Battle of Verdun

Battle of Verdun 1914-1917

Introduction

With 143,000 people killed in the German camp and 163,000 on the French side, the battle of Verdun was one of the deadliest battles in the history of mankind. The battle was fought at the western front between the French and the Germans, where the French emerged from the battleground as winners. In the course of the battle, entire villages were destroyed, the fields were plowed by shells, the air was polluted by toxic gases, and the woods disappeared; giving way to a moonscape of craters, making trenches, a hiding place for the refuge-seekers (Foley, 2004).

Discussion

Ten months of brutality were decisive for the French victory in the Great War, by the name of the Battle of Verdun. It all started on February 21st, 1916 at 7 15: the German army of ten divisions gathered nearly 1,400 cannons and mortars; sending a deluge of relentless fire for nine hours on 22 Verdun forts and trenches where the soldiers are hiding owned 30me corps with three divisions and their poor meager 270 guns. The forces involved are completely disproportionate. On the front of 15 kilometers, a total of two million shells rained so that the coast will lose 304 7 meters in height (it culminated more than 297 meters). After hours of deafening thunder, calm returned in an oppressive manner (Holstein, 2009).

During the early 1916, the Western Front was divided into two parts: the North Sea to the Somme and the sector is Anglo-Franco-Belgian including 39 British divisions, 18 French and 6 Belgian. On December 19th 1915, General Douglas Haig replaced Sir John French. The all-French industry that stretches from the Somme to Switzerland included the majority of the French Army with 87 divisions in line and in reserve. It consists of three army groups, North, Centre on which the fortified region of Verdun (RFV) and the East, under the respective commands of Generals Foch, Langle de Cary and Dubail. The Allied conference at Chantilly held at the General Headquarters (GHQ) of General Joffre defined the military objectives of the allies on 6th December 1915 (Martin, 2001). Representatives from the allied groups decided to hold the enemy in suspense through local and partial strategies, and to find ways to break into the enemy front. Till the end of December, Douglas Haig and Joffre agreed on a large Franco-British offensive battle on the Somme, under the command of General Foch, in a mutually agreed manner. However, the attack on Verdun by the German soldiers totally altered the implementation of such aims and objectives.

Beginning in the year 1967, the war bore witness to the suffering of the French soldiers, Germans, and the Americans in the Verdun sector. In 1966, there appeared the theme of the Franco-German reconciliation and peace, relayed by de Gaulle that still remains the main guideline of the World Center of Peace. The commemoration of 1976 is not of such importance. With Valery Giscard d'Estaing appeared a generation of politicians who did not live ...