In the first period of the war, Verdun was considered a subordinate French fortress. Its military strategic value was less significant. The city had a long history as a bulwark and therefore had great symbolic significance, especially for the French population. The fortress of Verdun was chosen as the target of the offensive. Falkenhayn, with this assertion made in 1920, attempted to retroactively give ostensible meaning to the failed attack and the negative German myth of the "blood mill."Īmong other things, the attack was intended to persuade the British Expeditionary Corps, which was fighting on French soil, to abandon its alliance obligations. Contrary to subsequent accounts by the German Army Chief of Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, the original intent of the attack was not to "bleed" the French Army without spatial objectives. Mihiel to the east and Varennes to the west, threatening the flanks of the German front there. Around Verdun, moreover, there was an indentation in the front between the frontal arc of St.
The German army command decided to attack what had originally been France's strongest fortress (partially disarmed since 1915) in order to, in turn, get the war on the Western Front moving again. The idea of an attack at Verdun originally came from Crown Prince Wilhelm, commander in chief of the 5th Army, with Konstantin Schmidt von Knobelsdorf, chief of staff of the 5th Army, as the de facto leader. It began on February 21, 1916, with an attack by German troops on the stronghold of Verdun and ended on December 19, 1916, without success for the Germans.Īfter the Battle of Marne and the protracted war of position, the German Supreme Army Command (OHL) had realized that, in view of the looming quantitative superiority of the Entente, the possibility of strategic initiative was gradually slipping away. The Battle of Verdun was one of the longest and most costly battles of the First World War on the Western Front between Germany and France. Result of the battle - a German success?.October 24, 1916: recapture of Fort Douaumont.October 1916: Start of the French offensive.September 4, 1916: Explosion accident in the Tavannes tunnel.Falkenhayn's recall and the beginning of the German defense.June to October 1916: German offensive against Fleury, Thiaumont and Côte Froide Terre.Brussilov offensive: weakening of German troops before Verdun.April to May 1916: Pétain's transfer - start of the French offensives.March 1916: French defense on the east side of the Meuse River.March 1916: German offensive against heights Toter Mann and heights 304.The fighting until the beginning of March 1916.Consolidation of the French front by General Pétain.February 25, 1916: capture of Fort Douaumont.February 21-25, 1916: The First Five Days.
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