February 1916. The First World War has lasted two years. Germany fights on two fronts: in the East and West. The war has already killed more than 3 million people and many others have been gassed , maimed , or terrorized into shell shock. In Verdun, 1916 – Allied and opposition Generals attempt defeat each other with a calculated campaign of slaughter, this battle rages for over almost a year and places an entire city under siege. They know it is a battle which will prove to be a turning point in WWI and shape the destiny of a nation. It will also begin the modern era.
Six months before the Battle of Verdun, summer of 1915 –
The German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empire are confronted with The Russian Empire, the United Kingdom, Italy, Serbia, and especially France, where the front is blocked 700 km (495 mi) of trenches. From Belgium, and under occupation to Alsace, the Germans occupy ten French counties.
Their leader is a prudent, respected Prussian aristocrat,
General Erich von Falkenhayn, 54 years old, speaks French, and admires French culture, but considers France a weak military power. For him the real enemy is England, so he wants to separate the two powers and then negotiate.Falkenhayn’s spies inform him the British and French are preparing for a major offensive on Somme.
Falkenhayn receives this information from a series of reconnaissance flights, flown by aviators, such as Lt. Herman Goring who will found the Gestapo and become a top dignitary of the Hitler Reich 25 years in the future.
Falkenhayn realizes through experience of 1915, powerful French attacks had been beaten off at high cost to the attackers and low cost to the defenders, and plans (Ausblutung) to “bleed France white” and end the war.
His best play is to attack first at another point on the front and chooses Verdun, a weakly protected sector.
To achieve this goal, Falkenhayn decides to launch an unprecedented assault in that his aim is only to kill, as opposed to capturing land, a to bleed France to death in a war of attrition and deplete their resources, the enemy also, fears an Allied offensive and is disturbed by the continued increase of their strength in men and material.
Falkenhayn turns his focus to Verdun and realizes the French view it with immense national pride, the French will send endless men to their deaths to defend it.
If they do, the French will either shed so much blood by holding it or lose so much prestige and morale, by abandoning it, that they will not be able to continue the war.
To him, the position at Verdun, if it could be taken, offered considerable operational advantages, but Falkenhayn was not sure the French would launch their counter-offensive at Verdun.
11 February 1916, in a conference with the various chiefs of staff for the German armies on the Western Front, Falkenhayn outlines what he believes to be the most likely scenarios in response to the 5th Army’s offensive:
1) They [the French high command] believe Verdun to be so well defended that they leave it alone. Very good for us, therefore unlikely.
2) They send all available forces to the fortress…
3) French counter-offensive on another point [of the front]. Possibly same points as before, Artois, Champagne, Woëvre , Upper Alsace.To be greeted with joy. [Falkenhayn] believes it sure that all such attacks would collapse with severe French casualties.
4) They attempt to hold Verdun with all available forces, while the English attempt an attack.Questionable whether it would succeed, especially as the English army is at the moment, going through a great upheaval with the insertion of the Kitchener units, which are being mixed with the old units down to the battalion level.
To France, Verdun does not seem an obvious place for the German army to launch an attack, because it is one of France’s most modern and therefore most powerful fortresses.
Previously, Verdun had been constructed in 1874 as a system of fortifications, with two lines of forts surrounding the inner citadel and city.
In 1914, it is again modernized, with heavily armored artillery, observation posts, and additional armor.
Additionally, infantry positions between the distributed forts were built up using reinforced concrete, which is why they are leaving it to a concentrated few.
Despite removing most of its heavy artillery over the course of 1915, in early 1916, Verdun is a formidable defensive position.
Falkenhayn is now optimistic about where the French will counter-attack in response to the German offensive at Verdun. .
Early 1916, recognizing the challenges, if not the futility, of attempting a large-scale to break through the Western Front, Falkenhayn seeks a different operational approach
The experiences of the war to date, have demonstrated limited attacks could be successful, despite the clear strength of the resistance.
A limited attack by the German 5th Army could take the dominating terrain around the fortress of Verdun and put the Germans in a good position, from which to inflict heavy casualties and counter-attacking enemy.
Even if the French, and perhaps their British allies, counter-attacked elsewhere on the Western Front, Falkenhayn is certain, these attacks could be defended, as they had been in 1915, with low German casualties compared to the high ones the French and British have suffered.
