#VERDUN 1916 HOW TO#

He thus gave the signal to begin the German strike against Verdun. On this day, February 21, 1916, Wilhelm, the crown prince of the German Empire, personally ordered a naval gun to fire the first shot. The forests surrounding the battlefield had been transformed into a blinding, deafening firestorm. They could provide no precise information, for wherever they looked, German artillery was firing.

French reconnaissance planes were helpless as they tried to locate the batteries that delivered this heavy fire. More than 1,200 artillery pieces, including those of the heaviest caliber, fired in continuous bombardment a large share of the more than 2.5 million shells that had been brought to the front in 1,300 ammunition trains over a period of seven weeks. The heaviest artillery fire ever seen had already begun some hours earlier. By December, France had won back nearly all the territory it had lost in February.“There's going to be a battle here, the likes of which the world has never seen,” wrote a young Hessian soldier to his mother as he prepared to attack with his companions in the early afternoon.

It would be another four months before the conflict ceased. Falkenhayn's successors, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, upheld the decision to suspend attacks at Verdun, but Germany defended its new positions there. Falkenhayn eventually halted the offensive in July.īut in August, with Germany and Austria-Hungary facing synchronised Allied summer offensives, Falkenhayn tendered his resignation. Some commanders, such as the Kaiser's son, Crown Prince Wilhelm, wanted attacks to cease, while others encouraged Falkenhayn to reapply pressure.

#VERDUN 1916 HOW TO#

Without a clear strategy, there was confusion about how to conduct the offensive.Īs the conflict wore on, division within the top ranks of the German army became apparent. General Falkenhayn was notoriously secretive and shared very little with his staff about his strategy or aims for the battle.Īs a result, German commanders had different objectives, ranging from capturing the town of Verdun to destroying the French army. Germany accumulated huge losses and gained little territory, leading it to throw more and more men into the conflict: Verdun soon became a battle of prestige for the Germans, as well as the French. He used many more divisions than planned. The two campaigns together should have brought France and Britain to terms.īut Falkenhayn's plan for an attack that would economise on German resources failed to work out as he had expected. Falkenhayn hoped to combine the Verdun offensive with a U-Boat offensive against British shipping. He planned to use a relatively small number of men to capture the high ground to the north of Verdun and then to inflict enormous casualties on the French using his superior German artillery to halt their counter-attacks. Britain was Germany’s most formidable military foe, but remained out of reach across the Channel. Britain via Verdunįalkenhayn was convinced by 1916 that the war could only be won on the Western Front. He hoped that France would “throw in every man they have” to defend it, draining its army of resources. General Erich von Falkenhayn, the Chief of the General Staff and Germany’s principal strategist, targeted the French town of Verdun because of its position on the Allied line and its sentimental value to the French people.

Verdun 1916