"Verdun meat grinder" during the First World War
The French fortress of Verdun and its environs during the First World War became a real mass grave for the German and French armies, who fought in the battles on the Western Front.
Of stories The fortress of Verdun is known that this famous fortecia was built by the French in the 18 century to protect Paris from the attack of enemy troops from the main east direction. However, its main purpose - to prevent the enemy from coming to Paris in those days, Verdun could not fulfill, because in 1792, this fortress was taken by the Prussian army almost on the move, after just a small two-day battle. In the next war with the Germans in 1870, Verdun managed to hold out for much longer, almost six weeks.
But in World War I, Verdun, at last, completely fulfilled his direct mission to the defender of Paris and really did not allow the German hordes of the Kaiser to the French capital.
By the beginning of 1916, the German command adopted its new plan to defeat the Allied armies on the Western front, the main essence of the German plan was to break through the so-called Verdun arc - the stronghold of the entire French front, thereby causing a significant strategic change in the balance of forces on everything Western front and, coming directly to Paris, to force the French leadership to surrender. Thus, the Germans decided to stake everything in order to end the war in the west as early as 1916.
Before the start of their offensive, the Germans completely took control of the air: any Allied aircraft that appeared over Verdun were instantly destroyed or expelled from the area of the upcoming attack, for which 168 German aircraft carried out constant barrage, blocking the Verdun area from the air from any attempt to bombard the advancing German ground forces from the side allied aviation.
Active fighting near Verdun 21 began on February 1916 of the year, it was on this day that the German army began its bloodiest battle of all the battles in which Germany participated in the entire history of its existence, 946 guns, of which almost 500 are heavy, opened massive fire on the French positions, the area intended to break through the front was only something no more than 12 kilometers, ten hours, without stopping and interruptions, the Germans dug their heavy artillery, like a giant hammer, comparing level with the earth, all living things in French positions and finally, over 6-ti German infantry divisions of full combat, went on the attack, in dense formation, two regiments in the first echelon, the Germans moved like an irresistible steel stream, they were opposed at the initial stage of the battle 2 French Division.
In total, to capture the Verdun fortified area, the Germans threw almost one million of their soldiers into battle, with Verdun defending almost 500 from thousands of French fighters.
In the initial period of the offensive, the Germans were lucky; on the first day of the offensive, they used gases; on the second, the novelty, ninety-six flame throwers. It was a terrible sight: everything burned and exploded around, the garrisons of French fortress forts, the Germans burned them with flamethrowers literally alive.
Four days later, the Germans took the fort Duamon. Kaiser Wilhelm arrived at the front and personally presented awards to the winners, it seemed not much and the French could not stand, the front would be broken, but the French military command promptly and competently reacted to the threatening situation, in a short time on the 6 thousands of vehicles were transferred to several hundreds of thousands of French soldiers, they were thrown to the front at Verdun on all types of vehicles, including even Paris taxis, only during the period from February 27 to March 6 along the highway from Bar-le-Duc to Verdins, later named In a “sacred way,” 190, thousands of soldiers, and over 25, thousand tons of various military goods were deployed. Thus, the French managed to create a one-and-a-half superiority over the Germans in manpower, and with the help of numerous squadrons of the French fighters "Newpor" to clear the sky above Verdun from both the German zeppelins and the aircraft.
Later, to keep the front, the French sent around 6 daily thousands of trucks with ammunition and 90 thousands of soldiers as reinforcements weekly to Verdun, thanks to such generous infusions the fortress continued to hold.
Soon the French command brought into the battle the second army under the command of General Petten, the same Petten, who in the Second World War became the main collaborator of France.
The intensity of the battle did not diminish for a minute, the human reinforcements delivered to the front died by the thousands, burned like dry wood in the stove, so by the end of March the French lost nearly 1916 thousands near Verdun and the Germans had 89 thousands.
The last and, perhaps, the most desperate attempt of the Germans to capture Verdun was made by them 22 June 1916 of the year. The Germans, as always, acted on a pattern, first followed by a powerful artillery preparation followed by the use of gas, then the thirty-thousandth German vanguard, which acted with the despair of the doomed, went on the attack.
The advancing avant-garde managed to destroy the opposing French division and even take Fort Tiamon, located just three kilometers north of Verdun, were already visible ahead of the walls of the Verdunsky Cathedral, but there was simply no one to continue the attack, the advancing German troops almost completely fell on the battlefield, reserves run out, the general attack choked.
Thus, almost half a million Germans gave their lives literally for a small piece of land spoiled by artillery and nothing more.
The French were well aware that they would soon have nothing to hold back the Germans, since the German tactics of the war of attrition started to work, they also ran out of human resources, only the Russian army could save France from defeat, at that crucial moment of the war only Allied command overwhelmed the Russian Tsarist Headquarters with telegrams requesting emergency assistance.
And June 4 (May old style 22) Russian artillery rumbled far to the east, the famous Brusilovsky breakthrough began on the South-Western Front, which meant that France was saved, the Russian allies provided effective and most important timely assistance to the French. The Germans had no choice but to stop all offensive operations near Verdun, it was necessary to urgently save their main ally - the Austro-Hungarian army, or else the prospect of destruction of the entire Eastern Front loomed ahead. Echelons with Kaiser troops stretched east. Soon the situation near Verdun stabilized, and the war on the Western Front assumed a purely positional character.
However, further active actions of the Anglo-French troops in July on the Somme River, the French’s counterattacks in August forced the German command as a whole to completely go over to Verdun. In October-December, the French launched a series of counterattacks and threw the enemy back to their original positions.
By the end of December, French troops reached the line they occupied before the start of the battle. Thus, the Verdun operation, which lasted about 10 months, was completed. It was the largest and most bloody military operation of the First World War.
It lasted from 21 February to 18 December 1916 and cost the lives of approximately 1 a million people, of which 543 thousand were the losses of the French army and 434 thousand German, from other sources it is known that the Germans near Verdun lost up to 600 thousand people, and French over 350 thousand soldiers.
70 of the French and 50 German divisions passed through the so-called Verdun meat grinder, despite the huge number of troops participating in the operation, its spatial scope was very small, totaling up to 30 km in depth and up to 10 km in depth, and in such a small area The terrain fought over a million soldiers.
The fighting near Verdun ended without any side of the battlefield domination, although the total number of casualties reached almost 1 a million people, it was the real battle of the exhaustion of the forces of both opponents. It is interesting to note that such famous personalities as the future leader of France, then Captain de Gaulle and the future German field marshal Paulus, took part in the battles near Verdun.
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