This would achieve his strategic aim of ‘bleeding white’ the French army.
Successfully seizing and defending the eastern heights of the Meuse, would come down to the tactics employed by the German 5th Army.
The Germans fully understand, to forestall the this offensive to long, is to make it fail .
The Kaiser will later say the idea was to draw the French in attacking elsewhere and then cause a premature British relief attack somewhere, which Germany would successfully counter-attack and smash.
The German High Command starts organizing for Falkenhayn’s plan called “Gericht,” or Operation “Judgement” or “tribunal”, believing this will crush the French, and capture important strategical positions to cause immense moral effect, they begin preparing , being careful with their actions , so as to not arise the suspicion of the French.
The German commander organizes two Sunday masses in the occupied territory :one for the French population and the other for German soldiers. Germans also keep their supplies up by requisitioning them from the French.
As the invaders capture resources belonging to the population, the locals say,
“We live as exiles and are forced to work for the Germans”.
By late in Late 1915, British and French chiefs of staff and their German and Austro-Hungarian enemies, all believe only more cannons and shells will break the stale mate.
In France, behind the front, everything is done to compensate for industrial losses of the north, and to catch up with the German’s weapons production.
The factories work day and night, men are replaced by women.
Unionist Marcel Kapie describes the plight to perfection:
“Women about age 20, beautiful and tender surrounded by flames, smoke and deafening machinery.
A pale arm suddenly appears under a torn sleeve.
The worker, always standing, raises the 15.5 lb. shell.
Shells are lifted twice a day, to a total 35,000 lbs.
In a year, she will lift 900,000 shells, 7 lbs.
Once strong and healthy, she is now just a weak and exhausted young woman.
The time is one, two, three in the morning. Then sunrise washes across the window.
Painted faces, eyes swollen, sucking cheeks, arms full of bruises, begging pity. “
In 1915, women of warring nations unite and ask for peace:
“We protest against the madness and horror of the war, which implies a reckless sacrifice of human lives and the destruction of what humanity has hardly built in hundreds of years- wars are started not by peoples, but by certain groups of interest! ”
These sentiments drives the need and desire for women’s suffrage.
To reconcile public opinion, the growth of a munitions factory and their nurseries are shown in the news.
However, many of these children have been abandoned and raised in poverty, like a million other war orphans.
At this time, the French school children line up under the French flag, and march in cadence, educated to hate the Germans, the “krauts” who stole Alsace and Lorraine in 1871.
“Lost provinces must be recovered!”- this idea is imprinted in the minds of the French youth. “We must be ready to die for the homeland!”
Children declare themselves older and take up to the trenches.
Like Jean Fendrich, 15, a young man from Lorraine, wounded five times and decorated with the Cross of War.
The German Army celebrates Christmas of 1915.
They feel justified because Alsace and Moselle were annexed, still the Germans build trenches superior to the French, because they feel they are on the defensive now.
To them this land is now part of the Reich, the German Empire, where it belongs.
It is now the end of January 1916, one month before the battle.
German troops continue to arrive. The atmosphere is getting tense.
Everyone feels that something decisive will happen, and they all hope to end the war.
Lieutenant Werner Beumeburg, 26, writes:
“Like the animals of burden, soldiers are loaded with grenades, rifles, tools, and ammunition bands. nobody speaks a word. “
The attack will take place on February 11, 1916, at dawn.
A few miles away, on the banks of the Meuse River, the French are behind a camouflage net, and appear to be ignorant of what the Germans are preparing.
Verdun is peaceful as the waters of the Meuse.
Most residents have already fled from the beginning of the war, retreating to the country.
These troops have received a quiet post, where they can rest.
This apparent silence led the French commander to set up a hospital near the city, specializing in the afflictions of soldiers who spent too much time in trenches.
Such as frothing feet requiring amputation, or dysentery caused by the dirty water, in which they corrupted their bodies.
Arrogant military doctors, avoid treating these cases of bleeding diarrhea.
They gave over the task to the only female doctor of the French Army, Dr. Nicole Mangin.
She is a young 30-year-old from Paris and has had a feminist strength throughout her successful enlistment in the army.
She explains,
“I spent weeks with people who treated me like I had plague.”
