Battle+of+Verdun+Script

=World War I - The Battle of Verdun - Script and Audio Page= email: pfat93@comcast.net password: password
 * __Zach's Part__**

The Battle of Verdun also known as 'Mincing Machine of Verdun' was one of the most important battles of World War I. It was fought around the city of Verdun-sur-Muese in Northeast France. The battle took place from February 21 to December 18, 1916. To this day, the battle of Verdun remains one of the longest battles in history, lasting about 10 months.

The designer of the German plan of attack was General Erich von Falkenhayn, the German commander in chief. On December 24, 1915 the decision was made to attack Verdun. The code name for this attack was Operation Judgement. The date of the attack was set to take place on February 12, 1916. However, the original attack planned was cancelled due to the bad weather and a new date was set, February 21st.
 * Before the battle**

The battle began on February 21, 1916 with a nine-hour artillery bombardment, followed by an attack by three army corps.A million troops, led by Crown Prince Wilhelm faced only about 200,000 French defenders. The next day the French were forced to retreat to their second line of trenches. Only 3 days after the initial attack the French had moved back to the third line and were only 8km from Verdun.
 * The battle**

The chief of staff of the French Army, General de Castelnau, appointed General Philippe Pétain, to be commander of Verdun. He arranged for every spare French soldier to this part of the Western Front. Of the 330 infantry regiments of the French Army, 259 eventually fought at Verdun. The German attack was slowed down at the village of Douaumont by the defense of the French 33rd Infantry Regiment and heavy snowfall. This delay of the German attack gave the French time to bring up 90,000 men and 23,000 tons of ammunition from the railhead at Bar-le-Duc to Verdun. The heavy snowfall also brought severe muddy conditions. The mud made it so the German's could not advance their guns, causing them to lose effective artillary cover. The German advance also brought them into range of French artillery on the west bank of the Meuse. Each new advance by the Germans became more and more costly to them. When the Germans finally captured the village of Douaumont on March 2, 1916, four German regiments had been virtually destroyed.

The German frontal attack on Verdun came to a halt, so the Germans turned to the the strategy of flanks, attacking the hill of Le Mort Homme on March 6th and Fort Vaux on March 8th. Le Mort Homme was secured by the Germans on May 29th and Fort Vaux was captured on June 7th. In three months of savage fighting the Germans captured the French villages of Cumières and Chattancourt to the west of Verdun. The next objective of the Germans was Fort Souville. On June 22, 1916 they shelled the French defences with the poison gas diphosgene, and attacked the following day with 60,000 men, taking the battery of Thiaumont and the village of Fleury. They were unable to capture Souville, though the fighting around it continued until 6 September. The French counter-attacked the Germans at their front-line stationed at Somme. The scale of the German attacks were reduced by the need to transfer troops to defend their front-line. The French leader of this counter-attack on October 21, 1916 was General Charles Mangin. The French bombarded Fort Douaumont and recaptured it on October 24th. The French also attacked Fort Vaux and forced the Germans to retreat. by November 2nd. Mangin became a national hero for recapturing these two important forts.
 * __Pat's Part__**

Following the fall of Fort Vaux, the fighting remained silent for several weeks. Then Mangin decided to attack one more time to move the Germans backs to their original position. On December 18th the German army reaches the conclusion that a complete defeat had been suffered at Verdun and the Battle of Verdun finally comes to an end.

Even though other battles during World War I had higher death counts, Verdun came to gain the reputation of being the battlefield with the highest density of dead per square yard that has probably ever been known. The French casualties are estimated to be 550,000 men and the German Army suffered an estimate of 434,000 casualties. About half of all casualties at Verdun were killed. Above all, the battle was an important turning point in the First World War. Before it, Germany still had a reasonable chance of winning the war; in the course of those ten months this chance was gone. Neither the French nor the German army would be quite the same again. Verdun became a symbol of determination for the French army and marked the point at which, among the Allies, the main burden of the war passed from France to Britain, and the battle also influenced America's eventual entry into the war.
 * Casualties**
 * Importance**

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