The French however were able to reinforce. The battle lasted 302 days and caused devastating casualties for both the French and the Germans. In the years that followed, the word Verdun came to represent carnage and heavy losses. The German hoped to draw the French into war of Attrition which they thought they could win. The Battle of Verdun is remembered today as the longest single battle in human history. Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter The Douaumont Ossuary holds the remains of more than 130,000 unknown French and German soldiers from the WWI battle in Verdun, France. 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.
#Ww1 battle of verdun series
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. As part of its strategy of war by attrition, Germany selected the fortress of Verdun as the site it believed France would defend to the last man.
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. 21July 1916) Major engagement of World War I between Germany and France. On February 21, 1916, Germany launched a massive attack against Verdun, a fortified (heavily guarded) French city. 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.
Reconquered territory from Vacherauville to Louvemont, les Chambrettes, Bezonvaux and.
#Ww1 battle of verdun download
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. Download this stock image: First World War. Fighting began at Verdun, named for the French town that was its focus point, on Feb. After the defeat of France in their war with Prussia in. 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. For the Germans, the Verdun fortress had been an obstacle in their march on the West for centuries.
0 kommentar(er)
