Verdun, the Third and Greatest German Failure: The First World War

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The Battle of Verdun was fought between the Germans and French between February and December, 1916, during the First World War. Fighting took place on the Western Front, near the town of Verdun-sur-Meuse, in northeastern France.

The Battle of Verdun, and other major First World War battles like the Somme, symbolized the futility and destruction of the war. At least a half million men died on both sides during the 11-month long Battle of Verdun, but neither side were able to make any significant and sustained territorial gains.

The Battle of Verdun began with a German offensive planned by General Erich von Falkenhayn , who believed a major attack could exhaust the French army. But the French army managed to hold on, and even launch some counteroffensives around Verdun. In the end neither side gained much, but both lost more than 300,000 men.

The First World War began as a result of long-standing rivalries and alliances in Europe. Austro-Hungarian Archduke and heir Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia, in 1914. His killers were South Slav nationalists who wanted to win independence from Austro-Hungary and create a unified South Slav state . Austro-Hungary blamed Serbia for backing the assassination and Yugoslav nationalists in general. Seeing the archduke’s assassination as an opportunity to crush Serbia once and for all, the Austro-Hungarians issued an ultimatum, backed by the threat of force.

When Serbia failed to meet the ultimatum, Austro-Hungary prepared for war with Serbia. Then Europe’s system of alliances went into motion to bring about the “World War”. Russia, Serbia’s ally, mobilized against Austro-Hungary. In response, Germany mobilized against Russia. Russia was allied with France, and Germany knew that it faced the risk of a two-front war. In order to avoid this, German military leaders had planned to invade and defeat France quickly, and then turn back east to deal with Russia. This military plan was called the Schlieffen Plan. So when the war began, the Germany rushed its armies into France, through neutral Belgium. At that point Great Britain declared war on Germany in support of Belgium. Britain brought its colonies , and dominions with it.

The initial German advance into France was stopped by the Allies before it reached Paris at the Battle of the Marne in September 1914. Then the rival sides dug in, and a long stalemate of trench warfare ensued. Large offensives by the rival sides failed to break the stalemate, but expended large numbers of men. Despite all the deaths, the stalemate was never broken. Some of the largest and bloodiest battles on the Western Front were the Battle of Verdun , the Battle of the Somme in 1916 , and the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 .

The war gradually exhausted Germany’s resources, and its allies, Austro-Hungary, Ottoman Turkey, and Bulgaria, began to collapse by 1917 and 1918. With growing unrest and home, and the arrival of fresh American troops on the Western Front, Germany decided to surrender in order to avoid the prospect of an outright military defeat and foreign occupation. This brought an end to the First World War. At least some Germans, however, saw the German surrender as a “betrayal”. Among them was Adolf Hitler, an Austrian who had served in the German army during the World War I. Hitler’s right-wing fascist and ultra-nationalist Nazi Party would come to power in Germany in the 1930s, and would lead Europe into the Second World War.