Battle of Verdun

The Battle of Verdun was fought between the German and French armies from 21 February to 18 December 1916 on the hills north of the fortress city of Verdun in north-eastern France. Lasting 302 days, it was the longest battle of the First World War and one of the costliest in history, with roughly 700,000 French and German casualties. For France it became the defining symbol of endurance and of the war's destructiveness.

By the end of 1915 the Western Front had settled into trench deadlock, and repeated offensives had gained little ground at enormous cost. The German Chief of the General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, later wrote that he had aimed to attack a place the French would defend at any price, so that their army would "bleed to death". How far this reflects his real plan is debated: some historians accept that he intended a battle of attrition from the start, while others argue the idea was put forward afterwards to justify a failed attempt to take Verdun. The immediate goal was the Meuse Heights, from which German artillery could dominate the city.

Bad weather delayed the attack until 21 February 1916, when about 800 German guns opened a ten-hour bombardment, firing perhaps a million shells on a narrow front. German infantry advanced on the east bank of the Meuse, and on 25 February a small German party captured Fort Douaumont, which had been left with only a skeleton garrison of about 25 men. General Philippe Pétain took command of the defence, ordering that no ground be given up without a counter-attack. The French rushed men and munitions forward along the road from the railhead at Bar-le-Duc, and heavy snow and mud slowed the Germans. Among the French wounded and captured near Douaumont was a young captain, Charles de Gaulle.

From March, French guns on the west bank of the Meuse caused heavy losses among the attackers, and the Germans extended the offensive across the river to hills such as the Mort Homme and Côte 304, without reaching their goals. Pétain rotated divisions through Verdun so that troops did not stay too long in the line, which meant that most of the French army served there at some point. In June the Germans took Fort Vaux and pushed towards Fleury and Fort Souville, coming within about five kilometres of the Verdun citadel. The village of Fleury changed hands sixteen times between late June and mid-August. Rain and shellfire turned the ground into a wasteland of craters, mud and human remains.

The Anglo-French offensive at the Battle of the Somme, launched on 1 July, forced the Germans to send troops and guns elsewhere. On 29 August Falkenhayn was replaced by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, who soon halted the offensive. In October the French retook Fort Douaumont, and in early November the Germans abandoned Fort Vaux. A final French offensive in mid-December, planned by Pétain and Robert Nivelle and led by Charles Mangin, pushed the Germans back further before the battle ended on 18 December.

Estimates differ. One modern calculation gives about 377,000 French and 337,000 German casualties, a total of around 714,000. Other estimates put French dead at about 150,000 to 160,000 and German dead at between 70,000 and 140,000. Some historians estimate that about 1.25 million casualties were suffered in the Verdun area over the whole war.

Verdun became a place of national remembrance in France, and the Douaumont ossuary holds the remains of many unidentified soldiers. In later decades it also came to stand for reconciliation: on 22 September 1984 the French president François Mitterrand and the German chancellor Helmut Kohl stood hand in hand at the Douaumont cemetery.

Our 1914 map shows the borders of France and the German Empire at the outbreak of war, and the 1920 map shows Europe after the peace settlements.