Battle Of Verdun World War 1 Research Paper

The Battle of Verdun - 1916

The Battle of Verdun in 1916 was a battle between the French and German armies and was considered to be the longest single battle of World War One. The impact that the battle of Verdun had on the French armies were so severe that Britain decided to take action. On July 1916, Britain began the Battle of Somme, mainly due to the reason of wanting to take German pressure off of the French at Verdun. The battle of Verdun began on the 21st of February, 1916 and ended on the 16th of December, 1916.

The attack on Verdun came about due to a plan that the German chief of General Staff, Von Falkenhayn, proposed. His plan was to launch a massive German attack on a narrow piece of land that was considered historically sentimental

By fighting to the last man, he predicted that the French would lose such a high number of men that the course of war would differ dramatically. Falkenhayn's prediction was proved to be correct. The forts were considered to be very dear to the French and so they were going to fight endlessly to keep the Germans out of the area. However, Falkenhayn's plan had one major weakness - it assumed that the French were going to be simple opponents. This severe mistake was going to cost the Germans many lives on February 21,

To assist the capturing of Verdun, the Germans began to use flamethrowers. For the first time, flamethrowers were used in high numbers, an act that the Germans believed would help advance the eight miles they needed to achieve if they were to capture Verdun. By February 21, the Germans had captured approximately 10,000 French prisoners. To the German's greatest astonishment, the huge fort located at Douaumont was manned by a surprising number of 56 elderly part-time gunners. The falling of the great fort was not immediately reported to the French public. The French claimed that the battle surrounding Verdun was not considered to be very difficult for them. However, the statement that the French proposed was quite opposite to what was actually happening at