• 3 months ago
Under Siege episode 4 - Verdun 1916
Transcript
00:00By the end of 1915, there was stalemate on the Western Front.
00:17Germany's mainly defensive posture had cost France alone over one million men killed,
00:23wounded or missing.
00:24With the opposing trenches stretching from the Channel to the Alps, Erich von Falkenhayn,
00:29chief of the German General Staff, looked for an indirect way out of the deadlock in
00:33the West.
00:35He intended not a major breakthrough, but a battle of attrition in a place the French
00:40would never give up, a place into which she would pour all her men and resources.
00:46With the French army bled to death, he reasoned, France would no longer have the will to fight
00:51and Britain, isolated, would withdraw.
00:56Falkenhayn found such a place in north-eastern France.
01:00The siege that ensued lasted some 300 days, cost over 700,000 casualties, and by its end,
01:11it was difficult to determine an outright victor.
01:14For France, this battle has become synonymous with national pride, national fortitude and
01:20the will of the entire nation.
01:23It was the place that France rediscovered its identity and where the seeds of a united
01:27Europe were first sown.
01:31Verdun, 1916.
01:53Along this road in 1916, which became known as the Voix Sacrée, the Sacred Way, four
02:18fifths of the French army came to the defense of Verdun, a small provincial city on the
02:26River Meuse, about 260 kilometers east of Paris.
02:35Once the lines of trenches had settled into position in late 1914, and with its ring of
02:4020 major and 40 minor forts ringing the town, Verdun stacked out into German-occupied territory
02:47like an elbow.
02:58Germany had stood on the defensive in 1915, except for local attacks in the two salients,
03:03Ypres and Verdun.
03:05The defenses at Ypres had been forced back closer to the town, but Verdun had held, despite
03:11bitter fighting at the base of its salient.
03:14Vauquois to the west and Les Épages to the southeast suffered devastating mine attacks
03:19in the fight for control of the vital heights.
03:22Although the attacks were ferocious, the French held their ground.
03:30Despite the devastation wrought on the flanks, Verdun itself had remained a comparatively
03:34quiet sector.
03:36Indeed, the French commander-in-chief, General Joseph Joffre, did not take seriously the
03:41threat of an assault on Verdun, and gradually took most of the men and large artillery pieces
03:46away from the ring of defensive forts to reinforce other areas.
03:54In 1914, Joffre had actually ordered that Verdun be abandoned, because tactically it
03:59made no sense to hold on to it.
04:00The local general, General Saraya, just disobeyed orders, refused to obey, and they hung on
04:06to it.
04:07Verdun is now the tip of a salient sticking out into German occupied territory, and Falkenhayn's
04:13thinking is, if we threaten Verdun, the French will pour in more and more troops to defend
04:21it, and we will kill them.
04:22It's as simple as that.
04:28Joffre was very successful in 1914, but he took fright at what had happened to the forts
04:34in Belgium and on the edge of France, which had been so heavily beaten into the ground
04:40by the Germans that he feared for the forts which France had arranged around her borders
04:45over centuries in many ways.
04:48And he decided that he would take the men and the guns out of the forts and spread them
04:54around the field.
04:56Underestimating the threat to Verdun, and the belief that the system of forts was unnecessary
05:01to an effective defence, was to prove a costly error in judgement, both militarily and personally,
05:07for the French commander-in-chief.
05:16What Falkenhayn envisioned was a win-win strategy, to be the victors whether they took the city
05:21or not.
05:23The prize would be the destruction of the French army.
05:29Verdun's strategy had to be seen from the background, which he reached at the end of 1915
05:35on the German side, namely that deeper breaches into the enemy's territory would most likely
05:42no longer be possible in the foreseeable future.
05:45Accordingly, he concluded that it would make sense to achieve a small break-in on a battlefield
05:52of his choice, which would force the enemy to
05:58concentrate its forces on this point, and in this way to block the feared German breakthrough.
06:07In this situation, the favorable topography of the territory north of Verdun, together
06:13with the German artillery superiority that was still available at the time, should contribute
06:18to the French counter-attacks.
06:28Falkenhayn's instrument for the prosecution of his plan was the German Fifth Army, which
06:33had been fighting around the Salien from the beginning.
06:37The Fifth Army commander was the Kaiser's 34-year-old son, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm.
