Battle_of_Verdun

Battle of Verdun During the First World War Verdun was a fortified French garrison town on the River Meuse 200km east of Paris. In December 1915, General Erich von Falkenhayn, Chief of Staff of the German Army, decided to attack Verdun. Although he admitted he would be unable to break through at these point on the Western Front, he argued that in defending Verdun, the Germans would "bleed the French army white". The German attack on Verdun started on 21st February 1916. A million troops, led by Crown Prince Wilhelm, faced only about 200,000 French defenders. The following day the French was forced to retreat to their second line of trenches. By 24th February the French had moved back to the third line and were only 8km from Verdun. On 24th February, General Henri-Philippe Petain was appointed commander of the Verdun sector. He gave orders that no more withdrawals would take place. He arranged for every spare French soldier to this part of the Western Front. Of the 330 infantry regiments of the French Army, 259 eventually fought at Verdun. The German advance verdun, battle, french, german, army, february, germans, general, front, attack, about, world, western, war, vaux, troops, point, line, infantry, first, december, casualties, attacks, 24th, 1916, withdrawals, wilhelm, white, weeks, von, until, unable, trenches, transfer, town, throughout, through, third, take, summer, suffered, strategic, stopped, started, staff, spare, somme, soldier, six, siege, secured