The Battle of Verdun was not merely one of the hardest of the War's
many battles, it was also one of the most serious checks received
by the Germans. The enemy High Command had foreseen neither its
amplitude nor its long duration. Whereas, "according to plan",
Verdun--"Heart of France"--was speedily to be overpowered by a
carefully prepared mass attack, the Germans found themselves involved
in a formidable struggle, without being able either to obtain a
decisive advantage or keep the relatively small advantages obtained
at the beginning of the battle.
The battle did not develop "according to plan", its successive phases
being determined by circumstances. The huge reinforcements which
the Germans were compelled to call upon bring out very clearly the
immensity of the enemy effort.
From February 21st 1916 to February 1st 1917 the Germans made use
of fifty-six and a half divisions, i.e. 567 battalions, in front
of Verdun. Of these fifty-six and a half divisions, six divisions
appeared successively on both banks of the Meuse, eight others being
also engaged twice and six three times. In reality, in the course
of eleven months, eighty-two and a half German divisions (nearly
1,800,000 men), took part in the attacks on Verdun, which they had
expected to crush in a few days with ten to twelve divisions. The
contrast between this formidable effort and the meagre results
obtained is striking, and is a splendid testimony to the courage and
tenacity of the defenders.
This battle, by using up the best troops the Germans could put into
the field, had serious strategic results for the enemy.
Hindenburg in his Memoirs states "This battle exhausted our forces
like a wound that never heals."
"At Verdun France learnt to know herself", writes L. Gillet in his
wonderful book _The Battle of Verdun_.
"The Marne was not enough to show France what she really was. A day
of inspiration, a few hours of frenzy, a burst of enthusiasm, a
sudden glow of rage and passion with _Marseillaises_ sounding on all
sides, the world knew us to be capable of flashes like these. But the
world did not know--nor did we ourselves--our own sterling virtue.
"We were the country of improvisation, the country of laughing
nonchalance, varied with attacks of fever: we had forgotten our
strength of continuity. Thanks to the length of the battle, France
was able to measure her reserves of endurance. In this continuous
struggle which brought, one after another, men of every village to
the same tragic scene, each was inspired with the determination to do
at least as well as those who had preceded him. Then, when their turn
had come to be relieved, after unheard of ordeals, they read again
and again, in the communiqué's, the names of the same hills and awful
woods where they had held the line, and learnt that others in their
turn kept holding on....
"Instead of a succession of isolated deeds of valour, Verdun was for
the whole French Army an heroic exploit in which all shared alike.
France bled soldiers from all her wounds. At Verdun she was inspired
with something solemn, sacred and unanimous, like the spirit of a
religious crusade."
As President Poincaré declared on September 13th 1916, when he handed
to the Mayor of Verdun the decorations conferred upon the town by the
Allied Nations, it was before the walls of Verdun that "the highest
hopes of Imperial Germany were crushed". At Verdun, Germany had
sought to achieve an overwhelming spectacular success, and it was
there that France had replied quietly but firmly "They shall never
pass".
"For centuries to come, in all parts of the world the name of Verdun
would continue to ring like a cry of victory and a sound of joy
uttered by a people delivered from tyranny."
[Illustration: MARSHAL FOCH AND GENERAL PERSHING.]