As the French defense was reorganized, the Germans captured the undefended Fort Douaumont, arguably the most formidable of the strongpoints surrounding Verdun. Initial plans had been made to mass French forces on the left bank so as to oppose a German crossing, but the French high command soon decreed that a new defensive line, stretching from the heights on the east bank of the Meuse to the village of Douaumont, should be held at all costs. Pétain brought a fresh army-the Second-to the fight, and on February 25 he was given the formidable task of holding the right bank of the Meuse.
Joseph-Jacques-Césaire Joffre, the so-called “Victor of the Marne,” was set aside in favour of Gen. That evening the French commander at Verdun, Gen. The rest of the German line swept through the second rank of French defenses, capturing Beaumont, the Bois des Fosses, and the Bois des Caurières and advancing on the key fort at Douaumont. On February 24 the Germans sought to advance from their position at Samogneux, but they were immobilized by French artillery. Thousands of French troops, placed in untenable positions in open country, were almost immediately wiped from the field. In three days the Germans had overrun the first line of French defenses, and both sides hastily reinforced their positions. The village of Haumont was razed by artillery fire, and by February 23 the villages of Brabant-sur-Meuse, Wavrille, and Samogneux were in German hands. The following day the Germans capitalized on their gains, repelling a French counterattack. German troops made significant gains by the end of the first day, occupying the Bois d’Haumont and penetrating the French lines. Combat engineers then followed, ahead of the main body of the advance. If French defenses had not been shattered in a given area, the scouts retired and directed additional shelling.
At about 4:45 pm the first German infantry attack was launched, initially by teams of scouts who surveyed the damage done by the opening barrage. He regarded Russia as already paralyzed and Italy as unlikely to affect the outcome of the war, concluding, “Only France remains.” Falkenhayn stated that a breakthrough en masse was unnecessary and that instead Germany should bleed France to death by choosing a point of attack “for the retention of which the French would be compelled to throw in every man they have.”Īt 7:15 am on February 21, the Germans commenced a massive bombardment of a front some 25 miles (40 km) long, from the Bois d’Avocourt to Étain. In Falkenhayn’s view, Britain’s “real weapons” in the war were the French, Russian, and Italian armies. In a letter to German Emperor William II in late 1915, he argued that Britain was the most formidable of the Allied powers, but he conceded that it could not be assaulted directly, save by submarine warfare, as the British sector of the Western Front did not lend itself to offensive operations (an assessment that would be proved correct at the First Battle of the Somme). Erich von Falkenhayn believed that the war would be won or lost in France, and he felt that a strategy of attrition was Germany’s best hope of achieving its goals. Uncover the history of the most ferocious battle of World War I, the Battle of Verdun, 1916 See all videos for this article
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