Battles, wars, and fights are all the same, in the sense that they all are absolutely terrifying for those involved. That terror is what the soldiers and generals of the Battle of Verdun felt. By knowing what the Battle of Verdun was, the generals of the battles, and both of the war parties and their intentions. One can truly see the horrors of war.
Verdun is a big town located near the border of Germany and France. It was a big choke point for the French, and if it was lost they were sure to lose. In the end France was invaded and taken over, but this was a very big setback for the German Army (Stock1). Verdun history, Verdun was a Gallic fortress before Roman times. It was there, in 843, that three grandsons of Charlemagne separated his empire, in the Treaty of Verdun. Conquered by Germanic invaders in the 10th century, it was later connected with Metz and Toul to form the Trois-Évêchés (Three Bishoprics) territory (History 1). In 1552 the French king Henry II took over the three bishoprics, and France’s ownership was confirmed in 1648 by the Peace of Westphalia. In 1792 Verdun was besieged by the Prussians and yielded only a few weeks before the French victory at Valmy (History 1) The Prussians seized it again in 1870 and held it until 1873. With the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to the German Empire in 1871, the German frontier was fixed barely 30 miles away. In
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Many of the men didn't even die to bullets, but infection. According to History.com, Trench foot, a gangrenous condition caused by standing in unsanitary water and mud over long periods, was common (History 1). The Battle of Verdun was the longest and costliest battle of WWI. The battle also contained some of the greatest generals from World War 1. According to Stock and other historians, The Battle of Verdun, was and is, known as one of the most famous battles of all time. Fun Fact: It is the 2nd most famous battle to ever be put into fiction novels (Stock
The purpose of this speech for the class is to gain better knowledge of one of the most tragic and devastating battles of World War II, the Battle of the Bulge.
In the summer of 1944, General George S. Patton and his 3rd Army successfully broke through heavy German Forces resistance from the Normandy invasion. German forces were in total disarray by the end of August 1944. Patton pleaded with his boss, General Omar Bradley, that if 3rd U.S. Army could be allocated as little as 400,000 gallons of fuel, he could be inside Germany in two days. Time was crucial before the inevitable reaction by the Germans to shore up their defense, preventing Patton from advancing. General Bradley refused Patton's request for more fuel; Unfortunately, General Patton advanced to Germany. Morale ran high throughout Patton’s Army, and there was no sign of heavy resistance before the German border. Consequently, by early September, the 3rd U.S Army had ground to a virtual halt along the flooded Moselle River. In places, Patton's tanks and vehicles ran out of fuel on the battlefield and their swift momentum outran their supply lines (Fugate, 1999). Lack of logistics allowed the German forces to take advantage of Patton’s Army and initiate one of the largest tank battles of World War II, the Battle of Arracourt.
Vordie Mathis World Civ 2 Reaction Paper. Source 8.1 -8.4 The Battle of Somme is marked as one of the deadliest wars we had in World War 1. The article we were presented in source 8.1 is written by Phil Gibbs, an English journalist who got to see the warhead on from the side of the French and British spectrum.
One of the major diseases that almost permanently affected the soldiers was Shell Shock which was due to constant exposure to horrific scenes of death. Source A1 is an extract from a historian writing for the First World war aimed at students, focuses on ...
Tim O’Brien states in his novel The Things They Carried, “The truths are contradictory. It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty. For all its horror, you can’t help but gape at the awful majesty of combat” (77). This profound statement captures not only his perspective of war from his experience in Vietnam but a collective truth about war across the ages. It is not called the art of combat without reason: this truth transcends time and can be found in the art produced and poetry written during the years of World War I. George Trakl creates beautiful images of the war in his poem “Grodek” but juxtaposes them with the harsh realities of war. Paul Nash, a World War I artist, invokes similar images in his paintings We are Making a New World and The Ypres Salient at Night. Guilaume Apollinaire’s writes about the beautiful atrocity that is war in his poem “Gala.”
The Civil War is one of the defining wars in the history of this great nation. The Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle in American history, and a turning point in the four year war. At the time, Gettysburg was a small, quiet town generally unaffected by the war. General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate States of America and General George Meade of the Union converged in Gettysburg, and a conflict quickly arose. After three long days of battle the Union pulled away with a victory, though not an easy one. This essay will outline the six themes of history; in essence the who, what, when, where, why, and who cares of this infamous battle.
