This was put forward by Falgen Han, the new German Chief of Staff after Mao Qi. He called this action plan "the place of execution", with the purpose of attacking a military important place that France was unwilling to give up, making France put all its troops there, then destroying it, causing France to collapse militarily and forcing it to surrender. Falgen Han publicly shouted: "Let the French bleed to death!"
At this time, Fei Xia, commander-in-chief of the French army, was busy preparing for the Battle of the Somme, and had no time to take care of the Verdun fortress, which was more than 200 kilometers away from Paris. In addition, Verdun fortress is exceptionally strong. Its base construction area is 65,438+065,438+02km wide, and it consists of four defensive positions, while the fourth defensive position consists of the permanent fortifications of Verdun Fortress and two fortress reserves. At that time, the garrison had four divisions and more than 65,438+10,000 people.
In order to overwhelm each other's troops in number and strength, Falgen Han ordered Russian troops, Balkan frontline troops and Krupp Arsenal's artillery to concentrate around the attack site. On the 12km long front, there are nearly 1000 cannons, and more than 5000 mine throwers are equipped in the front positions. There are 10 divisions and 270,000 people attacking, which is three times that of the French army defending Verdun.
On the morning of February 2 1, the Germans began a fierce attack. Nearly a thousand cannons exploded in the sky with a string of flashing flares and roared together. At the rate of 65,438+10,000 rounds per hour, they poured a flood of artillery shells on the field defense positions in Verdun, and the French positions were in flames. Then, the Germans used 13 siege howitzers with a caliber of 16.5 inches to fire heavy artillery shells at the strongest fourth permanent fortification of the fortress. Using lightning throwers, they fired shrapnel containing more than 65,438+000 pounds of high explosives and metal fragments. In a series of deafening explosions, the entire trench of the French army was flattened. After 12 hours of indiscriminate bombing, the Germans fired shotguns at the speed of rifle bullets with 5.2-inch small caliber high-speed guns, strafed the panicked and screaming French army, and turned the French frontier into a sea of fire with flamethrowers.
After such repeated bombing and strafing, the trenches in the narrow triangle near Verdun fortress were completely destroyed, the forest was burned, the hills were razed to the ground by gunfire, and the whole French army was exposed, and the battlefield was shrouded in smoke and fire. As soon as the gunfire stopped, with a shout, six German infantry divisions attacked the French defense line with a width of 10 km from the front.
Although the French position was a sea of fire, the soldiers fought bravely with the remaining fortifications. The officer took the lead and rushed out of the trench to fight the enemy. The French army has high morale, is not afraid of violence, and is extremely brave, repelling the enemy's charge again and again. After two days of fierce fighting, they were outnumbered. German prisoners 1 10,000 people, and the frontier field defense positions were basically occupied by the Germans.
The news of France's defeat in Verdun soon reached the French headquarters. Commander in chief Fei Xia was surprised. He quickly convened a military meeting, ordered the chief of staff to rush to Verdun immediately, and held his position at all costs, waiting for reinforcements from the follow-up troops. Subsequently, General Betan was appointed as the commander of Verdun region, and assembled troops to prepare for reinforcements.
After Petain came to Verdun, he first toured the whole defense system and looked at the front positions full of bodies. Petain felt that the situation was critical and Verdun was in danger of being surrounded.
At this moment, Dumu Fort in the northeast of the fortress was occupied by the Germans. This battery was originally owned by a light infantry division. After the German10.2 million shells were bombarded indiscriminately, a German patrol with only nine people occupied the battery without firing a shot, because all the soldiers on it were killed.
Betancourt felt that the situation was not good, and immediately drew a bid line at the front line, strictly ordering the soldiers to resist the German attack. Anyone who dares to retreat from this line will be killed. Then a front-line military meeting was held to discuss how to ensure the rapid arrival of reinforcements and arms supplies in the rear. He entrusted the commander to supervise the road construction and ensure that it will be open to traffic from the 27th. The commander was ordered to leave. Two days later, 6,000 cars passed this road, and 1.9 million reinforcements and more than 20,000 tons of arms and materials were continuously transported to Verdun fortress. This road was called the "holy road" by the French because it successfully completed the transportation task of the Battle of Verdun.
At this time, the military forces of the opposing sides gradually tended to balance. Although the Germans gained some benefits in the first attack, the arrival of a large number of French reinforcements and artillery made it difficult for the Germans to move, and the two sides temporarily confronted each other. Falgen Han never dreamed that in a short week, the French army sent so many reinforcements. On the one hand, I was surprised, on the other hand, I was secretly happy. This is the same as he estimated in advance, with a ferocious smile on his face: "Good, I want the French to bleed here!" So, he rearranged, let the Germans rest and prepare for a larger killing. General petain's side is also tense. He ordered reinforcements to go to the front line at once, repair trenches, place cannons and prepare to meet the Germans.
On March 5, large-scale fighting began. Under the cover of heavy artillery fire, German infantry attacked the French position from the front line 30 kilometers away. General Petain ordered all French cannons to fire at the same time to counter the Germans. More than 200,000 troops fired at the Germans with various guns.
The Germans suffered heavy casualties and retreated. Falgen Han ordered the Germans to stop all-round fighting, concentrate their forces, and attack the left bank of the Mas River, changing from rapid impact to steady attack. Although they occupied Fort Vaud again, they only advanced less than two kilometers. By April, after 70 days and nights of fierce fighting, the Germans had not yet broken through the French defense. By July, the two sides saw each other back and forth, suffered heavy casualties and remained deadlocked. The Germans only advanced 7-8 kilometers.
19161kloc-0/October 24th, the French army turned to counterattack and quickly recovered the lost battery. The Germans retreated and withdrew from the Battle of Verdun. 18 February 18, the battle of Verdun ended. In this unprecedented battle, the Germans invested 40 divisions, and 66 of all 70 French divisions successively participated in the war. The casualties on both sides exceeded 700,000, so it was called "Verdun meat grinder". Falgen Han not only let the French bleed to death, but also let the Germans bleed to death. After returning home, he resigned as chief of staff.