Verdun WW1 Battlefield site, Verdun-sur-Meuse, France. March 2014 Seen here : The shell cratered remains of Fort Douaumont on th
Verdun WW1 Battlefield site, Verdun-sur-Meuse, France. March 2014 Seen here : The shell cratered remains of Fort Douaumont on the Verdun Battlefield. Fort Douaumont (French Fort de Douaumont) was the largest and highest fort on the ring of 19 large defensive forts protecting the city of Verdun, France since the 1890s. However, by 1915 the French General Staff had concluded that even the best-protected forts of Verdun could not resist bombardments from the German 420 mm (16 in) Gamma guns. These newly deployed giant howitzers had easily taken several large Belgian forts out of action in August 1914. As a result, Fort Douaumont and other Verdun forts, being judged ineffective, had been partly disarmed and left virtually undefended since 1915. Consequently, on 25 February 1916, Fort Douaumont was entered and occupied without a fight by a small German raiding party comprising only 19 officers and 79 men. The easy fall of Fort Douaumont, only three days after the beginning of the Battle of Verdun, produced a deep shock in the French Army's command structure. It set the stage for the rest of a battle which lasted nine months, at enormous human costs. Douaumont was finally recaptured by three infantry divisions of the French Second Army, during the First Offensive Battle of Verdun on 24 October 1916. This event brought closure to the Battle of Verdun in 1916.[1] The Battle of Verdun lasted 9 months, 3 weeks and 6 days between 21 February and 20 december 1916. It was the longest and one of the most costly battles in human history; recent estimates increase the number of casualties to 976,000. Caption information below from wikipedia: The Battle of Verdun (Bataille de Verdun0, was fought from 21 February – 18 December 1916 during the First World War on the Western Front between the German and French armies, on hills north of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France. The German Fifth Army attacked the defences of the Région Fortifiée de Verdun (RFV) and the Second Army
Size: 5062px × 3333px
Location: Verdun WW1 Battlefield site, Verdun-sur-Meuse, France.
Photo credit: © BRIAN HARRIS / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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