Verdun: The Anvil of Attrition

1️⃣ Phase I: Operation Judgement (Feb 21 – Mar 1)

After weather delays, the German offensive, codenamed Unternehmen Gericht (Operation Judgement), began on February 21 with a ten-hour artillery bombardment of unprecedented intensity. Over one million shells were fired by 808 guns, pulverizing the French front lines. At 4:00 p.m., German stormtroopers advanced, using flamethrowers and grenades to overwhelm the dazed French survivors. The initial advance was swift. Within three days, the Germans had pushed 5 km, but the pivotal moment came on February 25. A small party of German soldiers from the 24th Brandenburg Regiment found Fort Douaumont—the keystone of Verdun's eastern defenses—almost entirely undefended. They entered the fort without a fight and captured its skeleton crew, a massive tactical victory and a devastating psychological blow to France.

2️⃣ Phase II: The West Bank (Mar 6 – Apr 15)

The German advance on the east bank stalled as it came under punishing fire from French artillery positioned on the west bank of the Meuse. To eliminate this threat, Falkenhayn reluctantly expanded the offensive. On March 6, the Germans attacked key positions on the west bank, primarily the twin hills of Le Mort Homme (The Dead Man) and Côte 304 (Hill 304). What followed was a brutal, grinding fight for these commanding heights. The Germans captured parts of Mort Homme but faced relentless French counter-attacks. The battle for the west bank turned into a miniature Verdun, a costly sideshow that failed to achieve its objective of silencing the French guns and instead consumed even more German resources.

3️⃣ Phase III: The Grinding Match (Apr 16 – Jul 1)

With the offensive bogged down on both banks, the battle devolved into a series of localized, savage attacks and counter-attacks. In early May, General Philippe Pétain, who had organized the French defense, was promoted, and the more aggressive Robert Nivelle took command. The Germans shifted their focus back to the east bank, launching a major assault on Fort Vaux. After a week of brutal fighting, much of it underground in the fort's dark corridors, the French garrison, having run out of water, was forced to surrender on June 7. On June 22, the Germans unleashed a new weapon: Diphosgene (Green Cross) gas shells, which neutralized French artillery. The subsequent infantry attack captured the village of Fleury and brought German troops to within 4 km of Verdun's citadel, the high-water mark of their offensive.

4️⃣ Phase IV: The French Counter-Stroke (Jul 1 – Dec 18)

The strategic landscape of the war shifted dramatically on July 1 with the start of the Anglo-French Somme Offensive. This, combined with the Russian Brusilov Offensive on the Eastern Front, forced Germany to divert troops and artillery away from Verdun. The German offensive at Verdun was effectively over. The French, now under the command of Charles Mangin and Robert Nivelle, seized the initiative. Using innovative tactics like the creeping barrage, where infantry advanced closely behind a moving curtain of artillery fire, the French launched a series of counter-offensives. On October 24, they spectacularly recaptured Fort Douaumont. Fort Vaux was retaken on November 2. By mid-December, a final French push had driven the Germans back almost to their starting positions of February, securing a hard-won and symbolic victory for France.

🇫🇷 A Symbol of a Nation

For France, Verdun is more than a battle; it is the defining memory of the Great War. It represents the pinnacle of national sacrifice and determination, encapsulated in Nivelle's famous order of the day, "Ils ne passeront pas!" (They shall not pass!). The battle's immense cost and ultimate victory forged a powerful symbol of French resilience. In 1920, the Unknown Soldier, who now rests beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, was chosen from the unidentified dead of Verdun, cementing the battle's central place in the nation's commemorative consciousness.

🌲 The Red Zone (Zone Rouge)

The devastation was so complete that large areas of the battlefield were deemed uninhabitable after the war. This Zone Rouge (Red Zone) was a landscape poisoned by unexploded ordnance, chemical agents, and human remains. Six villages, including Beaumont-en-Verdunois and Fleury-devant-Douaumont, were declared "dead for France" and never rebuilt. Today, forests planted in the 1930s cover much of the scarred land, but the undulating ground, pockmarked with countless shell craters, remains a vast, silent graveyard and a stark testament to the battle's destructive power.

🤝 A Gesture of Reconciliation

In the decades following World War II, Verdun transformed from a symbol of bitter enmity into a powerful icon of Franco-German reconciliation. The shared memory of immense suffering became a foundation for peace. This transformation was famously symbolized on September 22, 1984, when French President François Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl stood hand-in-hand at the Douaumont Ossuary. This simple, poignant gesture acknowledged their common loss and marked a profound step towards a united Europe, built upon the lessons learned from the continent's darkest hours.

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