Battle Of Verdun Research Paper

The Battle of Verdun was an ineffective war effort for the Germans to invade the French troops during WWI. It was classified as one of the most bloodiest battles during this time. This battle took many lives and left long lasting effects on the world shortly after. The battle was a surprise attack on the French that took place in the French city of Verdun. The Battle of Verdun lasted around 10 months and had no real significant achievement. Both opposing sides gained little to no advantage but costed a total of 600,000 soldier lives (History.com Staff). The Battle of Verdun was one of the worst battles of WWI.
The Battle of Verdun left long lasting effects on the world from, new inventions to the greater awareness of how many lost their life
The battle was triggered by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand of Austria in while visiting Sarajevo. Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb nationalist, Gavrilo Princip. The assassination angered the Germans and they began to plan a attack. Their goal was to drain France of their economic and political resources. They called the plan the Schlieffen Plan, this meant that they would move quickly and try to achieve attrition on France (Andrews). During this planned attack, the French were not expecting anything. The French troops were not ready for such a battle as this one, this is one of the reasons why they both had to enter
They attempted and succeeded in the conquering of mass territory. When entering the Battle of Verdun German troops approached Fort Douaumont. This fort was one of the largest and highest forts on the ring of 19 in Verdun (Holstein). The Germans wanted to get Fort Douaumont under their control. When they entered, only 57 men were presently guarding it (Cowley). This was surprising, knowing this was one of the biggest forts in Verdun with all the resources that were needed. The Germans knew how many that were guarding the fort and went through underground chambers to attack. Next they rounded up all the French defenders of Garrisons army within the fort. The Germans managed to do this without firing one single shot with no casualties. 1 day after the French regained the fort the 10 month long German rule was over. During the Battle of Verdun opposing sides dug trenches to help and stay away from the shots being fired. The trenches did help both sides get advantages but eventually lead to a bloody stalemate. After this occurred the Germans needed some way of gaining more of an advantage then the French, which lead to more improved weapons, and ways of better destruction. The use of gases became a next big issue for the French troops because the gasses would blind them to which they could not see the opposing side during battle. They called the use of chemicals,