In the west repeated French and British attacks on the German lines had failed. The German plan for 1915 had been a success. The commander of XXX Corps, General Chrétien, had been appalled by the poor state of the defensive lines around Verdun, but arrived too late to significantly improve them. XXX Corps had only taken over the Verdun sector in January 1916. The 37th (Algerian) Division provided the only reserve. In February 1915 the garrison of Verdun contained three divisions from XXX Corps, two of which were reserve divisions (72nd and 51st), with one regular division (14th).
In the summer of 1915 the majority of the guns of Verdun were removed to take part in the Second Battle of Champagne. At the start of the war the forts of Verdun contained six 155mm turret mounted guns and enough other guns to equip fifty artillery batteries. Seven of the nineteen forts were relatively recent, having been built between 18. It was surrounded by nineteen forts, of which fourteen were protected by reinforced concrete. It was one of the most important fortress cities on the Franco-German border, guarding the Meuse River at the northern end of the shared border. This was very different from the role Verdun might have been expected to play before the war. The only role Verdun was able to play in the offensives of 1915 was as a source of artillery guns.
Verdun was too far east to play a part in the offensives of 1915. The French priority for 1915 was to expel the Germans from those parts of north western France that they had conquered in 1914. This left the initiative on the Western Front with the French, still very much the senior partner on land in the alliance with Britain. The German armies in the west would stand on the defensive while the armies in the east would attempt to knock Russia out of the war. When the German high command gathered to decide what to do in 1915, the easterners won the debate. The defeat of this invasion at the battles of Tannenburg and the Masurian Lakes had raised the profile of Field Marshal Hindenburg, the commander in East Prussia. The German sweep through France had been stopped at the First Battle of the Marne, while the Russians had mobilised quicker than expected and threatened an invasion of East Prussia. The events of 1914 had negated this plan. Only then would German armies head east to deal with the Russian steamroller. At the outbreak of war, German armies had swept through Belgium and into north east France, with the aim of surrounding the French armies on the Franco-German border, thus forcing France out of the war.
The German war plan of 1914 had been designed to reduce the dangers of a two front war. The only lines of communication into Verdun from the rest of France ran south west of the city. When the front line stabilised, Verdun found itself at the south eastern corner of the great German salient that bulged out toward Paris, while to the south east the Germans held the St. During the fighting in 1914 it had formed the pivot of the French line as it had bent back under the German onslaught. By the end of the battle the French and Germans between them had lost close to one million men.Īt the end of 1915 Verdun was in a quiet section of the western front. It would dominate much of the fighting of 1916, forcing France’s allies to fight battles that might otherwise not have been fought, or to alter the timing of their offensives to provide indirect aid to the French. The Battle of Verdun was the longest and most costly battle of the First World War. NARROW FRONT WEST OF THE MEUSE, 5 MARCH – 8 APRIL NARROW FRONT EAST OF THE MEUSE – 21 FEBRUARY TO 4 MARCH
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