THE WESTERN FRONT
THE END OF THE FIRST BATTLE OF VERDUN: 18th DECEMBER 1916
GERMAN PEACE PROPOSAL: 12th DECEMBER 1916
Acknowledgements
German Attack: warfarehistorynetwork.com Defiance: punch.photoshelter.com French Attack: sofrep.com Verdun: youtube.com Soldier and Death: by the Austrian artist Hans Larwin, Museum of Military History, Vienna, reddit.com Douaument Ossuary: flickr.com War Grave: today-
As we have seen earlier (February 1916), the French capture of the villages of Louvremont and Bezonvaux in December 1916 brought an end to the lengthy, ferocious and bloody battle surrounding the fortress town of Verdun. A symbol of French independence and defiance, it remained in French hands, albeit at a tremendous price in casualties. The total for both sides, noted earlier, is put as high as 900,000 by some sources, with over a third of that number listed as killed. Nine villages, including Fleury, Houmont, Ornes and Vaux, were entirely destroyed, and were honoured with the title “died for France”.
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The “Hell of Verdun” and the devastation of the land that surrounded this fortress town – seen by many as “the most appalling mass murder in history”, was finally put on hold. It represented in total all the horrors of the First World War. The Dutch author, Richard Heijster, called it “the fault line in our civilisation”. This said, the constant German bombardment – the major weapon in this brutal war of attrition – was not seen as a tactic, but a strategy. Its aim was not victory in battle, but victory in war, putting an end to the costly, horrific conflict which raged over Europe and many other parts of the world. It failed, and this highlighted the dreadful price that had been paid, and the callousness of the policy that had been followed. Had it won, then in some quarters at least, it might well have been seen as a price worth the paying. As far as Verdun was concerned, the battered town and its region was to take many years to recover, body and soul, but at last and at least it was temporarily at peace.
The DouaumontxOssuary, completed in 1932 and pictured here, contains the remains of 150,000 unidentifed French and German soldiers. At the end of the war an area covering some 65 square miles along the Verdun ridge was declared a “Zone Rouge” because of the unexploded ordinance it contained. In the 21st century the French Interior Ministry reported that over ten million shells remained in the soil around Verdun. Some 40 tons were removed each year, and it would take centuries to clear the site.
But this was not the end to the bloodshed at Verdun, though it proved much less violent. As we shall see later, the Second Battle, fought over this historic town in August 1917, was to see the French on the attack, making important gains and confirming their victory over the Germans.
Incidentally, it was on the 8th May 1916, that a group of German soldiers, stationed at Fort Douaumont, tried to heat coffee using flamethrower fuel. The resulting fire spread to a store of grenades and shells nearby, and the explosion that followed killed 679 men and wounded a further 1,800! The remains of the dead were placed in a walled enclosure, and, after the war, this was made into an official German war grave.
GeneralxErich von Falkenhayn (1861-
ampaign of attrition (and was called the “Blood Miller of Verdun” by some), joined the army in 1880. Early in his career he served as an instructor in the Chinese army, and took part in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. From July 1913 to January 1915, he was the Prussian minister of war, (remembered for improving the supply of equipment and the transport of troops by rail), and in September 1914, following the German retreat from the Marne, he succeeded Hermuth von Moltke as Chief of the General Staff. It was in this capacity that he masterminded the attack on Verdun, confident that the capture of this fortress town, together with an excessive loss of manpower, would bring about the collapse of the French. His failure to achieve this – and he was not assisted by having to send troops and armaments to the Eastern Front and the Battle of the Somme – led to his dismissal. He then served in Romania, Palestine and Lithuania before retiring in 1919.
GERMANxPEACE PROPOSAL: 12th DECEMBER 1916
It was on the 12th December, following the Brusilov Offensive and the battles of Verdun and the Somme, that the Central Powers – having given proof of “their indestructible strength in winning considerable successes in a war forced on them by their enemies” – offered, somewhat unexpectedly, to open peace negotiations with the Allied Powers. At this stage, they put forward no conditions or demands, but, on the surface, the offer seemed clearly based on the assumption that Germany would be the party that would set out the conditions and make the demands! There was even talk of returning to pre-
The Allies, however, saw this offer as a sign of weakness not strength, and would have none of it. They argued that, in fact, the German Empire was facing defeat, and was beginning to recognise that fact. Whilst German forces still held enemy territory in Belgium and on both the Western and Eastern Fronts, they had failed in their attempt to capture Verdun; their major ally, Austria-
surely strangling the German economy. On the 30th December the Allies gave a formal answer to the German offer, signed by all members of the Alliance. There could be no peace, they declared, until Germany offered “reparation, restitution and guarantees for the future”. The British prime minister, Lloyd George, chose to quote Abraham Lincoln (an apt choice given the circumstances!): “We accepted this war for an object, a worthy object, and the war will end when that object is attained”.
This seemed clear enough, but it could be argued that these were the very replies that the German government wanted to hear! It was a “peace trap”, just “a clever Teutonic trick”. The refusal of the Allies to negotiate an end to the endless shedding of blood – the best chance for peace in two and a half years – meant that “the odium of continuing the war” fell on them. Neutral nations, it was hopefully anticipated, including the United States, would give support to Germany’s genuine desire to restore peace among the nations. And there was even the hope in Berlin that the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, planned for February – the only real means of bringing France and Britain to the conference table – would be tolerated, perhaps even supported, thereby giving the u-
Falkenhayn’s failure to capture Verdun and, by so doing, achieve the collapse of France, led to his dismissal in August 1916. He was replaced as Chief of the General Staff by Paul von Hindenburg, a man who had criticised Falkenhayn’s policy from the beginning. As we shall see, being anxious to strengthen German defences along the central section of the Western Front – the battlegrounds of the Somme – he organised a strategic withdrawal to what came to be known as the Hindenburg Line.
