Rasta-GR

In BF2142, Verdun is one of my favorite maps.

But what is the real backstory?

As history reveals, there are many lessons we can take from this battle.

The Battle of Verdun was one of the bloodiest armed clashes in history. Really more of a campaign than a battle, it lasted from February to December of 1916, killing and wounding hundreds of thousands of men on both sides. Due to the nature of the battle, even approximate figures are difficult to determine, but the total killed, wounded, and missing were roughly 500,000 French and 430,000 Germans.

During World War I, soldiers fought against material. As a result, there was vast carnage, as the infantry attacked fortified machine guns or huddled helplessly in trenches during relentless artillery barrages.

Regardless, most generals did not rethink their strategies. Indeed, more than 700,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in about five months at Verdun before the commanders, largely due to developments beyond this battlefield, let the focus of the war shift to new fronts.

The French and German armies were never quite the same after this terrible battle. In today's terminology, the facts on the ground made the soldiers question the military strategy, even though the generals did not. For various reasons, the generals were the last to recognize that their grand and aggressive theories produced only heroic folly and pointless tragedy.

Ninety years ago at Verdun, hundreds of thousands of lives were sacrificed on the altar of GRAND IDEAS. It seems like generals have learned the lesson of this pointless sacrifice. But the politicians?

Verdun was not only a shocking slaughter in its own right. It was the indecisive battle in an indecisive war; the unnecessary battle in an unnecessary war; the battle that had no victors in a war that had no victors. It was an event that had massive symbolic and physical consequences across nations and generations.

This explains why Verdun is still relevant today, the simple military objective is only the start of the Verdun story. As the battle progressed, military objectives, and the lives of the men involved, became secondary to (allegedly) larger questions of "national honor." Blinded by the pursuit of pride, revenge, or honor, the bullheaded French insistence on *attaque à outrance* as much as the German plan to "bleed them white" virtually guaranteed a bloodbath -- especially when some men sought the glory while others paid the price.

This was WWWI.

Read an interesting article here.

For more in-depth details, read this book.

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Arithea

Very interesting--thanks for the posting.

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nuckj

Nice history lesson. It takes me back to the days of BFV. There was much history in that game.

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9th MID | 2142 Profile | New to TG?

big-eye101

Really very interesting ... why do you know that?

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Sir.Talbot

WW1 is not a nice subject to touch on. It was only a 'dignified' war before everyone dug in (Battle of Mons, etc) then any idiot and his dog could mow down 100's of soldiers (Battle of Somme/Verdun, etc). Such a colossal waste of life.