The struggle of verdun and the struggle of the

Background 8

2/4/01

The battle of Verdun and the fight of the Somme are two very important challenges. They both took place in France, and were struggled in the same year, 1916. The 1st battle was the battle of Verdun.

It was fought near an ancient Roman fortress that was sacred to the French. The Germans select this place because they thought that whether it were destroyed, the French would lose assurance. (Strokesbury, p. 142)

The second struggle was the battle of the Somme.

It was fought around the Somme Water. The French hand picked the Somme being a chief battlefield for 1916. However , french did tiny but help the Uk in the battle of the Somme. (Heyman, l.

40)

The battle of Verdun started out in February and lasted until the end of the year. Each strike made by the Germans injure their army almost just as much as it harm the French armed service. Much of the fighting was made by heavy cannon. (Heyman, g.

19) In fact , there was a general sum of 542 heavy guns found in the battle. Thirteen of these were 420mm howitzers and seventeen had been 305mm howitzers. These howitzers were disastrous to the other troops. (Keegan, p.

279)

The Germans plan was actually quite simple. French did not need to lose Verdun and they will send as much troops as needed to guard it. The Germans concentrated a great deal of troops and cannon on this battle. No matter how a large number of troops french sent in, they can not be able to placed a good battle, but if that they stopped the Germans might surely ruin Verdun, and for the French, burning off Verdun had not been an option.

They were caught. They did not want to lose Verdun and they would not want to lose their soldiers. (Keegan, s. 279)

Upon February twenty-first the German troops shifted in, but the German soldires did not strike in superb strength.

The idea of the operation is that heavy cannon would eliminate the French defenses that would then be done off by simply infantrymen. In the event the Germans did attack entirely strength, they may have succeeded in evolving eight miles towards the fortification.

It was impossible to get supplies to Verdun. People from france general Philippe Ptain discovered several techniques for finding supplies to the fort.

0ne of these ways was improving the street to the fort developing ongoing flow of supply vehicles. (Heyman, g. 19)

On 06 22, a brand new attack by Germans commenced. It was then a bombardment of shells, on the The french language artillery lines.

These shells covered a new fatal gas called Green Mix. Green Cross was an increased form of chlorine that could not really be ended by the The french language gasmasks. The artillery lines that in which attacked comprised 600 guns. Thats a third of the The french language artillery by Verdun.

Robbed of their protection, the French had no defense against the Alpenkorps, a top of the line division of pile troops made up of Bavarian safeguard and German born infantry. Among the German soldires officers was Lieutenant Paulus, the future Commander of the Sixth Army at Staligrad. (Keegan, p. 285)

By the end of June, above two million men had been killed and wounded on each side.

The surroundings had been once and for all altered by simply artillery shells. (Keegan, l. 285) Almost 400, 500 French troops were wiped out. The Germans lost 340, 000 soldiers.

The French had lost more than the Germans, since they started out with merely one third several men compared to the Germans acquired. On September 11th, the Germans manufactured one previous attempt to consider Verdun. They will surprisingly managed to reach Fortification Souville, although from there the attack was beaten off. (Keegan, g.

285)

At the start of March the French attemptedto take back the land they shed. On August 24th french recaptured Douaumont. By Dec 15th french had obtained much of the ground on the east bank that had been lost at the start of the challenge. (Keegan, l.

285)

Mean while another battle had already begun, The Struggle of the Somme. The Challenge of the Somme began This summer 1st, 1916. General Haig of the English army hoped that his forces could break through German protection, and enter into an open discipline. There