06:43A gift to cartoonists, he was known to the Allied soldier as the Clown Prince, or Little Willie.
06:50The Crown Prince Wilhelm often gets a bad press.
06:53He looks like a fop, he looks a bit stupid in many ways.
06:58Being the son of the Emperor, of the Kaiser, you couldn't think he was really fully qualified,
07:02but he was a much better commander than people realized.
07:06He was shrewd, he was farsighted, and he also was a man who knew when to stop.
07:12As the Verdun battle went on, there came a time when the German high command still wanted
07:17to press on and on, but he said, enough is enough.
07:21There was a certain basic humanity and common sense about him, and he was actually liked
07:25by his men.
07:28The Crown Prince appreciated what Falkenhayn wanted was a limited offensive, not a breakthrough.
07:34The destruction of the French forces was to be brought about by bite-and-hold operations.
07:39Decimate the French as they defend their ground, and once it's in German hands, crush them
07:44when they attempt to retake it.
07:46The Crown Prince would have liked sufficient troops to advance on both banks of the Meuse.
07:52Falkenhayn wouldn't give him the troops.
07:54He said he didn't have them.
07:57He said it was essential to keep back one-third of the available German divisions in case
08:03of an Allied counter-offensive, which actually probably wasn't going to happen where Falkenhayn
08:08said it might happen.
08:10Ultimately, of course, we have the Somme offensive, but at the time, Falkenhayn is saying, the
08:15Allies will attack up on the north, I must keep the troops back.
08:19That was actually nonsense.
08:20The real reason was probably that Falkenhayn was worried that the Crown Prince might actually
08:25succeed in capturing Verdun.
08:27He didn't want that.
08:29There was, however, a note of discord in German planning.
08:33Here we see the difference between the strategist in his office in Berlin and the man commanding
08:39the soldiers on the ground.
08:41What Falkenhayn actually says in his operation order is that the Fifth Army is to develop
08:47an offensive in the Meuse area towards Verdun.
08:51Crown Prince Wilhelm knew you couldn't go and say to your soldiers, sorry, chaps, we're
08:55just going to waste your way, doesn't matter how many people you kill or how many people
08:59kill you, as long as the war keeps, the battle keeps going.
09:03He had to say to them, we are going to take Verdun.
09:05There will be a parade in Verdun in two or three weeks' time.
09:09He had to give them an objective to strive for, otherwise the soldiers would have just
09:12lost heart.
09:14So that was his shrewdness as against Falkenhayn's rather, what shall we say, academic ideas,
09:21which didn't work in terms of the practical reality of soldiers fighting a battle.
09:27Wilhelm reasoned that he could manage the offensive by making gains but not actually
09:31capturing Verdun, thereby keeping both the strategists in Berlin and the soldier on the
09:36ground happy.
09:40Just to concentrate his opening moves on the east or right bank defences of Verdun alone,
09:45the Crown Prince made his preparations for Operation Gericht, or Judgment.
09:50The 12th of February was assigned as D-Day.
09:54Villages behind his lines were cleared to accommodate troops.
09:58Brought in by about 1,300 trains, six days' supply of artillery ammunition, amounting
10:03to two and a half million shells, were stored in dumps.
10:09German barracks, large enough for hundreds of men, were built, several just a kilometre
10:13or so from the French front line.
10:20German gains in 1914 had given them control over the major railway centres and provided
10:25them with excellent lines of communication.
10:28In the new year of 1916, these lines were extended to the fringes of the Salient, where
10:33a network of narrow-gauge railways penetrated the forests, delivering supplies to the front
10:39lines.
10:42The Crown Prince assembled some 1,200 artillery pieces around Verdun, over half of heavy calibre,
10:48to support about 300,000 infantry.
10:51The awesome firepower that he would unleash at the beginning of the offensive was to eclipse
10:55anything the French then possessed.
10:59Their German superiority was in the heavy artillery, including the 13 Krupp mortars
11:03of 420mm, known as Big Berthers.
