Summary Of German Assault On Fort Vaux

I read the diary entry “German Assault on Fort Vaux” written by an anonymous French soldier. The diary entry goes into detail about barrages and significant German casualties, with their “bodies piling up in heaps.” I try to put myself into a German soldier’s shoes, marching up to a well defended fort, with artillery exploding all around, I cannot even imagine how terrifying it would be. The soldier gives amazing descriptions of the artillery striking the fort, stating that “Tress would go up into the air like wisps of straw” and in regards to being on the receiving end of a barrage, he proclaims “These explosions stupefy the brain; you feel as if your entrails were being torn out, your heart twisted and wrenched; the shock seems to dismember your whole body.” Since these descriptions paint such a magnificent picture in the mind of the reader, I decided to further research the development and use of artillery during WW1. Artillery had been implemented in the battlefield before, but never on the scale of WW1. Throughout the war, there were over 15,000 artillery pieces deployed, and they were larger and more devastating than anything that came before it. The advancement of artillery was unprecedented, and it played a defining role in many of the major conflicts during the Great War. Not
When the German army launched their first offensive, they were pushed back. To break through the Belgium line and move into France, Germany brought in their massive 16.5-inch siege cannons, the largest the world had seen. These weapons made short work of the Belgian forts, and this allowed Germany to march further toward their goal a few days later. This was the first show of the use of these new technologies during the war. Since the weapons destroyed the forts so quickly, it showed both sides how important the use of and defense against these weapons would