Today in 1916, near the French fortress town of Verdun

The longest battle of World War I came to an end when the Germans acknowledged that the plan to take the ring of French forts surrounding Verdun had failed and that continued fighting was unlikely to produce favorable results. 

Originally, the plan had called for destroying the French will to fight by capturing the massive and fortified positions that were the key to their positions all along the Western Front and thereby forcing Great Britain, France's staunchest ally, to realize the Allies could not win and to lead them sue for peace.  The Germans had decided that after months of fighting a two-front war, it was unlikely the Russians would survive for another year and that they would soon sue for peace themselves, leaving the Central Powers to deal only with the Western Powers.

Fort Douaumont, the key to the French defenses.

Fighting started in February 1916, but the German advanced quickly bogged down in the mud and they never regained fro the momentum that was necessary to carry the nearly impregnable French positions.

As a result of the Battle of Verdun, as it was alter called, the French suffered more than half a million casualties, including roughly 250,000 dead) and the Germans suffered almost 450,000 casualties of which 225,000 were killed.  Effectively, no advantage was gained by either side and the war continued for another two years.



[December 15, 1916]