Major Battles: Verdun

No battle symbolized French suffering more than Verdun. For ten months in 1916, this ancient fortress city became the center of German strategy to "bleed France white." The Crown Prince's February offensive, launched with unprecedented artillery bombardment, aimed not at breakthrough but attrition—forcing France to defend symbolically important ground at unbearable cost.

The first day's bombardment—two million shells in ten hours—obliterated French positions. Entire units vanished, buried alive in collapsed dugouts. The village of Haumont disappeared. Forests became moonscapes of shattered stumps. Yet French soldiers, isolated in small groups, fought with desperate courage. Colonel Driant's chasseurs held Bois des Caures until overwhelmed, buying precious time.

"Ils ne passeront pas!"—They shall not pass!—became Verdun's rallying cry. General Pétain, organizing defense, rotated units through the inferno, ensuring no division spent more than two weeks in the worst sectors. The "Sacred Way"—the single road supplying Verdun—carried 3,000 trucks daily, bringing ammunition forward and wounded back. Territorial troops, too old for combat, kept this lifeline open through endless labor.

Individual experiences at Verdun defied comprehension. Lieutenant Alfred Joubaire wrote before dying: "Humanity is mad. It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre! What scenes of horror and carnage. Hell cannot be so terrible." Soldiers spoke of earth that moved with buried men trying to escape, of walking on corpses layered three deep, of air poisoned by gas and decay.

Colonial troops suffered exceptionally at Verdun. Moroccan divisions held crucial positions on the right bank, enduring casualties exceeding 70%. Senegalese units, thrown into counterattacks, faced German flammenwerfer for the first time. Sergeant Malick Sy remembered: "Fire came like dragon's breath. Men became torches. We who feared nothing learned fear that day."

By December, when fighting finally ebbed, Verdun had consumed 162,000 French dead and 216,000 wounded. German losses were comparable. The front lines barely moved. Villages—Fleury, Douaumont, Vaux—changed hands repeatedly, reduced to names on maps, their physical existence erased. France held Verdun but at a cost that traumatized the nation's consciousness permanently.