The Battle of Verdun is dated from 21 February to 18 December 1916. It ended as it had begun, on the heights east of the Meuse, but this time with the French attacking. A last offensive launched on 15 December pushed the Germans back from the ground they had won in the spring, and by its close the forts of Verdun were French again. After ten months the front had moved only a few miles, and the two armies had lost hundreds of thousands of men between them.
The French take back their forts
The German offensive that opened on 21 February 1916 captured Fort Douaumont within days and took Fort Vaux in June, but it never reached Verdun itself. In the autumn the French went over to the attack. Their counteroffensive opened on 24 October, after a long bombardment, and retook Douaumont on the first day. Larousse dates the recapture of Vaux to 2 November. General Charles Mangin led the attacks, under General Robert Nivelle, who had taken over at Verdun from Philippe Pétain in the spring.1
The last attack, 15 to 18 December
On 15 December Mangin's troops attacked again on the right bank of the Meuse. Rickard writes that the attack pushed the Germans back about another two miles, and Larousse lists Hardaumont, Bezonvaux and Vacherauville among the ground retaken. The Verdun tourist office, in its account of the destroyed village of Louvemont, says the Germans abandoned that sector on 15 and 16 December after Mangin's offensive. The fighting died down by 18 December, the date that Britannica and Rickard give for the end of the battle. By then, Rickard notes, all of Verdun's forts were back in French hands.2
The cost
No one has an exact count of the losses, and the published totals differ. Britannica puts French casualties at about 400,000 and German at about 350,000, with some 300,000 killed in all. Rickard quotes one set of figures of about 378,000 French and 329,000 German casualties, and notes that other sources go much higher. Larousse gives around 360,000 French and 330,000 German killed or missing. Whatever the exact figure, Verdun was one of the longest and costliest battles of the First World War.3
Our full account, The Battle of Verdun, 1916, tells the whole battle from Falkenhayn's plan to the Sacred Way and the fight for the forts. The opening day has its own page: 21 February, the Battle of Verdun begins.
Also on this day
- 1845: Battle of Mudki. East India Company forces fought part of the Khalsa, the army of the Sikh Empire, at Mudki, after Sikh leaders had pushed their restive army into war with the British.