11:29The French, however, were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to
11:36win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French were not
11:43able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
11:48were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
11:53were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
11:58were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:01were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:04were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:06were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:07were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:08were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:09were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:10were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:11were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the
12:12battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to
12:13win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French were not
12:14able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:15were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:16were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:17were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:18were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:19were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:20were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:21were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:32were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:39were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:46were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:47were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:48were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:49were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:50were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:51were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:52were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:53were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:54were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
12:55were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
13:06were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
13:12were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
13:13were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
13:14were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
13:15were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
13:16were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
13:17were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French
13:18were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle, as the
13:19French were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:20as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:21as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:22as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:23as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:24as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:25as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:26as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:27as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:28as the French were not able to win the battle, as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:29as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:30as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:31as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:32as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:33as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:34as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:35as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:36as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:37as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:38as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:39as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:40as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:41as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:42as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:43as the French were not able to win the battle,
13:45had a high kill rate,
13:46had a high kill rate,
13:47had a high kill rate,
13:48had a high kill rate,
13:49had a high kill rate,
13:50had a high kill rate,
13:51had a high kill rate,
13:52had a high kill rate,
13:53had a high kill rate,
13:54had a high kill rate,
13:55had a high kill rate,
13:56had a high kill rate,
13:57had a high kill rate,
13:58had a high kill rate,
13:59had a high kill rate,
14:00had a high kill rate,
14:01had a high kill rate,
14:02had a high kill rate,
14:03had a high kill rate,
14:04had a high kill rate,
14:05had a high kill rate,
14:06had a high kill rate,
14:07had a high kill rate,
14:08had a high kill rate,
14:09had a high kill rate,
14:10had a high kill rate,
14:11had a high kill rate,
14:12the Germans continued to
14:13pioneer in groups of aviators
14:14until mid-May,
14:15when the French built up
14:16their squadron strength
14:17to over 220 machines,
14:18to over 220 machines,
14:19including the new
14:20Newport 11 Bebe.
14:21including the new
14:22Newport 11 Bebe.
14:23including the new
14:24Newport 11 Bebe.
14:25including the new
14:26Newport 11 Bebe.
14:27The Germans were unable
14:28to match these numbers
14:29at Verdun.
14:30at Verdun.
14:31at Verdun.
14:32At Verdun.
14:33At Verdun.
14:34At Verdun.
14:35At Verdun.
14:36At Verdun.
14:37At Verdun.
14:38At Verdun.
14:39At Verdun.
14:40At Verdun.
14:41And yet,
14:42the German forces
14:43posed to the vulnerable salient.
14:44posed to the vulnerable salient.
14:45In the Bois-des-Corps,
14:46on the right bank,
14:47a French front-line soldier
14:48and parliamentary deputy,
14:49and parliamentary deputy,
14:50Colonel Emile Drillon,
14:51had been worried
14:52by the lack of preparation
14:53by the lack of preparation
14:54for what he saw ahead.
14:55for what he saw ahead.
14:56He wrote of his concerns,
14:57He wrote of his concerns,
14:58and his letter was passed
14:59to General Gallieni,
15:00the war minister.
15:01the war minister.
15:02The deputy,
15:03the deputy,
15:04the deputy,
15:05the deputy,
15:06the deputy,
15:07the deputy,
15:08the deputy,
15:09the deputy,
15:10on the weaknesses
15:11on the weaknesses
15:12of the fortification of Verdun,
15:13of the fortifications of Verdun,
15:14although he himself
15:15had felt that
15:16this was
15:17a major strategic point
15:18a major strategic point
15:19of the Western Front.
15:20of the Western Front.
15:21He was not listened to
15:22by Joffre,
15:23who still had in mind
15:24his offensive
15:25on the Somme
15:26on the Somme
15:27of July 1916.
15:28of July 1916.
15:29Joffre,
15:30furious that one
15:31of his subordinates
15:32had gone behind his back
15:33and not through proper channels,
15:34refuted Drillon's charges.
15:35and not through proper channels,
15:36refuted Drillon's charges.
15:37However,
15:38he was soon forced
15:39Jofra finally accepts that Verdun really is under threat and on the 12th of February he
15:45gives the garrison two more divisions.
15:48Now he was very lucky because the 12th of February was the day the attack was supposed
15:52to start, but because of terribly bad weather and snow it's actually postponed until the
15:5821st of February.
15:59So once he accepts that there's a problem, it takes him a long time, but once he does
16:03accept there's a problem, then he starts to move.
16:07For nine days the Germans had waited in snow, frost and fog.
