Verdun, the Great War’’s longest battle

 Verdun 

The battle of Verdun was the longest and deadliest battle in the Great War. It started on the 21st of February 1916 and ended the 19th of December of the same year. This battle is famous for the way it was fought, because the goal of the Germans was to capture all of the forts near the area of Verdun and making France weaker.

Now a bit of context; after the 1870 Franco-Prussian war (won by the Germans which humiliated the French), a new generation of French military officers changed the way that the army was administered. This generation preferred the use of offensive tactics and much newer weapons

and forts, and a defensive line was built to separate France from Germany and to defend the nation if Germany had attacked. Between 1895 and 1915, more than sixty forts were built near the area of Verdun, which was strategically important.

Returning to Verdun, the Germans had a very modern and powerful army, and decided to firstly bombard heavily Verdun and the nearby forts, and then to make the final attack to conquer the strategically important city. In theory, this is a perfect plan, but in reality it is not like this. In fact, after the first stage, the French defended Verdun until the last man and for this they won the battle. The French, however, had a terrible death count, losing over 355,000 soldiers which could have been saved if the French evacuated Verdun earlier.