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the first days,
After a year of contemplation and stockpiling. following months of strategic preparations, placing the right guns in the right places, as well as placing troops in different sectors based on their fighting/defensive and mobile capability. the battle would begin with a massive opening bombardment, of over 1200 guns targeting 8 different positions. over the period of a nine hour bombardment, 5/14 of the wall of guns would target one fortress hurling over 120,000 shells. (the fort being douaumont) -
the first days
at bois des caures, At an area approximately 1500 by 1000 yards over 80,000 shells were said to have made their mark during the nine hour bombardment. "the trees are cut like wisps of straw, some shells come screaming through the smoke, the dust produced by the upheaval of the earth creates a fog that prevents us from seeing very far... we have to abandon our shelter and go to ground in a deep crater, we are surrounded by the dead, dying and wounded whom we are totally unable to help. -
fall of douaumont.
the fort fell silent moments after the tremendous continuation of the world seemingly to end, as well as following the thousands of German elite storming the upturned earth in mere dead silence except for the shouting and whistles from the officers, a small group of lone officers penetrated the fort, its defenders were found thirsted and frightened beyond insanity and exhaustion. the fort fell, without a shot fired, in fact without the slightest sign of resistance. -
verdun.
on this day already requested by Major General Castelnau, upon arrival of the soon popular, General Henri Phillipe Omer Petain, all operations overseeing Verdun are now in his hand. -
verdun
Germans for the first time conquer the village of douamont -
verdun
not even at great cost the germans fully occupy douamont village. -
tweaking the offensive.
reconsidering the Verdun offensive, the Germans launch an assault (brief offensive) upon the west bank of the Meuse river. at this moment the french main positions were two strategic hills one being morte homme and the other name remains unlocated, however both of these positions of amassed infantry were on the west bank, both of these positions would be the victim of the German swarm. -
eye witness, from mort-Homme part 1
"the pounding was continuous and terrifying! never had we experienced anything like this, it is as if during the whole campaign the earth around us quaked and trembled we were lifted and tossed about. shells of all calibers not for one moment ceased to rain on our sector. the trench no longer existed it had been filled with earth, crouching in newly formed craters more and more the earth from each explosion covered, and sometimes buried us. the air unbreathable, our blinded, wounded crawling- -
eye witness, from mort-Homme part 2
crawling and shouting soldiers kept falling and dying on top of us splashing us with their blood and other bodily fluids. it truly was a living hell. deafened dizzy and sick at heart, our parched throats burned, we were the thirsty and the bombardment seemed never ending. suddenly the enemy artillery fire grew even more intense, with that in mind, instinctively someone shouted "the boches are coming." broken by exhaustion only a moment ago as if by magic, each and every one of us immediately- -
eye witness from Morte Homme part 3
-spontaneous and immediate without a thought we faced the enemy rifle in hand, for a true infantry men never drops his weapon. shellfire buried redans machine gun along with its crew.. dead. the second machine gun was upturned and buried, legs in the air but nothing was broken. we cleaned it in a hurry, and were firing the very moment at which the Germans appeared. Morte Homme, how terrible, it comes to me as no surprise that it is also referred to as dead mans hill. -
Period: to
Verdun, west/south bank offensive.
intense fighting is on going in verdun the german attack on the west bank of the muese makes slow and steady progress, in result Forges and regneville would be taken, and even capturing bois des courbeax in the process. bois des courbeax would be captured on the eighth and the retaken by french forces by the tenth. cote de l'oie and le morte homme remain in french hands. -
Verdun, west/south bank offensive
Germans launch another massive assault, but this time on both sides of the muese, though successful the Germans had little progress, pushing to a stop along the slopes of morte homme. the east bank however seemed to be better defended as for the Germans made nearly no progress. the remaining days of april would consist of many costly and unsuccessful skirmishes initiated by either side. -
Period: to
verdun
during may the Germans would launch another offensive lasting twenty days consisting of both relentless and repeated attacks on Le Morte Homme. having lost most of its momentum and making no gains the offensive would come to a hard stop. by the 24th the west bank of northern Verdun fell completely silent aside from the relentless artillery pummeling the earth. though short-lived for the first time the French (185,000-) had a lower casualty count than the Germans (200,000+). -
verdun
French 5th infantry division fails to retake douamont, resulting in 6,400 casualties. (under 600 taken prisoner) -
Period: to
verdun
ferocious battling grows into atrocious fighting amidst monstrous bombardments. -
june 3rd-8th in verdun
fort Vaux becomes surrounded by German forces resulting in a five day stand off, the men insde held the ground better than lions, finding a situation so desperate, soldiers were licking the moisture off the walls, due to an empty water reserve. the Germans losing large sums of men due to sustained focused artillery. this sustained bombardment kept both allied reinforcements and advancing Germans at bay. with its defenders helplessly beyond dehydration, the Germans would claim fort Vaux. -
verdun
a disturbing silence fell on the Verdun sector, as a wall of hissing shells, which did not explode, curious duds perhaps? NO! Phosphene gas. like a switch no one could breathe the new French masks were of no use, the horrible stench seeming literally to replace the oxygen, hopelessly the remaining of the able bodied men, readied their rifles, the bochs were already underway as for another major offensive starts today. -
-30th
a major attack on the fleurry sector lasting just seven days brought out great German gains, as attention (reserves and artillery) is pulled further north due to massive allied troop movements. -
the somme
the battle of the Somme begins, like a massive wave stealing German attention forcing them to lighten their grasp on Verdun. -
fleury
once again the Germans attack the fleury this time with one territorial gain fluery village, another attempt was made to capture fort souville which had also been a failure. -
verdun
Paul Von Hindenburg replaces Eric Von faulkenhayn as for he had resigned. -
verdun
Paul von Hindenburg orders a cease to all Verdun operations -
vedun
after a massive four day bombardment. a major French offensive begins, on this day they would advance 2 miles reclaiming fort douamont in the process. -
verdun
having lost nearly all territorial gain, admist entire german divisions refusing to fight, the Verdun offensive was clearly a failure, leaving about over 1.2 m suffering around Verdun. casualties at just under a million, and the death toll being almost or just over 800,000 some historical analysts say, that 800,000 is for each individual rather than both sides combined. a truly mysterious and clearly a brutal battle it is unfortunate how unheard, how many faces/names will remain unrecognized.
