Besides, it was rarely in progress on both sides of the river at once. Until the end of May the Germans did their worst on the left; then the French activities brought them back to the right side, and there they attacked with fury until mid-July. The end of April was a period of recuperation for the Germans. They were still suffering from the confusion caused by their setbacks of March, and especially of April 9. Both were repulsed with great losses.
It was not until May that the new German tactics were revealed: vigorous, but partial, attacks, directed now against one point, now against another.
On May 4 there began a terrible artillery preparation, directed against Hill This was followed by attacks of infantry, which surged up the shell-blasted slopes, first to the northwest, then north, and finally northeast. The attack of the 7th was made by three divisions of fresh troops which had not previously been in action before Verdun. No gains were secured.
Every foot of ground taken in the first rush was recaptured by French counterattacks. During the night of the 18th a savage onslaught was made against the woods of Avocourt, without the least success. On the 20th and 21st, three divisions were hurled against Le Mort Homme, which they finally took; but they could go no farther. The 23d and 24th were terrible days. The battles of the left river-bank were now over; on this side of the Meuse there were to be only local engagements of no importance, and the usual artillery fire.
This shift of the German offensive activity from the left side of the Meuse to the right is explained by the activity shown at the same time in this sector by the French. The French command was not deceived by the German tactics; they intended to husband their strength for the future Somme offensive. For them Verdun was a sacrificial sector to which they sent, from now on, few men, scant munitions, and only artillery of the older type. Their object was only to hold firm, at all costs.
To carry this out, they selected a soldier bronzed on the battlefields of Central Africa, the Soudan, and Morocco, General Mangin, who commanded the 5th Division and had already played a distinguished part in the struggle for Vaux, in March. The Germans replied to this with the greatest energy; for two days and nights the battle raged round the ruins of the fort.
Finally, on the night of the 24t, two new Bavarian divisions succeeded in getting a footing in this position, to which the immediate approaches were held by the French.
This vigorous effort alarmed the enemy, and from now on, until the middle of July, all their strength was focused on the right bank of the river. This contest of the right bank began on May It is, perhaps, the bloodiest, the most terrible, chapter of all the operations before Verdun; for the Germans had determined to capture methodically, one by one, all the French positions, and get to the city. The first stake of this game was the possession of the fort of Vaux.
Access to it was cut off from the French by a barrage-fire of unprecedented intensity; at the same time an assault was made against the trenches flanking the fort, and also against the defenses of the Fumin woods. On June 4 the enemy reached the superstructure of the fort and took possession, showering down hand-grenades and asphyxiating gas on the garrison, which was shut up in the casemates. After a heroic resistance the defenders succumbed to thirst and surrendered on June 7.
From June 8 to 20, terrible fighting won for the Germans the possession of Thiaumont; on the 23d, six divisions, representing a total of at least 70, men, were hurled against Fleury, which they held from the 23d to the 26th. The French, undaunted, returned to the charge. On August 30 they reoccupied Thiaumont, lost it at half-past three of the same day, recaptured it at half-past four, and were again driven out two days later.
However, they remained close to the redoubt and the village. The Germans then turned south, against the fortifications which dominated the ridges and ravines. There, on a hillock, stands the fort of Souville, at approximately the same elevation as Douaumont.
A counter-attack drove them away again, but they dug themselves in about metres away from the position. After all, what had they accomplished? For twelve days they had been confronted with the uselessness of these bloody sacrifices. Decidedly, the Battle of Verdun was lost. Neither the onslaught of the first period nor the battles of fixation had brought about the desired end. The leaders of the German General Staff accepted the situation. Verdun held no further interest for them. Verdun, however, continued to be of great interest to the French.
In the first place, they could not endure seeing the enemy intrenched five kilometres away from the coveted city. Moreover, it was most important for them to prevent the Germans from weakening the Verdun front and transferring their men and guns to the Somme.
The French troops, therefore, were to take the initiative out of the hands of the Germans and inaugurate, in their turn, a battle of fixation. This new situation presented two phases: in July and August the French were satisfied to worry the enemy with small forces and to oblige them to fight; in October and December General Nivelle, well supplied with troops and material, was able to strike two vigorous blows which took back from the Germans the larger part of all the territory they had won since February From July 15 to September 15, furious fighting was in progress on the slopes of the plateau stretching from Thiaumont to Damloup.