16:14The morning of the 21st dawned bright and clear.
16:18At 7.15am a shell from a 38cm naval gun exploded in the courtyard of the Bishop's Palace in
16:25Verdun.
16:26More shells followed, hitting the railway station and the town.
16:33The principal heavy artillery action, though, took place on the French first lines of defence
16:38in the woods and hills facing the Germans.
16:41The West Bank also received its share of shelling, so that the French would not be sure where
16:45the assault when it came would take place.
16:49Between 7.15am and 4pm lay nearly nine hours of the most severe and sustained bombardment
16:56yet seen in warfare.
16:58850 guns were dedicated to wiping out the French positions on the right bank sector
17:03of only 12km.
17:07That morning, Colonel Drian gave his wedding ring to his batman for safekeeping, and made
17:12his way to his bunker R2 in the Bois-de-Corps.
17:18As he was giving his orders, the world erupted around him, and from his bunker he saw the
17:23defences which were so important to the security of his wood, obliterated.
17:30In the first hour of the bombardment, 80,000 shells fell on the Bois-de-Corps alone.
17:36Drian's devastated vista was repeated across the whole 12km of defences on the right bank.
17:44People used to describe the artillery bombardments of Verdun as though there were great hands
17:50striking down at the soldiers.
17:52It was a terrible presence.
17:55Artillery became feared and hated at Verdun.
17:59In fact, soldiers on both sides of the infantry had more sympathy for each other than they
18:05had for their own gunners.
18:06The French and the German infantry were, as it were, in the same boat, being pounded into
18:10the ground by this terrible weight of artillery.
18:16By eight o'clock, those French gunners who had escaped the German artillery and intense
18:21gas barrage could do little to help their infantry by counter-battery work.
18:27The few French spotter planes to get through the German scouts reported that it was impossible
18:32to spot individual batteries, as there were so many.
18:36They said the woods hiding the German guns were enveloped in one continuous sheet of
18:41flame.
18:44In that first hour, most of the French field telephone lines were destroyed, making communications
18:49with other units and headquarters impossible.
18:53Runners, men on foot carrying urgent messages and reports, were sent out, most never to
18:58be seen again.
19:05The artillery bombardment switched to the French front lines, and it rolled to the second
19:09line, the third line, then back again, every fifteen minutes until twelve o'clock.
19:15Suddenly all shelling stopped.
19:18The French got out of their shelters, because they assumed an infantry attack was coming
19:22in.
19:23But then the artillery started again, and caught many French soldiers out in the open.
19:29The bombardment went on until about four pm.
19:33Then the infantry did move in.
19:35Initially small patrols, groups of ten to twelve German soldiers, bypassing any strong
19:40points that they came upon.
19:43They were accompanied by pioneers, combat engineers to assess the obstacles.
19:48The main infantry attack is going to come in the following day.
19:52So it's just patrols really on this first day.
19:55One of the corps commanders actually decides that the boss's orders don't make any sense,
19:58and he decides he will send his infantry in, and he does.
20:03The result is that by the end of that day, although the resistance has been more severe
20:08than the Germans thought, and although the artillery bombardment hadn't been as successful
20:13as they'd hoped, nevertheless they had made up quite a bit of ground.
20:17They were well poised to crack on the next day.
20:22Losses had been severe.
20:24One end of Drian's R2 bunker had been hit.
20:26To his left, bunkers R4 and R5 were smashed by direct hits, killing the platoon in each
20:33one.
20:34The trench lines were a shambles.
20:37Of Drian's 1,300 men, half were killed or wounded.
20:45Despite the destruction up and down the line, despite the losses, and despite the horror
20:49of a new weapon, flamethrowers, the line had more or less held.
20:55Drian addressed his men, we are here, this is our place.
21:02They shall not move us out of it.
21:08Day 2 of the German offensive at Verdun began at 7am, with another huge and terrifying bombardment.
21:15When it lifted at noon, the German infantry attacked along the entire right bank front.
21:24In the Bois des Corps, the whole weight of the 18th Corps moved forward against the ragtag
21:28remnants of Drian's two battalions of chasseurs.
21:32Pushing through on both his flanks, they opened fire from his rear.
21:37Distress rockets were sent up imploring the French gunners to unleash a defensive barrage,
21:42but none came.
