German Empire
The Battle of Verdun 1916
“"You eat beside the dead; you drink beside
the dead, you relieve yourself beside the
dead and you sleep beside the dead."
"People will read that the front line was
Hell. How can people begin to know what
that one word - Hell - means."
France
German Empire
Crown Prince Wilhelm at Verdun Front
Crown Prince Wilhelm
Wanted to ‘bleed France white’ by
launching a massive German attack on a
narrow stretch of land that had historic
sentiment for the French.
Erich von
Falkenhayn
Chief of the
General Staff
Leaders
Crown Prince of
Prussia
Robert Nivelle
Leaders
Philippe Petain
General of
French Third
Army
Chief of State
France
German Empire
Erich von
Falkenhayn
Chief of the
General Staff
Plan of Attack
German soldiers knew little about plan, but to crush French front-line w/ Artillery
Lines of defense around
Verdun were highly
neglected
Robert Nivelle
Philippe Petain
There were repeated pleas
for reinforcements
“Verdun is not an important target”
-French Headquarters
General of
French Third
Army
Situation from French perspective
France
German Empire
Big Bertha
1,200 canons made
in preparation of
attack
German Mortar
Big Bertha (howitzer)
Artillery
France
0.075 meter wide barrel
Canon de 75 modèle 1897
Canon de 75 modèle 1897
France
German Empire
0.42 meters wide barrel
Big Bertha
Big Bertha (howitzer)
“Big Bertha” Became a
general term of any large
German Gun
MG 08
German Empire
Use of Trench
Warfare
France
German Empire
Start of the Attack
Started on Feb/21 on the right bank of the
Meuse. This had been one of the heaviest
Bombings of the war.
Direction of
German Attack
Germans had occupied the most
important fortress on the Defense
line on Feb/25, Ft. Douaumont.
Petain’s Defensive Measures
Ordered a line of defense on the right bank of the Meuse
Philippe Petain
French marching to front-line of Meuse
Artillery needed to be quickly set up to stop the
German Advance. Germans were stopped near
the village of Douaumont.
Germans won the victory of the village over the French
France
German Empire
75 Divisions
Casualties: 434,000-335,000
K.I.A.: 336,000
Battlefield K.I.A.: 698,000
K.I.A.: 362,000
Casualties: 542,000-400,000
50 Divisions
France
“Everyone who searches for cover in a shell hole,
stumbles across slippery, decomposing bodies and has to
proceed with smelly hands and smelly clothes.”
-French Soldier
France
German Empire
“An awful word, Verdun. Numerous people,
still young and filled with hope, had to lay
down their lives here – their mortal remains
decomposing somewhere, in between
trenches, in mass graves, at cemeteries.”
-German Soldier Writing to his Parents
The Last French Counter
French decided to force German back to their original position with a counter attack
French troops trailed behind a
rolling artillery barrage on Dec/13
French artillery began to rain on
German positions on Dec/11
France
German Empire
Began: Feb/21/1916
Ended: Dec/19/1916
France
Battle of Verdun Summary
his is a brief demo Eagle Films created for a War museum concerning the brutal and bloody WW-I battle of Verdun. It was one of
about twenty multimedia projects that were to be produced under the supervision of Philip Cook of Eagle Films