"The Meatgrinder of World War I" Topic

"There is no quick route by which one may approach Verdun. No superhighway passes through this sleepy town, nor do any of France's fabled "Trains de Grande Vitesse" stop here. There is only the local line, and even that humbled creaking route terminates in Verdun. In the end, one can only come to this hallowed ground slowly, by a small four-car train or by narrow two-lane road. This is as it should be. Some 250,000 men died in these few square miles of turf, and one should not rush into a graveyard.

Although even less well-known to most Americans today than are the almost-forgotten exertions of the American Expeditionary Force during World War I in places like St. Mihiel and the Argonne Forest, Verdun actually represents the apogee of the slaughter of World War I on the Western Front. It was both the longest battle of the war, officially lasting from February 21, 1916 through December 11, 1916 and the most costly single battle of the war, with estimates ranging from 900,000-1,100,000 men shedding blood on this small patch of ground that is only about twice the size of the battlefield of Gettysburg. It was, by any definition of the word, an obscenity.

Perhaps even more significantly, the impact of Verdun upon the people of France and Germany is crucial to understanding what happened over the course of the rest of the 20th century. Without Verdun the American casualties of WWI might not have been as bad as they were and our troops might not have been rushed into the fight before they were ready. The British-led Battle of the Somme might not have occurred, at least not the way that it did. The Maginot Line of WWII may have never existed, and the French might not have chosen static defense versus mobile warfare, a choice that doomed them in WWII. Indeed, without Verdun, WWII might have played out far differently. It is the epicenter of nearly a century of events and "what-ifs." All of this and more make it an important battle to study…"
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Amicalement
Armand

The Verdun battlefield deserves the utmost respect. I disagree, however, with the author's conclusions. Yet again there is too much focus on a single major battle. It is as if, somehow, had this battle not been fought or had been fought with far fewer casualties then the American casualties would have been less or that the Somme would not have occurred with its casualties, etc. This whole line of argumentation ignores the fundamental fact that the whole war was obscene, from a casualty perspective. Until one side had been worn down to the point where the number of casualties caused that side to collapse then it did not matter if one major or many minor battles were fought. The fighting would have continued, large or small, until the final toll had been exacted. Had the Germans and French taken fewer casualties in Verdun then there would have been more men left to throw into some other battle. This is the nature of modern industrialised warfare between major nations who will not give in easily.

This whole debate is not just a matter of semantics. Unless we understand this principle then we will continue to think that smart weapons and innovative generals are the key to 'easy' wars.

If the Western Allies had had to carry out the role of the Soviet Union in WW2 then Verdun would have seemed a laudable example of how few casualties can be sustained in a battle.

Robert

What an odd take on Verdun.

US casualties were high in their actions in WW1 because Pershing wouldn't listen to anyone. Nothing to do with what happened at Verdun.

The Somme battle might not have been fought in that area, but the British would have launched a major offensive in 1916.

However I would applaud any attempt to get Anglo Saxons to read and understand Verdun better.

Agreed. Arguably the worst thing about Verdun is that Nivelle played a key role in retaking the ground lost in the original German attacks. As a result he felt that he had cracked the problem of breaking through and out of the German defences. Jack Sheldon's latest book 'The German Army in the Spring Offensives 1917' describes in detail the terrible consequences.

Robert