21:44Twice the Germans were repulsed, but dwindling numbers of chasseurs meant that the forward
21:49lines and R2 could no longer hold out.
21:54Dividing his men into three groups, Drian retreated.
21:58As they scrambled back, the fire of three German regiments converged on them, and many
22:03were gunned down.
22:07Leading the second group, Drian stopped to give first aid to a wounded chasseur in a
22:10shell hole.
22:14As he moved to continue the retreat, he was hit.
22:18Those in the shell hole tried to pull him to safety, but they saw he was dead, shot
22:23through the forehead.
22:26Because of Drian's stand in the Bois de Corps, the Crown Prince's objectives for
22:30the 22nd of February could no longer be attained, and German confidence was shaken.
22:38The Germans buried Drian near where he fell.
22:42After the war, he was reinterred under a memorial to him and his chasseur, a few meters from
22:47his bunker.
22:50Colonel Drian held the Bois de Corps.
22:53He holds it still.
23:00There were other losses, too, on that second tragic day.
23:03The village of Aumont, the Bois des Champs-Neuvilles, and the Bois de Brabant, all taken.
23:12On the 23rd, Erdbois, Wavrille, and Brabant village, Samognon was lost, retaken, and lost
23:19again.
23:24The French artillery firing on the village, thinking the Germans were still in possession,
23:29destroyed their own men with what is now ironically called friendly fire.
23:38These first days of fighting saw the destruction of nine villages, which would never be reconstructed,
23:43and are known as Villages d'Etrus.
23:47In this respect, the success of the attack can only be explained by, first, the very short
23:57but fierce artillery bombardment and the sluggishness of the French leadership, which
24:03had taken a lot of time to reinforce this section.
24:08On the 25th of February, the mighty Fort de Douaumont fell into German hands almost
24:28by default.
24:30Originally conceived as the linchpin of Verdun's defences when construction began in 1885,
24:35it was taken by one sergeant and a small group of men.
24:42Finding themselves unopposed, they slipped in through an embrasure in the wall, and taking
24:47the four elderly gunners by surprise, they stopped the fire of the 150mm gun, the largest
24:54in the fort.
24:56Fort Douaumont was the flagship fort of Verdun, and was known as such to the French populace.
25:02But the high command hadn't told the French that Douaumont had been reduced in its garrison
25:08from five officers and 500 men in 1914 to one warrant officer and 50 territorial gunners
25:16in 1916.
25:17So when, on the fourth day of the battle, Douaumont was taken, the shock to the French
25:23was terrific.
25:24As a result of the French losses on the first
25:53four days, Joffre finally took decisive action, and appointed the 58-year-old General Henri
26:00Philippe Pétain to command at Verdun, at midnight on the night of the 25th.
26:19As a commander, he was cautious, painstaking, he believed in really thorough preparation,
26:27he understood the importance of artillery long before most of his contemporaries, he
26:32understood the common soldier, he understood logistics, which not all French generals did.
26:39On his arrival at his headquarters at Souy, Pétain telephoned his generals commanding
26:43units in the right and left banks.
26:46Now everything is going to be all right, one replied in relief.
26:52In the morning, Pétain awoke with double pneumonia.
26:56Despite this, he began to plan and issue directives from his sickbed.
27:02He planned lines of defensive resistance, using the neglected major and minor forts.
27:07Pétain also set about carefully coordinating the defensive artillery bombardments.
27:14On the last day of February, a conference was held between Falkenhayn and the Crown
27:18Prince.
27:19Wilhelm demanded three things, that the left bank of the Meuse must now be attacked because
27:24French artillery fire was disrupting his units on the right, that the high command would
27:29give him enough material on a large scale to continue the offensive on both banks.
27:34Thirdly, he wanted all offensives by his army stopped, should they find themselves losing
27:39men more heavily and becoming exhausted more rapidly than the French.
27:46On the 6th of March, the Germans attacked on the left bank of the Meuse.
27:51This was no surprise for Pétain, in fact he had wondered why they had not done so before.
27:56He had packed the left bank defences with artillery in anticipation.
28:01After a fierce opening barrage, the German infantry attacked.
28:05There were no probings on the first day.
28:08The battle ebbed and flowed, the ground being taken and then retaken many times.
