WHY DID THE BATTLE OF VERDUN BECOME A SYMBOL OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR?Īntoine Prost: Verdun is not a symbol of the First World War everywhere. The first week of the battle almost ended in disaster.Ĭeremony at the Douaumont ossuary under construction, 1927. We cannot say that the French were surprised, but they were not prepared. He took the necessary precautions at the last minute. He was not aware of how dramatically unprepared the Verdun front was and his artillery was quantitatively and qualitatively greatly inferior to that of Falkenhayn. Joffre, who believed the major battles would take place on a broad front could not imagine that the Germans would engage massively into this deep ravine terrain and only realised the danger at a very late stage. The offensive was decided on in December and quickly put together: it was ready on 12 February but bad weather put it back to the 21st. This tactic focused all fire on a relatively narrow but deep zone to get the most intense shelling and prevent the arrival of reinforcements. In fact, the German attack was not a headlong rush forward, the infantry were confident if they met resistance, the order was to wait for another bombing. He was counting on his heavy artillery which was much more powerful than that of the French, to crush French positions to such an extent that they would no longer be able to defend them. This choice was also a tactic intended to save his troops. So Falkenhayn initially decided to only attack on the right bank and not on both banks as requested by the Chief of Staff of the attacking army. As well as that, the French would have great difficulty fighting on the right bank because the Meuse was a major cut-off point on which there were less than a dozen bridges. There remained a slow narrow-gauge train and a rocky road that was enlarged in 1915 and which no one could have imagined how intensely it was to have been used by the French. Firstly, it had very fragile links to the interior: the railroad to Nancy was cut off at Mihiel by the Germans and that of Sainte-Menehould came under their artillery fire. On the other hand, it was difficult to defend. The fortified region of Verdun was a dangerous salient threat along his lines. In fact, Falkenhayn's reasons were military. In September 1914, the order had even been given to evacuate it. Moreover, Verdun was much less important than Reims for the French. But in the German headquarters, no one spoke of a blood-letting prior to the battle. Once the battle had gotten bogged down, Falkenhayn claimed he wanted to bleed the French white because the symbolic importance of this site would force them to defend it no matter what. The President of the Council Georges Clemenceau at Mort-Homme during a visit to the battlefield, September 1917. A political miscalculation due to his underestimating his opponents. He believed this would lead them to seek a separate peace. How could these people who do not have children continue the war? Hence the idea of inflicting a major defeat on them in an area where the British could not help them. He held the British army in great esteem but believed the French army was exhausted. But he wanted to get back to a war of movement. The Allies had failed to break through and their failures at Artois and Champagne persuaded Falkenhayn, the German commander in Chief, that a breakthrough was impossible. Antoine Prost: At the end of 1915, the war seemed to be stuck in a rut.
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