fierce counterattacks from the opponents hampering their movement to Meuse Heights, which brought the first phase of the war to a close.

On 29 February, Germany's General Heinrich Gossler released two more divisions to the west bank of the Meuse where the French army occupied the right-wing of its banks (Foley & Foley, 2005). The offensive on the west bank was required to progress like the previous assaults on the east bank, with infantry and artillery assaults (Jankowski, 2014). On 6 March, Germans resumed their attacks with artillery bombardments, which cut French communication lines leaving the defenders shaken and worried about their next moves without communicating with the troops in the field (Foley & Foley, 2005). Germans planned to seize Mort Homme, but they were unable to capture the hill. Throughout the week, the German soldiers tried to take over the Mort Homme, but they were met with resistance from the French who constantly attacked them with artillery fire. However, on 14 March, the Germans were finally able to take over its northern hilltop, which they used to counter French attacks (Foley & Foley, 2005). On the 28th of the same month, the Germans brought in new troops who waged war on the left and right banks, leading to the seizure of Vaux village.

The deadly and bloody stalemate went on through April and May, during which the Germans captured Bois Carmard but were unable to attack Hill 304, which was the French strongpoint (Neiberg, 2009). The British preparations to initiate an attack on Somme put pressure on both the Germans and the French to seek a quick resolution to the Verdun battle (Foley & Foley, 2005). On 1 June, the Germans assaulted Thiaumont on the right back and took both positions that had been France's strongholds. Although fighting on the left was not favorable for the French, they managed to reclaim more than half of Mort Homme by 15 June (Foley & Foley, 2005). The situation for the French, however, worsened when the German's attacked Froide Terre that was among their stronghold (Foley & Foley, 2005). By 23 June, the situation forced Petain, the French sector commander, to think of advising the soldiers to move to the left bank in case the Germans advanced further, but he later ordered the troops to defend the right-wing banks of Meuse to the last minute.

On 24 June, the Franco-British assault on Somme commenced, with an artillery barrage that went for an entire week, distracting the German's from Verdun battle (Foley & Foley, 2005). Amid the Somme offensive, the German's made another offensive on Verdun on 11 July, attacking the Vaux-Soiville defensive line, but the advance crumpled up while on the Souville (Foley & Foley, 2005). The next attack on the French occurred on 1 August, but it also failed as the French waged strong resistance, reclaiming Thiaumont and Fleury on 3 and 4 August, respectively (Foley & Foley, 2005). The battle went on throughout the months with the subsequent German attacks failing to yield the anticipated gains, resulting in an end to the Verdun battle on 21 December.

Aftermath

After the ten-month war in Verdun, several villages, including Fleury, Louvemont, Haumont, Ornes, Vaux, Douaumont, and cumieres, had been destroyed (Jankowski, 2014). The number of casualties remains to be disputed; however, the estimated number of casualties from both France and Germany was more than 7000,000 soldiers, with over 100,000 missing and 300,000 dead. France lost about 377,000 soldiers, while Germans lost 330,000 men (Memorial de Verdun, n.d). The main intention of Falkenhayn was to draw the entire French army into defense and bleed them to death, leaving France begging for mercy. The French army under Petain suffered terrible casualties during the battle, but so did the Germans (Memorial de Verdun, n.d). In the end, nobody emerged a winner as witnessed in other battles of World War I. The Germans met strong repulsion that sent them to the trenches while the French who seemed to have emerged victorious lost a significant number of soldiers. The constant fire artillery explosions in Verdun turned Forests into piles of firewood (Neiberg, 2009). The artilleries also left shell craters fi...