28:13German losses were so high that they could advance no further than their small early
28:18gains.
28:20The front stabilised, from a line just north of Cote 304, and Le Mur Homme, both of which
28:26saw furious fighting, to the Meuse.
28:32The weather now interfered with German plans, plans that depended on artillery.
28:37The thaw set in, making movement of heavy guns forward to new positions through the
28:41mud very difficult and time-consuming.
28:45The terrain was pitted with shell holes, the roads had been obliterated, and the destruction
28:50of the woods removed any cover.
28:52The German guns in the open were now vulnerable to the French artillery.
28:58Even when they managed to get the guns in position, their troubles were not over.
29:02Guns exploded in worn barrels, killing crews, or dropped short, killing their own infantry,
29:08and getting enough ammunition up to the guns proved impossible.
29:13Fighting continued on the right bank, and on the 2nd of April, the village of Vaux fell
29:18to the Germans.
29:21On the 9th of April, both banks were assaulted.
29:25Next day, General Pétain's famous message to his troops was dispatched.
29:30Courage, on les oras, we will get them.
30:00After Pétain established the sacred way and the Noria system, the Voix Sacrée continued
30:14to sustain the defenders.
30:16Pétain's turnstile was working flat out.
30:2090,000 men and many thousands of kilograms of materiel and supplies were reaching the
30:25battered town of Verdun every week.
30:29And like so many generals of the First World War, he cared about his men, and that's why
30:33he made sure that they weren't just put into Verdun to waste away.
30:37He made sure that units went in and units came out.
30:41The Germans tended to put them in and leave them there until they lost, or their officers
30:45lost half their men.
30:47Pétain realized that what you had to do was to make sure to keep up the morale of the
30:52men, to give them their best shot, to make them feel that they were being cared for.
30:56Take them in, but bring them out.
31:00To maintain the vital lifeline from Bar-le-Duc, through snow and ice, then the muddy Thor,
31:06territorial army road gangs shoveled huge amounts of stones and gravel under the wheels
31:11of the convoys of lorries.
31:13In the busiest periods, one lorry passed every 14 seconds or so.
31:19Though they had three squadrons of aircraft capable of bombing, the Germans failed to
31:24hamper or destroy this lifeline.
31:27They could, if they had wanted to, with a couple of decent bombing raids, close the
31:31Voix Sacrae down.
31:33But the probability is that Falkenhayn wanted to keep the Voix Sacrae open, otherwise how
31:39would he keep on bleeding France white?
31:41The point was that France had to keep on sending up her troops and her guns and her supplies
31:47and so on, and therefore more and more people were brought up into what the Crown Prince
31:53rather succinctly called the Mill on the Meuse.
32:00After seven weeks of confused fighting, with huge losses on both sides, first Cote 304,
32:06then Le Mort Homme, were taken by the Germans.
32:10However, this was as far as they reached on the left bank, and assaults switched back
32:15to the right.
32:18On the 1st of May, the impatient Joffre promoted Pétain to command Army Group Centre, and
32:24gave the task of recovering lost ground to General Robert Nivelle.
32:41Once the front at Verdun is stabilised, Joffre feels that Pétain is too defensively minded.
32:48He's now stabilised the front, but what Joffre needs is somebody who'll go on the offensive
32:54and regain the lost territories.
32:56And Nivelle then takes over from Pétain, and Nivelle, by skillful coordination of artillery
33:03and infantry, does recapture a lot of the lost territories.
33:08With him, Nivelle had his favourite subordinate, General Mangin.
33:13The butcher, the drinker of blood, the eater of men.
33:17Mangin came from Lorraine, most of which had been taken by the Germans in 1870.
33:22This may contribute to his hatred of Germans.
33:25Mangin just wanted to kill people.
33:27Germans if possible, but if there weren't any Germans, anybody would do.
33:30He would frequently, passionately take a rifle, go into the front lines and have a pop himself.
33:35He was wounded three times.
33:38He was very much the soldier's general, but inevitably, because of his belief in constantly
33:43attacking, casualties in units under his command tended to be pretty high.
33:48Nivelle, as impatient as Pétain had been careful, entrusted Mangin with the recapture
33:53of Fort de Douaumont, which the leadership now considered to be of great importance to
33:58the French nation.