Life on the Western Front During World War One A dispassionate look at the numbers of the horrendous casualties sustained by the armies of the Allies and the Central Powers on the Western Front in WW1, clearly indicate that these casualties figures are far inferior to what might be anticipated if, indeed, total war had reigned in every location, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and along all the 475 miles of trenches that extended from the North Sea to Switzerland. A couple of simple examples will readily make the case. Imagine two front-line trenches separated by only 20 to 30 yards of ‘No Man’s Land’ (in some extraordinary situations, distances were even less). A determined and prolonged effort by a few hand-grenade bombers on either side could make any hope of a sustained tenancy quite impossible. Again, given the accuracy and rapidity which trench mortars could be deployed against routinely manned trenches (one battalion per 1,000 yards) and their associated dug-outs, a quite short, but determined, and mutually hostile, barrage could readily reduce both trench systems to total ruin.
In All Quiet on the Western Front, it becomes very apparent that some of the soldiers do not feel as if World War I was their fight, when comrades begin discussing the origin of war. One comrade, Albert states that a war is initiated by “one country badly offending the other” (204). This lead to a discussion over why the soldiers are fighting when truly it is one person or a small group of people that are directly offended by an opposing group in a similar position of power. Therefore, why must they discover the true horrors of war while simultaneously putting their lives on the line, when the ones who began the predicament, propelled false advertisement with propagandas that romanticized and glorified war don’t have to live as if the next second may be their
Clashing swords, miraculous survivals, pain of loss, and heroic sacrifice are all terrifying yet thrilling moments in a battle. The strong possibility of death and the frailty of human life add into the suspense of battle. Yet the reasons behind the wars, death, and suspense can be overlooked. The stories behind the warriors who have died will not be told again, but the stories of warriors still alive are what give the men strength to continue fighting against impossible odds. Ultimately, the reason of why a man would risk his life in battle is for someone, or something, he loves.
Life in the trenches during the First World War was simply a blood bath. It was the last thing the hundreds and thousands of soldiers expected when they enlisted.
What is war really like all together? What makes war so horrifying? The horror of war is throughout All Quiet on the Western Front. For example Albert says the war has ruined them as young people and Paul agrees. “Albert expresses it: "The war has ruined us for everything." He is right. We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war.” (Remarque, Chapter 5). The way the war has affected each soldier has changed them forever. The boys who were once school boys will never be the same.
The Battle of Gumbinnen started in signaling the first major offensive on the Eastern Front, and following an initial action by the German Eighth Army at Stalluponen on 17 August 1914, the Battle of Gumbinnen was initiated by Eighth Army's commander General von Prittwitz, during the early hours of 20
This war involves a human side, including the admission of fear and scenes of domestic life, not in a sentimentalized version. This more complete and responsible depiction shows that there's not one single center to the war, just as there's not one single god for the Greeks.
Still, the number of casualties calls for a much greater understanding for the Battle of Verdun and those who fought in it. Lieutenant Georges Gaudy described what he witnessed when his regiment returned from their fighting near the Fort Douaumont in May and the description of his regiment is disturbing in every sense of the word. Lieutenant Gaudy writes that although his men had stone-cold expressions on their faces, “they wept in silence, like women” (188). Horne’s intimate portrayal of the soldiers who experienced the horrors of Verdun first-hand raises the question as to why the French continued to defend and why the German’s continued to attack because by the late spring, the gap between the level of anguish on each side was becoming increasingly narrow and soon that gap would not even be distinguishable. As for the motivations for both armies, prestige and morale played a large role in the sustained endurance and this can be linked back to the ideals of nationalism. In the first three months, the French had lost important fortresses surrounding Verdun, namely Malancourt on March 31st, Haucourt on April 5th, and then Bethincourt on April 8th (165). With these early defeats, it is thought provoking as to why the French continued to fight.
Trench warfare became a common practice in World War One, leading to a war of attrition. Both the Allies as well as the Germans enacted similar basic defense strategies and dealt with many of the same debilitating trench conditions. Trenches were built in an elaborate networking system, with three major sections, the front lines, the support, and the reserves. There was a rotation schedule for soldiers in the trenches, so that each regiment served time at the front lines. Trench conditions were horrendous including rodent infestation as well as unsanitary living spaces; many were infected with diseases such as trench foot with most trenches were filled with dead corpses for weeks after they were first killed. Defense mechanisms included creating dense fields of barbed wire in No Man’s Land, between the enemy trenches, in order to prevent an attack on the trench. Trench sanitation and defense were not the only reasons for the stalemate connected with World War One. The weather played