1/8/2024 0 Comments Wwi verdun battleThe battle was designed in December 1915 by the enigmatic Erich von Falkenhayn, the German army's chief of staff. This is a land where sadness hangs in the air like a living presence. The dead are everywhere: the ossuaire, Verdunts massive Art Deco war memorial, contains the remains of 130,000 French and German soldiers alone. To this day, the land around Verdun is torn and scarred by the war: thousands of shell holes pock the countryside, trenches slice through woods and fields, huge mine craters gape up at the sky, and rusting clumps of barbed wire and the broken hulks of fortresses litter the area. Extending from 21 February to 15 December 1916, it is the longest battle history has ever known. Voices from Verdun by O'Brien Browneįew stretches of land in Western Europe are as blood soaked as the Verdun battlefield, where 80 years ago 700,000 to 800,000 Frenchmen and Germans were killed, wounded or captured in perhaps the most terrible battle of the Great War. ullstein bild-ullstein bild via Getty Images A French soldier's grave, marked by his rifle and helmet, on the battlefield of Verdun.From the Winter 1998 Issue, Volume Seven, Number One:įrench colonials rest amid the descruction at Verdun. Jacques Boyer/Roger Viollet-Getty Images A group of German soldiers buried by french artillery barrage within their dugout, who could be saved only many hours later after end of bombardment. Shelter made of corrugated iron and used as headquarters for French machine gunners near Verdun, 1916. Roger Viollet-Getty Images World War One, Battle of Verdun. In the foreground, on the right-hand corner: wounded nurse, 1916. General Photographic Agency-Getty Images World War One, Battle of Verdun (Meuse). ullstein bild via Getty Images French troops under shellfire during the Battle of Verdun. ullstein bild via Getty Images German heavy artillery. Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images French soldiers taken prisoners during interrogation at a German staff quarter. Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images A group of French wounded soldiers waiting to be evacuated from the fort of Tavannes after the first dressings. Photo12/UIG-Getty Images French mounted soldiers crossing a pond. In 1963, TIME reminded readers of what French president Raymond Poincaré had said: “If Verdun is taken, what a disaster! If it is saved, how can we ever forget the price?” General Gouraud has gathered flags of all regiments of his army to salute a division who won battles in Verdun. In the years that followed, the word Verdun came to represent carnage and heavy losses. Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter And, despite its pivotal place in the history of World War I, it ended with the French and German armies in much the same position-at least on a map-that they had held before the whole thing started. The region had also been physically devastated. Though some historians have argued that what we call “Verdun” was in fact a series of battles with elements that not only filled 1916 but also stretched before and after that year, the importance of what Verdun means to 20th-century military history is hard to debate.īy Britannica’s estimation, about 300,000 were killed during the course of those brutal months, out of a total of 400,000 French casualties and 350,000 German. The idea wasn’t wrong: France was in fact willing to go to extreme lengths to repel the enemy at Verdun, successfully pushing back German advances at great cost. The idea was that France would spend too much effort on that goal, weakening its position and helping the German effort. With its strategic location, the German military determined that Verdun would not only be worthy of attack, but that French forces would go to great lengths to defend it. 18, 1916-100 years ago this weekend, after what TIME later called “the crudest ten months of World War I.” By that point, it had become the Great War’s longest fight. Fighting began at Verdun, named for the French town that was its focus point, on Feb. The 10 photographs seen here all bear the same basic place and date information: Verdun, 1916.īut that information hardly does justice to the battle they depict.
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