Battle of Verdun

The Battle of Verdun was fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916 around the French fortress city of Verdun on the Meuse, the longest single battle of the First World War. German Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn opened the offensive at 7:15 am on 21 February with a bombardment across a front of some 25 miles, intending, by his own later account, a battle of attrition against a position French opinion would not allow to be abandoned. Fort Douaumont, the most powerful of the forts ringing the city, fell to the Germans on 25 February with barely a shot fired, an early blow the French met by rotating most of their army through the sector under General Philippe Petain, appointed to the defense on 26 February and succeeded in command in May by General Robert Nivelle; the French recaptured Fort Douaumont on 24 October, generally read as the battle's turning point. The battle produced roughly 700,000 casualties, approximately 163,000 French dead and 216,000 wounded against roughly 143,000 German dead and 190,000 wounded, and left nine villages in the battle zone so completely destroyed that they were never rebuilt. Verdun became, and remains, the First World War's central symbol of French national sacrifice and endurance.