At the end of the war, Nicole Mangin will commit suicide from exhaustion and despairHowever, it is 1916, on the Verdun front, and she continually examines the French soldiers, accompanied by her dog,
Dun, a name derived from “Verdun”, who sometimes has to protect her from her own soldiers.
North of Verdun, ten kilometers from Douaumont Fortress – the Caures Forest is on the French front line.
Like the rest of this forgotten front of the world, the Caures forest is unguarded.
French soldiers walk carefree, just a few meters from German positions.
Their leader is 61-year-old Colonel Émile Driant, who will play a decisive role in the events that follow.
After leaving the army, Driant became a member of the French Lorraine.
He is a devoted patriot and volunteered to fight alongside 200 the other deputies amassed, of which 17 will be killed, and many others will be injured.
Driant is posted in a quiet Verdun sector.
In February 1916, he orders 2,200 infantrymen, known as “chasseurs.”
He lives among them, and the world calls him “Daddy Driant”.
Germain Baron is the young man, leaning against the tree.
He adopted a 14-year war orphan, Germain Baron, the battalion mascot.
Driant notices unusual activities in the German lines in the forest.
He’s convinced they’re preparing a big attack on Verdun and tries to strengthen the defense lines by any means.
New communications trenches are being dug along with the new improvised shelters that are being built.
Several times, Driant shares with the General Headquarters concern about the weak defense measures at Verdun.
His warnings are not taken into account, so he decides to abandon his post and dress the deputy, to alert the Army Commission.
The war minister then questions the supreme commander, General Joffre.
In the eyes of the republic, Joseph Joffre, 64, is the champion of the Battle of Marne, which saved Paris.
He appears to have more influence than Raymond Poincaré, President of the French Republic.
Joffre responds contemptuously to Driant’s accusations and threatens to resign:
“I will not tolerate military officers informing the government with complaints or claims relating to the execution of my orders. ”
Army Headquarters in Chantilly, north of Paris, is truly a state within a state.
Joffre decides to ignore the warnings, which have become increasingly common.
Such as, the one expressed by the secret services chief, General Charles Dupont:
“The information we hold is crucial.
The Germans increase their quotas and strengthen their artillery.
I’m trying to convince General Joffre of the imminence of a huge assault in Verdun, though in the past I had no trouble convincing him. ”
Why? Because such alerts are a banal and common along a 700-kilometer front.
For Joffre, the real battle is Somme.
The casualties from Verdun and the impact the battle had on the French Army was a primary reason for the British starting the Battle of the Somme in an effort to take German pressure off of the French.
Nothing is allowed to shadow this offensive giant.
On the other side of the front, on the evening of February 10, Germans are waiting for the offensive to be launched in Verdun.
With its flanked forest, they will be able to carry troops and artillery, push back the French, and control the highest points defended by forts, such as Douaumont Fortress.
Falkenhayn knows that these forts have been disarmed, and cannons sent to reinforce the Somme River.
He could push the French down to the Verdun Citadel on the Meuse River, where they will be encircled and unable to receive reinforcements.
Falkenhayn’s plan is called “Gericht,” Operation Judgement.
The operation will clear the way to Paris, just 230 km (143mi) away.
He will have to use his army effectively and destroy the French from a blow, with an unprecedented avalanche of millions of shells.
Falkenhayn has the necessary resources.
His artillery is the best in the world, far superior to that of 1914.
The 100,000 workers in the steelworks such, as Krupp produce hundreds of heavy cannons per month.
The German command also has a complex and developed railway network, unlike the French in Verdun, who are isolated.
To get closer to the conflict area, German rails are extended several kilometers, so that hundreds of trains can continually bring soldiers to the front line.
Two and a half million shells are hidden just two kilometers from the French trenches.
140,000 soldiers are discreetly assembled into small groups.
They wear the new steel helmet, the famous “Stahlhelm” what will come to symbolize the invading German soldier.
The armed attack at Verdun is headed by the son of Emperor Wilhelm II,
Crown-prince Wilhelm of Prussia wears what seems to be a threatening skull on his hat, but it is actually a hussar emblem, the Crown-prince is no fierce warrior.
He has fired only while pheasant hunting. Twenty years later, he will enthusiastically support Hitler.
A victory at Verdun will strengthen his image, and the prestige of the German Empire.
But the preparations for this campaign must be kept secret.
In the villages occupied by the Germans around Verdun, French civilians are being evacuated to dispel any rumors of an imminent attack.
German soldiers are exhausted after the construction of gigantic underground shelters.
These shelters can accommodate up to 4,000 soldiers, and were not even uncovered by the French until the end of the war.
The crown-prince Kronprinz repeats his message to his troops, “Sturmtruppen”.
Their mission is crucial for fatherland, for the country, for the nation and to destroy those who survive the bombing.
The Germans have enough ammo for six days of uninterrupted artillery barrage.
WWI German Insignia , storm trooper
The armed attack program at Verdun is headed by the son of Emperor Wilhelm II,
Emperor Wilhelm II faces the cold winter of 1916 and arrives at Verdun to personally congratulate his son, and to ensure that he is surrounded by competent generals.
The Emperor’s son, makes his last appearance to motivate his soldiers.
At that very moment, a small group of Alsatians deserted, including Émile Didier, from the German 143th Infantry Regiment and manage to reach the French trenches to alert them – at 5 am the Prussians will be here!”
But a storm is delaying German offensive.
For two days, the forest is covered by 3 and a half feet of snow, giving Driant’s chasseurs and Verdun defenders an unexpected respite.
Alsatians and Lorrainians (people from the region of Alsace and the region of Lorraine).
seen below:
These Alsatian deserters are received by Driant’s soldiers.
They immediately understands the gravity of the situation. Driant decides to evacuate some of the men.
He takes a sad farewell from his mascot, little Germain Baron. and entrusts his wedding ring to his secretary to give to his wife.
By early February, 1916, the German Army had amassed one of the greatest concentrations of firepower in history, north of Verdun, in preparation for the Fifth Army’s impending assault on the fortified town, a key defensive position and symbol of French national pride, as part of chief of the general staff Erich von Falkenhayn’s plan Ausblutung and end the war.
After a crucial week’s delay that allowed last-minute French reinforcements to assume positions behind hastily constructed defenses, on the morning of February 21 the German assault on Verdun – a titanic struggle fated to be the greatest battle in history to that point – opened with an equally record-setting artillery bombardment.
The Kaiser would later say the idea was to draw the French in attacking elsewhere and then cause a premature British relief attack somewhere which Germany would successfully counter-attack and smash. The Kaiser also said the hope persisted to break up the English front.
In the Somme, the Allies trigger, July 1, 1916, the long-awaited battle … but it turns disaster and puts Verdun at the center of all hopes and concerns.
The French counter-attack.
Joffre finally decides to react.
All free units near Verdun receive an order to mobilize to the front line.
A French soldier from the 288 Infantry Regiment, Anatol Kasteks, writes:
“Last night we sit here, right next to the “Krauts”, which are just 80 meters away.
The weather is terrible.
I came in with the reinforcements, because they expect an attack.
All liberties are suspended. All night we dig trenches and spread barbed wire all over. “
On the other hand, the German soldiers who were preparing to attack now consume their rations, to cope with the cold.
Paul Ettighoffer, a young Alsatian fighting for Germany, describes the scene:
“Water drips out of our helmets, scattering an atrocious cold across the body.
The splashes fall ruthlessly, wetting our hands and faces, dripping on canned food.
This monotonous sound seems like a ticking clock of death. “
Driant tells his soldiers: “It is very likely the Germans will launch a huge attack tomorrow.
We must defend our position even at the cost of life. ”
After a crucial week’s delay that allowed last-minute French reinforcements to assume positions behind hastily constructed defenses, the French are concentrating all their efforts, including from behind, to block the invasion.
But the Germans surprised them by setting off on 21 February 1916 a storm of steel on 20 kilometers of front, in Verdun, only 230 kilometers (142 mi) from Paris.
A steel spout and a tornado of fire are unleashed for ten hours, as 1300 cannons pull over one million shells on a stretch of 20 kilometers, destroying the entire area of the Caures Forest – a titanic struggle fated to be the greatest battle in history to that point – opened with an equally record-setting artillery bombardment.
The French troops in Vosages , 95 mi away can hear the bombardment.
One French soldier quoted in Hew Strachan’s ‘The First World War’ described being under the German bombardment:
“We were swept by a storm, a hurricane, a tempest growing ever stronger, with hail like cobblestones with the destructive force of an express train, and we (were) underneath it”.
Long-distance rail guns pounded distant targets.
And the enormous Big Bertha Krupp howitzers that had cracked open Belgium’s forts at Liege were now flinging their almost one-ton shells like freight trains through the air at Verdun.
Falkenhayn’s plan “Gericht,” Operation Judgement has been initiated.
He will have to use his army effectively and destroy the French from a blow, with an unprecedented avalanche of millions of shells.
Falkenhayn has the necessary resources.
His artillery is the best in the world, far superior to that of 1914.
The 100,000 workers in the steelworks such as Krupp, produce hundreds of heavy cannons per month.
130ft. Flame Thrower from WWI
The German command also has a complex and developed railway network, unlike the French in Verdun, who are isolated.
Their mission is crucial for fatherland, for the country, for the nation and to destroy those who survive the bombing.
The large offensive of Germany, meant to change the fate of the war, is triggered. the Germans
For 300 days and 300 nights, Verdun will be the longest single battle and the scene of the worst clashes between French and Germans throughout the First World War.
In the Verdun Sector the French are exposed to a converging fire, they are encircled by the Germans, and moreover the salient is so narrow the converging fire cannot be exaggerated.
This battle has claims more than 700,000 lives, with more than 300,000 soldiers killed and missing and 400,000 injured.
A french soldier from the 66th infantry regiment, named Henri Evain, is just 20 yrs old and writes ,
” We are in the kingdom of the dead lighting flashes across the ridges, the night blazes with the flames of hell, suddenly the darkness falls apart from all points and I pray.
Across the horizon burst forth the springing glow of Apocalypse.”
Before WWI, battles had been dominated by cavalry charges and infantry troops fighting hand-to-hand combat. These method just did not work with a series of trench lines protected by barbed wire, machine guns and artillery fire.
On the opposite side, a German, Fritz Moseler, 34 writes home,
“at times I don’t know whether I am dead or alive, those who make it home safe and sound, owe thanks only to God. “
Then his thoughts turn inward and wonders what keeps his enemies human, is it the wine , more abundant than water, of which there is an extreme shortage.
Is it their love of country , national pride, camaraderie, or the long awaited mail from the lives they used to live, whatever it is, thanks is still to God.
British and French chiefs of staff want to end the war through an offensive planned for the summer in the Somme, yet no belligerent manages to gain ascendancy over the other.
A war of movement now becomes a war of position.
What began as a temporary strategy, or so the generals had thought, evolved into one of the main features of the war at the Western Front for the next four years.
German Flame Thrower Helmet WWI
The Germans also have another new and frightening weapon:
The flamethrower, which is fired into the the trenches to cross the wire and incinerate those within.
Then for their attack on Verdun the Germans deploy their terrifying flamethrower and break through the French lines and enter the coal forest where the trees have been blasted by shells.
Here the Germans encounter unexpected resistance from French soldiers who survived the barrage.
5 o’clock on February 21, 1916, the barrage ceases.
The German troops are advancing, taking control of an area where no one should have live through it, but contrary to all expectations, some French soldiers have survived.
Among them, Driant’s chasseurs. In spite of heavy losses, survivors are courageously regrouping and struggling with obstinacy.
Flames throw the French into the open field. Running from one trench to another, the French counterattacked mercilessly.
Until the coming of the evening, all the trenches conquered by the Germans are now occupied again by the French.
The next day, February 22, 1916, at 5 am, Driant’s infantrymen suffer another crushing attack.
The dam is equally violent, but this time the Germans have added gas assualts.
Suffocated and overwhelmed, defenders are unable to stop the Germans.
Driant sends a final message: “We will remain unreserved, send reinforcements!
I will defend the line to the end.”
After a final counterattack, Driant orders the withdrawal and remains to the last, to protect his soldiers.
A few survivors are coming back from the front lines.
They managed to get to the infirmary where Dr. Nicole Mangin is waiting for them.
She remembers:
“They appeared all over, pointing to their injured limbs and faces. They said the Caures forest fell into the hands of the enemy, and Driant’s men were destroyed.
Colonel Driant had died, some said, or had been taken prisoner, others said.
I did not know what to believe.”
Émile Driant had died of a bullet wound to his head.
Neither he nor his soldiers he had photographed a few days before the attack, survive.
Out of 2,200 people, 1,700 died.
Their sacrifice delayed the Germans for a day.
Was it enough?
