Verdun: The Western Front

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Verdun was a town near the river Meuse. The French had recently moved most of their artillery from Verdun because they would it would be more useful somewhere else. By 1916 Verdun was only protected by one line of trenches, 20 big forts and 40 small forts surrounded Verdun. In the outskirts of Verdun were Fort Vaux and Fort Douamont.
The battle of Verdun was fought in February 1916 between Germany and France. This was one of the longest and greatest battles fought in World War 1. The battle went from February 21 to mid-October and three fourths of the French army fought in this battle. The German army was under the commander Erik Von Falkenhayn while the French were under the command of General Joffre. The Germans thought that the battle of …show more content…
To defeat England Falkenhayn thought the best plan was to knock ‘England’s best sword out of her hand’ . England’s best ‘sword’ was France and he thought if France was defeated then England would fall as well. Falkenhayn’s target was Verdun. His plan was to advance on a narrow front on the Eastern side of the river Meuse, this plan was called Gericht. Knobelsdorf and Wilhelm, who were also commanders, did not like the plan and asked Falkenhayn if the German troops could advance from both sides of the river since it made tactical sense, but Falkenhayn stuck to his original plan. If the German troops had attacked from both sides of the river Verdun could have been taken down within several days, but this was not the case. The Germans goal after the Gericht plan was to take Le Mort Homme which was a lookout place for the French. After taking down this place, the Germans planned to take over Bois Bourrus where the French weapons were being kept. Fort Vaux also was planned to be seized, and this would be the key to …show more content…
The Vth Reserve army corps attacks under the command of General Von Guretzky and the IIId army corps under General Von Lochow. The Vth Reserve army was given commands to attack at night and this attack is a success. Fort Vaux is in German hands, but only for a little while. Because the troops were attacking at night everything was dark and the troops lost communication with the generals and everything went into chaos, and the Germans lost their hold of Fort Vaux. In the next days, General Von Lochow and his IIId army are ordered to completely conquer Fort Vaux. The army followed the orders and began to attack again without any artillery support. And the French won the attack. The Germans continue to try to take over the fort, but the troops become extremely tired so the commander in chief Von Knobelsdorf postpones the attack until more troops are
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