34:01Nivelle's security was so lax, however, that the Germans soon learnt every detail of his
34:06plans.
34:07On the 22nd of May, Mangin, watching from the top of Fort de Souville, saw his attacking
34:13force taking huge casualties.
34:17One French battalion to the right of the fort was surrounded, and having taken 72% casualties
34:23and run out of ammunition, was forced to surrender.
34:27Although some French troops managed to reach the top of the fort, and a brave few inside
34:31the attack was repulsed.
35:02Within sight of Douaumont, the Germans next had their eyes on Fort Vaux, which remained
35:10in French hands at the end of May.
35:13The defence of this fort was entrusted to the thrice-wounded, 49-year-old commandant
35:17Reynal, who volunteered to take command on the night of the 30th of May.
35:23The next night, following a massive bombardment, the exterior defences of the fort were taken,
35:29and the Germans established themselves on the roof.
35:32For the next seven days, fighting took place in the galleries and passageways of the fort,
35:37some of it hand-to-hand, all of it at close quarters.
35:43As if the onslaught wasn't enough for the defenders to contend with, supplies of drinking
35:47water were running dangerously low, and soon Reynal's dehydrated men were reduced to
35:53licking the condensation from the walls.
35:57Though efforts were made to relieve the fort, it was now virtually surrounded, and early
36:02on the morning of June 7th, besieged, heavily shelled, attacked not only by flamethrowers
36:08and grenades, but gas as well, only thirst conquered Reynal and his gallant band.
36:16Amid scenes of old world courtesy, the fort was surrendered.
36:24Even before the Crown Prince, Reynal was congratulated on his defence, and on the award
36:30of the Légion d'Honneur.
36:32The Germans were so impressed by the defence of Fort Vaux, when its commander handed over
36:39his sword as a symbol of surrender, the Crown Prince gave him his sword back again.
36:45He was honoured by the Germans for the tenacity of his resistance.
36:49It was one of the great heroic stories of Verdun, 1916.
36:55The siege of Verdun reached its crisis at the end of June, at the beginning of July.
37:01The Germans now used a new, sophisticated poison gas, phosgene, hoping to panic the
37:06French front line, now only four kilometres from Verdun.
37:11On the 22nd of June, phosgene gas shells followed yet another huge bombardment, and at 7am,
37:19German troops attacked in mass formations.
37:24The Thurmond Redoubt on Foix-de-Terre Hill eventually fell, but only after fierce fighting
37:29were the defenders outnumbered 10 to 1.
37:32The delay in capturing Thurmond gave the French time to bring up a battalion of chasseurs,
37:37who using bayonet and grenade, cleared the Germans from their next objective, the Foix-de-Terre
37:44Redoubt.
37:45In front of Souville, the French 407th Regiment slowed down the German attack with machine
37:50guns, then counter-attacked.
37:53Throwing everyone they could gather into this, including an improvised reserve of telephonists,
37:57orderlies, cooks and stretcher-bearers, the Germans were forced back.
38:04This makeshift force had halted the German advance, and they reached no further than
38:08this on the right bank.
38:12This second failure at Souville marked the effective end of the German offensive, if
38:17not the fighting.
38:19Mongin, using Pétain's creeping barrage, counter-attacked, retaking Fort-les-Durmons
38:25on the 24th of October.
38:27The French mounted a strong and powerfully prepared attack on Fort-les-Durmons.
38:32They got some very large guns themselves, 400cm guns, which were really big guns, and
38:39they brought those into action too, and they hammered Fort-les-Durmons into the ground,
38:45as it were.
38:46But the Germans had done the same as the French had done.
38:49They had evacuated their troops, so that not too many Germans were killed, but the French
38:54were able to storm into Les-Durmons, seize it, claim it, and say to the world, we have
39:00reclaimed our fort.
39:01We have reclaimed Fort-les-Durmons.
39:04Even though the cost was colossal, the achievement was great also, and was lauded round the world.
39:09It became the great French achievement of 1916.
39:14To the French public, this was a great victory.
39:17Durmons was a symbol.
39:19It was of no military significance whatsoever, but it was a symbol.
39:22It had to be recaptured, and it was seen in France as being a great victory.
39:28In Germany, it was seen as a terrible defeat.
39:31The reality is, it didn't matter tactically, it was all about perception.
