History Of The Great War

This week we move forward to May and the attacks launched by both sides during the month. In the ned May would be catastrophically deadly for all involved. After covering the events of May we will then cover one of the most harrowing events of the entire campaign, the fall of Fort Vaux which occurred in June. It is an important event for sure, but it is more than that because of the events that occurred and the resistance of the French soldiers inside the fort well beyond the normal limits of resistance. There was an endless mountain of suffering at Verdun, but even in that mountain Vaux still stands out as an extreme case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week the Germans failed in their attacks on the West Bank at Verdun in March 1916. April would mark the beginning of what I am calling The Long Grind by which I mean a series of attacks and counter attacks against the same targets for the next several months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we will ask the question that the German leaders were also beginning to look around and ask themselves "what next." After the offensive finally came to a halt on the east bank on the 28th of February Falkenhayn, the Crown Prince, and Knobelsdorf would meet to determine the answer to that question, an answer that would eventually become an attack on the West Bank.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Into this situation there would be one man who was given command over Verdun and would forever be associated with the rest of the battle, than man was General Henri Phillipe Petain. Soon he would become the savior of Verdun, then the Savior of France, and then the man who led France to Victory. Through that process Petain would, more than any other single person on either side, become associated with Verdun. Today we will look at how Petain became involved with the fighting before talking about some of the decisions that he quickly made to stabilize the situation at the front.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we will look at the third and fourth days of fighting before looking at one incident that happened on the fifth day.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today the action finally begins at Verdun. Today we will look at the opening German attacks on the first and second days of fighting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up to this point in these episodes we have been discussing Falkenhayn, The Germans, and their plans for the attack almost exclusively. It is finally time to take a look at the French, what they had been up to, and how they prepared for the defense against the coming storm.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we move one step closer to the start of the battle in February by looking at the German preparations for their attack. First we will talk about one of the most important features of the fighting, which was the masses of German artillery that would be utilized in the opening attacks. Then we will take our discussion of plans down another level of detail to look at how the Corps of the Fifth Army were arranged around Verdun and what orders were given to the infantry that would be executing the attack. Then we will dive into some specific preparations happening on the ground that were unique to the attack at Verdun. The German troops then had to suffer through weeks of waiting for the weather to be right for the attack, which was a painful and slow process given the winter weather that blew through the region in early February 1916.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we are going to dive much deeper into the German plans for their attack at Verdun. The attack would be planned for two phases, the first phase the attack at Verdun and then the second phase was the counter attack to a British or French relief offensive. We will also talk about why on earth the Germans would attack Verdun and more importantly the geography and fortifications around Verdun which made it such an imposing target for an army in 1916 to try and attack, let alone make any progress.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In many ways Verdun became the First World War, and it distills down all of the problems that the armies had been facing since 1914, all of the lessons they had thought they had learned, and showcased so many of the problems that they still had to solve before either side could obtain victory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

100 years later and soldiers still come back from serving their country irrevocably changed. The fact that service men and women still suffer from problems not dissimilar from those experienced by men in the trenches gives this topic a type of applicability that often is not present in our histories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By January 1st 1916 the war, which was supposed to be over by Christmas was now 522 days old. And 1916 would be the year of the war, it would be the year that everybody remembers, it would be the year of Jutland, the year Verdun, the year of the Somme.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As 1915 drew to a close so to did the defiance of the little Balkan nation that started it all.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The path to and away from unrestricted submarine warfare.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the first war in history submarines, or U-Boats as the Germans called them, would play an important role. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The British drive towards Baghad, and fail, before the greatest British military humiliation happens at a town called Kut.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the opening moves in the Middle East the Suez Canal would be under threat and British forces would land as Basra on the Persian Gulf.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Middle East would be a sideshow for most of the war, but that doesn't mean it was important both during the war and afterwards.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The attacks are over, but what happens now? And what happened throughout the entire year on the war's premiere front?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the failures of the French in Artois and Champagne, will the British do better at Loos?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices