After gaining access to the fort through an undefended passage, a small party of Germans led by Lt. Eugen Radtke was able to wander its subterranean chambers and round up French defenders one after the other. They soon captured the entire garrison without suffering a single casualty or firing a shot.
It would take eight months and tens of thousands of casualties before the French finally recaptured the fort in October Due to a lack of secure railways and constant enemy bombardments, the French were forced to rely on a lone, foot-wide road to supply their stand at Verdun. Upon taking command of French forces in late-February , General Philippe Petain took steps to keep the lifeline open. Troops were put to work laying gravel and making repairs to the roadway, and a fleet of 3, military and civilian trucks was marshaled to serve as transport vehicles.
During just one week of operations, more than , French troops and 25, tons of munitions, food and supplies were ferried to the front. Petain also used the road to rotate more than 40 divisions in and out of the Verdun sector, which kept the French troops fresh and helped combat the effects of shell shock.
View of Verdun after eight months of bombing. Of the , casualties at Verdun, an estimated 70 percent were caused by artillery. The Germans launched two million shells during their opening bombardment—more than in any engagement in history to that point—and the two sides eventually fired between 40 and 60 million shells over the next 10 months.
Rumbles from the barrages were heard as far as miles away, and soldiers described certain hills as being so heavily bombed that they gushed fire like volcanoes. Those lucky enough to survive were often left with severe shell shock from the constant drumroll of falling bombs. Credit: U. All told, Lafayette pilots chalked up some three-dozen aerial victories, most of them during five months of intermittent service at Verdun.
The Battle of the Somme is one of the few World War I engagements that matched Verdun for sheer bloodshed, but it may have relieved pressure on the French at a time when their forces were on the verge of collapse. On June 24th, the bombardment on the Somme could be heard at Verdun and with days, the battle at the Somme was to dominate military planners on the Western Front. By the end of October , the French had re-captured the two forts at Vaux and Douaumont but the surrounding land where the battle had been fought since February was a wasteland.
The battle at Verdun continued to December — ironically after the Somme conflict was considered to have ended. The loss of life and those wounded was huge at Verdun. Reference books frequently give differing figures such was the magnitude of loss. It is probable that an accurate figure will never be known. It is said that the French lost over , and the Germans nearly , To relieve the pressure being felt by the French, the British launched the Battle of the Somme in July It was hoped that a swift British victory here would force the Germans to remove troops from the Verdun area.
However, like the French, the British got involved in a battle that was to last months rather than days. A mass break-through — 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. Cut in two or divided from top to bottom. Blown into showers; bellies turned inside out; skulls forced into the chest as if by a blow from a club.
How can people begin to know what that one word — Hell — means. Their expressions seemed frozen by a wisdom of terror; they sagged beneath the weight of horrifying memories. Humanity is mad; it must be mad to do what it is doing.
Marshal Joseph Joffre. From 6 March , the Germans also attacked on the left bank of the River Meuse yet despite furious fighting on Le Mort-Homme in March and April they were unable to breach the French front line. At the end of June , having taken Fort Vaux, they launched a massive attack which failed — but only just.
On 1 July , the British and French launched a major offensive on the Somme, relieving some of the pressure being put on the French troops by the Germans in Verdun.
The Germans tried to capture the town one last time, on 11 and 12 July , but they failed again. In the autumn of , the French counter-attacked. It was empty — the Germans had already left.
From 15 to 18 December , the French attacked again, retaking almost all the land they had lost since 21 February. The battle ended after ten months of bitter fighting. There were more than , victims — , killed and missing and , wounded approximately , with almost identical losses on both sides.
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