Table of Contents
IGCSE History: World War I – Verdun
Battle of Verdun: (21st February – 18th December, 1916)
Verdun and its defenses:
- Consisted of 12 fortresses.
- Was very well fortified.
- It was a symbol of French pride.
Battle plan:
- The first act was a thorough shelling of the French defenses using 1 200 guns.
- Then a battle of attrition.
- Very much alike to the tactics used at the Somme.
Impact of the Battle on soldiers:
- Huge loss of morale:
- One wrote that “we are lost!”
- Another soldier reports that they had been “thrown into the furnace!”
- Living under constant shell fire resulted in shellshock.
- 40 million artillery shells had been fired by both sides.
German generals believed that for each German soldier to die 3 French soldiers would fall:
- It was not so.
- This was the policy of attrition.
Both German and French soldiers gassed their enemies whenever it was possible to do so.
- Caught in underground chambers beneath the French forts.
The 12 French forts were lost in February but recaptured in October with great loss of life.
- The battle ended with 377 000 French soldiers MIA.