Thanks to the heroes in the Caures Forest, the reinforcements arrive on time, and now French artillery is concentrated in the area.
300 French cannons are unleashed.
Artillerians do not bother to aim, but only rain heavy on the German troops.
German soldier Richard Müller writes:
“We are trapped in the fire. The withdrawal is as dangerous as the attack.
We are surrounded by a terrible chaos of human remains.
We hear moans coming from the depths of the earth.
They are the poor souls that were buried alive from the shelling.
How can we escape the French dam? “
Despite the significant losses, the Germans continue their implacable advance.
On the second day of the attack, February 22, 1916, the Germans attacked Côte-du-Poivre.
They are just 5 kilometers from the impenetrable Fort Douaumont, the highest point, where they will dominate the battlefield.
Fort Douaumont is gigantic, it’s a hexagon of 400 meters wide, which stretches over 3 hectares and is surrounded by a 6 meter thick wall.
Its underground passages, built at different depths, stretch over several kilometers and can accommodate 3,000 soldiers, but there are only 4 toilets.
Most offensive maneuvers (aside from artillery shelling and sniping) were carried out in the dark when soldiers were able to climb out of the trenches clandestinely to conduct surveillance and carry out raids.
The tunnels are illuminated by gas lamps and candles.
The defending force are a few reservists, and older soldiers who were remobilized.
These forts, were built to defend France after the defeat in 1870, but are still imposing. French propaganda portrays them as fortresses to block access to Paris.
But for how long?
The French are now worried about the fall of the Côte-du-Poivre and the threat to Douaumont.
The supreme commander, General Joffre, orders that positions be maintained.
He writes: “Any commander who, in the present case, orders the withdrawal, will be summoned to the council of war. ”
Reinforcements flow to the great slaughterhouse.
Joffre is ready to sacrifice any number of soldiers to block the way to Paris.
Five days after the launch of the German attack, February 26, 1916, about 200 kilometers from Verdun, Clémence Martin is in her village, occupied by the Germans.
She writes: “We hear the cannons.
The Germans say it is heard from Verdun.
It’s unbelievable, it’s 200 km (124 mi) away!
The Germans celebrate.
Flags are raised victoriously.
I’m am forced by them , to pull the bells at noon so they can sing their joy.
It sounds like funeral bells.
German Memorial Fort Douaumont
There are claims, that one of Verdun’s forts was conquered, which I can not believe.
Is that at all possible? ”
It is true of the fort, even though it did not constitute real French resistance, because it has not been defended thoroughly, it is taken by the Germans with no shots fired.
In fact, the Germans are merely out of range of the inferior French artillery, but as luck would have it, Fort Douaumont, the keystone in the whole interlocking defensive system, is wide open.
This leaves Douaumont with few guns, and when the Germans attack there is a mere 60-odd soldiers inside.
Therefore, obscure German pioneer sergeant named Kunze is able, after getting his section to form a human pyramid, to climb inside easily.
It seems that, in fact, Kunze is seen from inside the fort, but French soldiers are used to picking out Germans from their spiked helmets.
The Germans have unscrewed their spikes so as not to get them caught in the undergrowth of Verdun’s forests, and while covered in mud, their field grey became indistinguishable from the horizon blue of the French uniforms.
Sergeant Kunze sneaks through Douaumont’s dark tunnels and comes across a couple of gunners firing from one of the turrets.
He hustles them out at gunpoint and they are replaced by a couple more gunners who were oblivious to what jus happened and thought the others had gone off duty.
Meanwhile, this comedy of errors continued as Kunze gets his prisoners outside, only for them to instantly run away and squeeze back into the fort.
A sergeant followed them, and came across a room full of soldiers, and promptly locks them in.
Upon finding another French soldier to coerce into showing him where the food rations are kept, Kunze proceeded to scoff his way through much of them, right in front of his new prisoner.
At some point, Kunze makes contact with at least one officer who’d also got inside and in some fashion, the remaining garrison were taken prisoner.
But the conquest of the Douaumont force has significant repercussions.
German soldier Paul Ettighoffer writes:
” For us, the fall of Douaumont is a victory, and we hope, peace.”
Emperor Wilhelm II publishes a press release announcing:
“The main fort of Verdun has fallen.”
It’s on the front page of newspapers around the world.
