BATTLE OF VERDUN SIGNIFICANCE SERIES

BATTLE OF VERDUN SIGNIFICANCE SERIES

In Belgium, the Liège and Namur forts, a complex series of reinforced concrete blockhouses and retractable artillery positions, proved to be no match for the heavy Krupp and Skoda howitzers with which the German army marched to war. The next day Britain declared war on Germany, setting the stage for the war on the Western Front. (France had already mobilised, but was waiting within her borders for Germany to make the first move through the Low Countries). The war on the Western Front began on 3 August 1914 with Germany aggressively marching into Belgium and Luxembourg. The pressure to quickly defeat one enemy compelled Germany to act swiftly and decisively. Given the rapid success “German” forces enjoyed in 1870 over France and Eastern Europe’s daunting geography, German strategic planners decided to array the overwhelming majority of their fielded forces against France (passing through Belgium on the way in a grand sweeping motion known as the Schlieffen Plan).

Recognizing that it was unlikely to be able to prevail under such circumstances, Germany knew it would have to quickly overwhelm one of its enemies before turning to fight the other. Surrounded by hostile powers, Germany would very likely find itself fighting in a two-front war in the event of a general European conflict. In 1914 these new rail lines were rapidly approaching completion.Īll of this put Germany in a very precarious position. To ensure that Russia would be able to mobilize quickly, France invested substantial sums to build new strategic railways that would better link the Russian heartland with its western border with Germany. This would ensure that Germany could not defeat its enemies one at a time, but would be forced to split its forces between two distant theatres, thus spreading its forces dangerously thin. Of principal importance was Russia’s ability to mobilize its vast armies quickly and threaten Germany’s borders in the event of war. It also necessitated significant investment and financial aid for a Russian state still struggling to industrialize and modernize. Politically, it allied Europe’s most liberal state with its most autocratic. The alliance with Russia was awkward for a number of reasons. It was this imperative that led France to sign a defensive alliance with Russia in 1895, thus setting the basic geographic parameters of the First World War twenty years before it began. After 1871, French diplomacy was largely concerned with preventing another crushing defeat at the hands of its strengthened neighbour. This vulnerability was contrasted against the immense financial, military and industrial strength of the united German state that arose out of the Franco-Prussian War. The humiliation of such a resounding defeat, which led to the loss of two of France’s eastern provinces ( Alsace and Lorraine), coupled with the overthrow of the French imperial government and its replacement with the Third Republic left France weak and exposed. In 1870-1871 a coalition of German states led by Prussia quickly defeated France’s fielded forces in a matter of weeks before becoming bogged down in a lengthy “people’s war” ( Volkskrieg) something we might now call an “insurgency”.

There is a similar continuity running across Franco-German conflicts from 1870 to 1940, which helps to contextualize the war on the Western Front.

There is a longue durée concept of fortified defence running from Vauban through to the great forts that existed in 1914 (Verdun, Belfort, Toul) and the later Maginot Line. In the 1600s, Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707) famously sought to design and build an interlinking series of forts (which he called the “ pré carré”) to shelter France’s eastern border from attacks that might come through Central Europe. The region had been of critical importance for French security for centuries. In many ways the war on the Western Front began as a fundamentally Franco-German conflict, and one with deep historical roots.

Battle of verdun significance