[The right-hand side of the two-page map above]
CONCLUSION
The Battle of Verdun was not merely one of the hardest of the War’s many battles, it was also one of the most serious checks received by the Germans. The enemy High Command had foreseen neither its amplitude nor its long duration. Whereas, “according to plan,” Verdun—“Heart of France”—was speedily to be overpowered by a carefully prepared mass attack, the Germans found themselves involved in a formidable struggle, without being able either to obtain a decisive advantage or keep the relatively small advantages obtained at the beginning of the battle.
The battle did not develop “according to plan,” its successive phases being determined by circumstances.
The huge numbers of troops which the Germans were compelled to engage brings out very clearly the immensity of their effort and the different phases of the struggle.
The first and shortest phase (February 21st–March 1st) was that of the surprise attack by a large concentration of specially trained troops.
To the six German divisions which had been holding the Verdun sector since the Battle of the Marne, were added nine full divisions, rested and trained for attack.
Of these fifteen divisions ten took part in the surprise attack, their losses being immediately made good by reserves stationed in the rear of each army corps. At the end of February, in consequence of the French withdrawal in Woevre, two further divisions strengthened enemy action in that region.