The public opinion in England and King George V are, if the French front fails, the war is lost.
And so too are the many men who left their families to fight Somme.
The French press deliberately silences Douaumont, so as not to discourage the population.
So savage was the fighting that no one knows for sure how many soldiers were laid to rest in the imposing ossuary at Douaumont. The bodies of between 80,000 and 100,000 men remain lost in the forest.
Instead, they announce the arrival of the Emperor, the German Kaizer, on the Verdun front.
Wilhelm II is probably worried about the heavy losses suffered by his army, 20 thousand people in less than a week.
“We have to persist,” his son pleads.
According to the German command, artillery located on the hills around Douaumont, less than 10 km (6 mi) from Verdun, will be able to cover the city.
Verdun is bombed intensely.
It’s cathedral was over a thousand years old.
The city was partially evacuated, so the German shells do not make too many casualties.
But the French command understands the gravity of the situation.
The Defensive Force System is about to give up.
Villagers around Verdun are forced to leave their homes.
They walk alongside terribly stressed soldiers and physicians walking in the opposite Walking from village to village, looking for non-existent accommodation, but do not complain.
Farming families are always the last to go, because all they have to live off of is their land, also enemies keep them there to produce fresh food supplies.
Ropes of people with light wounds lie down to ambulances.
A doctor approaches us, we are hitting the stench and the groans of the wounded.
Formaldehyde vapors scratches our throat, but nothing can cover the infected miasma of people crowded together.
We see them in the rooms, gathered around the pans, or stretched out on the slopes and the hallways.
We are in a hurry to share the work and to distribute the chores. Horror and suffering muffle the explosions of the cannonade from outside. ”
Dr Georges Duhamel, along with the other three ambulance surgeons perform over one hundred emergency operations per day and triaging the wounded according to their severity , amputating where gangrene appears.
They are dealing with the funerals of those they have failed to save.
Six days after the attack, February 27, 1916. While Georges Duhamel is trying to save lives in the outskirts of Verdun, the situation on the front remains critical.
The French have lost Douaumont, but desperately defends the village behind the fort.
The 95th Infantry Regiment is trying to withstand, and even tries to attack.
The soldiers await their turn in the central road that leads to the front line.
The single regiment loses 800 out of 1,000 people in one day.
Eugène Lemercier, French soldier, describes this endless inferno in a letter to his mother:
“You can not imagine what a human being can do to his neighbor … My legs are covered with human brains, their chests crumbles under our feet, yet we have to keep walking”
The regiment fought heroically, but we no longer have officers.
” Once the officers die, one by one, the NCOs take command, and the battle continues until there’s no one left alive. “
The survivors are those who are here from the beginning.
They have been fighting for almost two years, and have learned the “job.”
Even in holes and in damp, cold and ice, they find ways to create a simulation of comfort.
They are ordered to maintain positions.
First of all, their general wants to reassure their allies.
Joffre sends as many reinforcements as possible.
At the forefront of the defense at Verdun, he designates a famous leader, who is available: Philippe Pétain.
The problem is that Pétain is in Paris and not to be found.
One of his officers, aware of his habits, makes a tour of the brothels and hotels he commonly frequents, Pétain is found in Hotel Terminus Gare du Nord.
One week after the German offensive, Pétain and his assistants are settled in Souilly City Hall, 20 km (12.4 mi) from Verdun.
General Pétain is 60, a farmer’s son and still affected by the defeat of 1870.
He imposes authority by maintaining calm and leadership skills.
But will he succeed in changing the situation?
His people say he has the spirit of a regular soldier.
Before the war, Petain had jeopardized his career by flouting the Grandmaison school in his teaching post at the Ecole de guarre, France’s staff college, insisting instead that ‘firepower kills’.
One of his students was a young Charles de Gaulle, who was impressed and requested to serve under him.
He’s concerned about their well-being.
He has the courage to say: “
The weapons kill,” rare for a general to say.
He also advises his soldiers: “Show heroism, but, above all, stay alive!”
He does everything in its power to improve the everyday life of the so-called Poilu, the Hirsuti.
He deals with regularity and quality of food and the red wine.
There will always be more wine than water, which is lacking.
The wine is brought to the front line, giving them courage, while preparing to die in the name of their homeland and as the new commander of Verdun, General Petain, imposes a seamless logistics to slow down the Germans.
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