39:40The capture of Fort-de-Vaux followed on the 2nd of November, and the Germans were driven
39:44back five kilometres from Souville in December.
39:48On the 1st of July, the British and French had opened their offensive on the Somme, turning
39:53Joffre's Allied plans for 1916 into reality.
39:57The Battle of the Somme slogged on until the middle of November, inextricably linking
40:01it with Verdun.
40:03Verdun had now become a holding action for Joffre and Haig's Somme offensive, and the
40:09Somme became a relief action for de Mille on the Meuse.
40:13By July 1916, the Germans are losing almost as many men as the French.
40:21The Crown Prince doesn't really have any further faith in it.
40:26As the Somme starts, he's told there are no more reserves, he's got to make do with
40:31what he's got, and quite a lot of his heavy artillery is removed and sent up to the Somme
40:38to face the British.
40:40When Falkenhayn is dismissed in August and replaced by Hindenburg and Ludendorff, they
40:46both say, no more attacks at Verdun, close it down.
40:50It also, of course, means that the Somme, which was originally going to be an Anglo-French
40:55offensive, with the French providing most of the troops, because of Verdun there are
40:59of course less and less French troops available, so it now becomes very much a British affair.
41:05And although this wasn't the original aim of the Somme offensive, the Somme offensive
41:09has to take place, and it has to keep going on to relieve the pressure on Verdun.
41:20Whilst they had inflicted huge casualties on the French, when the Germans wound down
41:24their offensive at Verdun, their victory was incomplete.
41:29Despite their appalling casualties, the French claimed victory at the end of the year.
41:35Remarkably, considering the death and destruction that surrounded them, the beleaguered French
41:41forces stuck to their task, and morale was maintained.
41:46Surprisingly, perhaps, French army morale wasn't too badly affected by Verdun.
41:55They seemed to become resigned to it.
41:58There was a stick-it-out-at-all-costs attitude, resigned, glum, dure, but they went on doing it.
42:07They seemed to accept slaughter, death, destruction, all around them.
42:17As the French historian Jean-Jacques Becker pointed out, it was in Verdun that the feeling
42:22of defending one's country was best expressed.
42:24That's where the patriotic feeling reached its peak.
42:27The French, the French soldiers but also the rear, were aware of defending the soil of the nation.
42:34Nivelle had famously ordered,
42:36Ils ne passeront pas.
42:38They shall not pass.
42:40Nor did they.
42:43The wider effects of Verdun were the fall of Joffre, due in part to his neglect of Verdun's defences.
42:51His successor, Nivelle, buoyed up by his triumphs at Verdun in the last three months of the year,
42:57formulated a grand plan to sweep his way to victory in 1917.
43:02Nivelle's overconfidence and continuing lack of security was to prove costly,
43:08and he suffered a crushing defeat on the Chemin des Dames in April.
43:16Over the ten long months of battle, four-fifths of the French army had served at Verdun,
43:22sustaining over 377,000 casualties.
43:27It cost the Germans over 337,000.
43:31In total then, over 700,000 men were killed, wounded or missing during the siege.
43:43In a sense, Verdun was one of the great, terrible, appalling battles of the First World War,
43:50just as Stalingrad became one of the terrible, great battles of the Second World War.
43:56In fact, the two have been compared as examples of terrible, sacrificial battles,
44:01which went on and on and on, which were a new hallmark in terms of the orphanness of war.
44:26This is also the great battle of aviation.
44:29It is here, in the sky of Verdun, that it is for the first time affirmed,
44:34that for the first time we have demonstrated the importance of fighter aviation.
44:45After the war, on Tuamon Ridge, an ostuary was built
44:49to house the bones of approximately 130,000 unidentified French and German troops
44:55collected from the former battlefield.
45:01On the other side of the road, in the beautifully groomed cemetery, lie 15,000 graves.
45:25More than 400,000 French and German soldiers were killed.
45:28Other battles, of course, were as good as the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of the Marne.
45:32But Verdun, for the first time in the history of France,
45:35has been sacrificed to show how a whole people could unite to face a terrible ordeal.
45:49At the ostuary in 1984, the French President and German Chancellor,
45:54holding hands, came to pay their respects to the dead of both nations at Verdun
45:59and set the seal on European reconciliation.
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