The battle was to last for almost ten months. The battle, according to some estimates, accounted for almost a million men killed, captured, or wounded. By the battle's end on December 16th (ignoring subsequent operations which took place in Verdun later on in the war), almost two and a half million French and German soldiers had borne arms at Verdun, an area of operations roughly 550 square miles in size - approximately a third of the size of Rhode Island. In terms of ferocity of fighting, number of casualties, men and materiel committed, and prolonged duration of the conflict, only other World War I battles such as the Somme and the utter destruction visited by the Third Reich and Soviet Russia upon each other during World War II are of comparable scale. Quite simply, it is one of the greatest battles ever fought. Yet even to outsiders, the grim field of Verdun casts a shadow that is difficult to ignore. For the German people, had it not been eclipsed by the shame and horror of Nazism and the Holocaust, it would doubtless carry equal importance. For the French, it possesses a grim significance which endures to this day - the churned, furrowed earth of the battlefield still visible a century later a stark reminder of waste of life, strategic failure and tactical inadequacy on a monumental scale. It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of the Battle of Verdun. In Charles River Editors' Greatest Battles in History series, readers can get caught up to speed on history's greatest battles in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. Waterloo, which marked the reshaping of the European continent and Napoleon's doom, has now become part of the English lexicon. Hastings ensured the Normans' success in England and changed the course of British history. Saratoga, won by one of the colonists' most renowned war heroes before he became his nation's most vile traitor. Marathon lent its name to the world's most famous race, but it also preserved Western civilization during the First Persian War. Men are mad " - French Lieutenant at Verdun The names of history's most famous battles still ring in our ears today, their influence immediately understood by all. What a massacre What scenes of horror and carnage I cannot find words to translate my impressions. *Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "On ne Passe Pas " ("They Shall Not Pass ") - Marshal Petain "Like Auschwitz, Verdun marks a transgression of the limits of the human condition." - Antoine Prost "Humanity is mad.
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