This time, however, it was the French who attacked savagely, who captured ground, and who took prisoners. So impetuous were they that their adversaries, who asked for nothing but quiet, were obliged to be constantly on their guard and deliver costly counter-attacks.
The contest raged most bitterly over the ruins of Thiaumont and Fleury. On the 15th of July the Zouaves broke into the southern part of the village, only to be driven out again. However, on the 19th and 20th the French freed Souville, and drew near to Fleury; from the 20th to the 26th they forged ahead step by step, taking prisoners. A general attack, delivered on August 3, carried the fort of Thiaumont and the village of Fleury, with prisoners. The Germans reacted violently; the 4th of August they reoccupied Fleury, a part of which was taken back by the French that same evening.
From the 5th to the 9th the struggle went on ceaselessly, night and day, in the ruins of the village. During this time the adversaries took and retook Thiaumont, which the Germans held after the 8th.
But on the 10th the Colonial regiment from Morocco reached Fleury, carefully prepared the assault, delivered it on the 17th, and captured the northern and southern portions of the village, encircling the central part, which they occupied on the 18th. Form this day Fleury remained in French hands.
The German counter-assaults of the 18th, 19th, and 20th of August were fruitless; the Moroccan Colonials held their conquest firmly. On the 24th the French began to advance east of Fleury, in spite of incessant attacks which grew more intense on the 28th.
On the 9th they took more before Fleury. It may be seen that the French troops had thoroughly carried out the programme assigned to them of attacking the enemy relentlessly, obliging him to counter-attack, and holding him at Verdun.
The French st Infantry Regiment spent fifty days under fire at Verdun in and another thirty-five in , and lost 3, soldiers killed or wounded.
Yet their ordeal was no different from that of hundreds of other infantry units that fought and endured in this meat-grinder of a battle. Their diaries and memoirs tell their story in the most compelling way, and through their words the larger human story of the French soldier during the war comes to life. Drawing closely on published and unpublished memoirs and war diaries he paints a graphic picture of its actions and of conditions both at the front and at the rear.
Apart from the very rare error, such as placing the 72nd Infantry Division on the Left Bank in March when it was actually on the Right Bank with the 51st, the maps are disappointing. While the author clearly has the terrain firmly fixed in his head and knows what he means when he refers to this ravine or that trench, for the ordinary reader such a lot of place names without an adequate accompanying map can be irritating and tiresome.
Equally, complicated maps — like those dealing with the fighting on the Mort—Homme in May , where the trenches were often very close together — would benefit from clearer distinction between the German and French positions than in grey and black. However, this does not detract from the overall quality of the work, which combines readability with detailed knowledge and great descriptive power.
Before the First World War, this sort of conflict landscape would not have been seen anywhere on Earth, and even today it is hard to comprehend. The shattered terrain at the Butte de Vauquois, where exploding mines remade the surface of the Earth in Violence, terror, and hatred are all encased in the butchered landscape of the Butte.
It was regarded by the French as the worst posting at Verdun, and Verdun was regarded as the worst on the Western Front. Life at Vauquois was so bad that during late a short-lived and unofficial truce was declared between the two bitter enemies.
The fighting had become unbearable, and in the end, the Germans tried to destroy the entire hill; a task that proved simply too great. Much of the old Western Front has been regenerated for the benefit of remembrance or tourism. The history that they portray and the stories that they narrate are controlled and often dubious.
At Vauquois, the history is raw, savage, and unedited. Apart from the growth of vegetation, the obvious clearance of the detritus of battle, and the addition of sparse railings around the vast craters, very little has changed at the site since the end of the war. Barbed-wire emplacements, trenches, entrances to tunnel systems, and the craters themselves tell the history of the abominable events that took place on this hill almost a century ago in a manner that few other First World War sites can.
On the first Sunday of every month tours are run inside what is left of the hill. Beneath the giant craters are some 17km of tunnels on multiple levels. It is possibly the most thought-provoking and impressive tour that can be taken on the Western Front. The visitor gains a glimpse into a frightening and alien troglodyte world. The scale of the mining and counter-mining is hard to comprehend as the visitor rides the small mine carts through the claustrophobic and seemingly endless tunnels.
The mines detonated mean that it is extremely difficult to judge how many people lost their lives at Vauquois. Many men would have been atomised by the force of the blasts. It is also an official historic monument. This protected status means that the whole area can be seen in context. Many of the mine craters overlap each other, creating a giant scar across the landscape, and clearly define what happened at Vauquois.
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