Battle of Verdun- Short Summary

The First World War has been and will be the most important armed conflict of the 20th century, so much so that it is known as the Big war, as it was the first time that there was a war to embark on the whole world. In this lesson from a TEACHER we bring you a short summary of the battle of Verdun It was also the longest battle of the entire Great War, since it spanned from February 21, 1916 to December 19, 1916 and, in turn, the second bloodiest.

Index

1. The great defense of Verdun
2. The beginning of the battle of Verdun
3. The central months of the war
4. The end of the battle of Verdun
5. The casualties of this battle

The town of Verdun It was always a highly defended place in France. By 1914 it was fully fortified and full of artillery due to the great tensions that existed between France and Germany.

In fact, the citadel had a wall of the S XVII and outside this a defense ring had been created in the S XIX constituted by a series of forts and rotating turrets (to store artillery), to This was also added to the fact that a subway was created to store the troops and war materials, making this one of the best prepared before the conflict. This is located in the Lorraine region, therefore it is not surprising that one of the most important battles of the

Taking this into account, we must know that the first World War for the year 1915, had already turned into a trench warfare and the movements of the armies were quite slow. In that year the idea of ​​giving a coup de grace to France was conceived by a sector of the German military, where it was Erich von Falkenhayn, which was the true manager of the entire contest.

This, together with a large number of the military, insisted to Kaiser Wilhelm II of the need to end one of the supporters most important cities in the United Kingdom, which was France, although at that time Germany was on an offensive in the sector Oriental.

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After suffering a series of defeats by the French, the Germans decided to make a great offensive in Gallic territory in 1915, by which time most of Verdun's artillery had been relocated to other fronts, making this region quite easy to conquer.

On the other hand, the general who was in charge of the fortifications of the area was directly controlled by the government of the nation and not by the government of the city, causing orders to take longer to to get.

It would be a bad part of meteorology which gave France some time to design something for the defense, since a series of Rain accompanied by fogs appeared for February 12, 1916, the date that Germany had set for the attack on area. This was what the French took advantage of to send two more divisions to what would be the battlefield.

Therefore and to continue with this short summary of the battle of Verdun, on February 21, 1916 the German attack on the French town began by bombardment (the most intense since the war had started). Next, an attack was launched on the trenches using flamethrowers to clean them, in this offensive three bodies of the German army acted.

We can say that until February 29 the Germans advanced on the territory of Verdun without any problem, quickly taking over the most important fortification in the area, Fort Douaumont. As of that date, progress was worse and worse due to inclement weather, which, added to the French bombing and attacks, made By March 2, 1916, almost three German regiments were destroyed.That day was when the town of Douaumont was taken.

Then in this short summary of the battle of Verdun we focus on the central months of the war, which run from May to June 1916. This stage opens with another French defeat in an attempt to retake Fort Douaumon. This made the Germans, by defeating part of the Gallic army, more likely to take another of the important enclaves of the Lorraine region, such as the Fort Vaux, which fell on June 7 because they had no water supply, as the Germans had been closing the fence until they were without water.

Therefore, the Germans had little left to enter the city of Verdun, their plan being enter from the right bank of the Meuse River, a slope that had been heavily attacked throughout this weather. It would be in this period of the Great War when everything began to change for the Germans, since several changes in the bureaucratic sector of the army, accompanied by a series of new battles, such as that of the Somme, made the Germans have to withdraw their troops and even divided to cover the different fronts that were beginning to open, thus causing them to begin to have many more casualties, in addition to going little by little wasting away.

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To end this summary of the battle of Verdun, we must know that it was in October when a real mobilization took place by the French army to recover all the towns taken by the Germans.

Among them, special interest was put in retaking Fort Douaumont, which was returned to its rightful owner on October 24 after a series of clashes. After this, until 1918 this region would continue to be a place of intense conflict, although the last great battle was produced on September 12 and was known as the Meuse-Argonne offensive that was assisted by troops Americans.

To conclude, we will have to talk about the casualties caused on both sides during the conflict. On the French side, we will find that 162,308 people died during the conflict, although if we count the wounded and the civilian population, we can reach the figure of 377,000-542,000 people.

While on the German side we will find around 100,000 dead and 336,000-434,000 decrease during the entire conflict. In this way we can see the great masses of people who participated in said conflict, and therefore it is not surprising that the battle of Verdun is one of the bloodiest of all World War I.

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