In the years that followed, the word Verdun came to represent carnage and heavy losses. 21 February The Battle of Verdun begins with a lengthy German preparatory bombardment and an infantry assault. on the morning of February 21, 1916, a shot from a German Krupp 38-centimeter long-barreled gunone of over 1,200 such weapons set to bombard French forces along a 20-kilometer front. Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter The battle was the longest of the First World War and. 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 Battle of Verdun was fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916 on the Western Front in France. 100,000 shells poured into Verdun every hour, Wilhelms intention being to kill the majority of the French defenders before the infantry even started their. The region had also been physically devastated. 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. Mihiel by the Germans and that of Sainte-Menehould came under their artillery fire. 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. WHY DID THE BATTLE OF VERDUN BECOME A SYMBOL OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR. 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. It is also the deadliest battle in the history of the United States Army, resulting in over 350,000 casualties, including 28,000 German lives, 26,277 American lives and an unknown number of French lives. 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. The MeuseArgonne offensive was the largest in United States military history, involving 1.2 million American soldiers. Fighting began at Verdun, named for the French town that was its focus point, on Feb. 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.
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