Verdun: The Longest & Most Horrific Battle of WWI... 

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I just can't comprehend how someone could first survive something as attritional as this battle and also not completely lose sanity permanently.

My Great Great Grandfather fought in the French army at Verdun and The First and Second Battles of The Marne R.I.P Robert Alexandre André (1889-1980)

Awesome video!!! Had the honor of visiting Verdun for a few hours in 1999 when was still in US Army. My headquarters section flew from Fort Riley, Kansas, to Germany to participate in a warfighting exercise. We went early in order to spend a week in the Normandy area to Grafenwohr Germany, but we were supposed to spend 1/2 a day at Verdun. As with normal Army expeditions, we spent longer in the Normandy area on our last day there, so command decided to skip Verdun. Thankfully, the German bus driver that we had was a stickler for the schedule and he refused to listen to command begging him to bypass Verdun. We finally make it to Verdun and picked up the battlefield around Fort Dumont, or close by. Do remember that there was a awesome looking chapel there that was just overpacked with various bones from the French soldiers that died there - though the chapel was closed by the time we arrived, you could still look through the basement windows and see the stacks and stacks of bones. We were able to explore the immediate area on our own for about 1-hour before reloading onto the bus and leaving. Also remember visiting the site of the French trenches where the soldiers were buried alive because of the intensity of the German artillery bombardment - think that was location where those soldiers were only able to be found because of their bayonets attached to their weapons were sticking up out of the dirt. Wished we would have stayed on our original schedule when in Normandy so that we could have arrived at Verdun around noon-time like the original plan but guess that is why I was not in command of the excursion. Anyway, THANKS!!! for the memories!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The one battle that needs a movie about it

Visiting Verdun is the best way to understand the horror that was the Great War. The ominous forts, the trenches, the Ossiuary, the massive graveyards...very sad and profound. The scars of war are still very visible, 100 years later.

Descend into darkness 303 days below the sun Fields of Verdun And the battle has begun Nowhere to run Father and son Fall one by one Under the gun

This video is amazing thank you!!! This seriously shows real footage and explains the battle so well man. LITERALLY that battle was Hell. Just the insane carnage from artillery was so horrific.

I very much enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up

Great Video 👍🏻

Very well done.

I find it baffling that the leader's who instigated ww2 saw first hand the horrors of WW1

For us Canucks it's Vimy Ridge....

Καλώς ήρθατε στην πόλη της ειρήνης στο Verdun αυτό γράφει όταν μπαίνεις στην πόλη γιατί ζούσα 2 χρόνια εκεί. Πήγαμε εκεί που έγινε η μάχη..πραγματικά πολύ σκληρά γεγονότα

5:00: Verdun meaning "green nol or something I couldn't understand": where did you find that? I'm French and, as far as I know, the name of Verdun comes from the Celts who created an oppidum (a fortified village) at least 100 years BC named Verodunum which gave Verdun later on, meaning "big hill" (in Celtic language). Nothing to do with anything green.

the war to end all wars...............

For us Filipinos its the Battle of Bataan and Corrigedor island in 1941 against the Empire of Japan in World War Two

Imagine if gopro was a thing back then

My great grandfather was killed in this battle (on the German side), after his unit had completed their rotation and were headed back to the rear for rest and refit. Somehow artillery ranged on them and blew them apart as they were heading back to the supposed "safety" of the rear. War is hell.

Can you tell us more about the infamous no man’s land

The men that fought this war were of a different breed

Verdun and fort de vaux were just insanity

The concept of bleeding France white seems to be a bit undefined. Not an objective that can be worked on. Also, von Falkenhayn didn't actually say this until after the battle had already bogged down. It sounds like he was covering his....to cover up a mistake.

For Candians it's Vimy Ridge and Dieppe.

This was a great informative video, we must not forget our mistakes in history, but oh god why did u put japanese soldiers in the video cover hahaah

Isn't there an area that is used as an artillery site that's considered the only "ongoing WW1 battle"? If I'm not mistaken, battlefield 1 represents it as Prise de Tahure? Its known as the battle that never ends because it's always being bombed, even if it's drills

Trenches from the North sea to the Mediterranean? where abouts on the Mediterranean coast?

The you find out that they have always been working together..

Nice AI, must have been so hard typing in that prompt

100,000 artillery shells in one hour! That's 27 a second! What the fuck! Imagine hearing that, or being on the receiving end

Fighting a war for things you don’t agree with on and politics who won’t fight it themselves

Admittedly, you have only so long to give the details in these videos. Nonetheless, I think some particulars on the forts of Verdun should be explored with more vigor. Watching the video, it is hard to ascertain how the Germans got initially stopped and how was French were able to take the initiative. Instead of stock pictures a few maps with force dispositions would have been helpful.

Ain't nobody coming back from Verdun in one piece.

For South Africa it was the battle of Delville woods.

For Canada it's Vimy Ridge

How long was the Battle of Leningrad?

Imaginge... a average of 200.000 shells every single day for 303 days

216k wounded not 216.

The French applied a lesson that the British, alas, only learned during the battle of the Somme, which happened at the same time, roughly. The French rotated their troops at Verdun, pretty much all of the French army fought at Verdun at some point. The British sent entire divisions of relatively recent recruits, who were grouped into batallions consisting of boys from the same area, over the top at the Somme. In the UK, there were many towns and villages who lost ALL of their young men in a single battle. Forty thousand of them on the first day, about 300,000 in all. They started mixing up what was left after that. Spread the grief, so to speak.

This documentary is interesting. No background music

Standard protocol

The German plan for Verdun was to bleed the French army dry in a battle of attrition. What they didn't anticipate was that thanks to the horrific human meatgrinder that Verdun became for both sides, the German army was bled dry too, with total casualties as high as 400,000 men

So. No. It’s Waterloo

Falkenheim wasn immediately relieved after failing at verdun. He gambled that romania wouldnt join the war untill after the harvest. When romania joined russia before the harvest he was sacked.

Mitterand looks like he'd rather be holding hands with the Devil.

21:28 lol that was some bullshit

What is your source for Americans holding Gettysburg in high esteem? Try the battles in the pacific 🤨

There are men who survived the entirety of this battle? 😰

War should never be welcome.

They were afflicted by desintery, flees, hunger, they had to drink their own urine because there was no potable water around, they were cold, and got bombarded by 1 million shells per day. And they were not allowed to leave. He'll on earth.

All the generals on both sides should have been jailed for life.

Imagine the human population if we didn’t have wars we breed like rabbits then we get shot like one

Reckon the UK woukd have stayed in the EU ,if they had gone through a Stalingrad ,Berlin or Verdun.

For Canadians the battle that means more to us than other nations is vimy ridge, the somme is meaningful but not like viny. Hard to watch the rest when it starts off with an inaccuracy

…for the Russians: Stalingrad.

Longest battle my ass, I dont recall there being half as many verduns as there were isonzos

victory in war, obviously not the Frenchman's strong point.

Utter fn waste of life.For All.

Do any battles in the Ukraine match the scale of this terrible one?.

Wasn’t that bad I was there

French in WW1: courageous, battle hardened, high moral, determined to win. French in WW2: surrenders in one month.

Im so sick of this new narrator he ruins wars of the world....bring back the guy that narrated THE BATTLE OF STALLINGRAD

My Great Grandfather German Jew fought at Verdun as an artillery sergeant. Willhelm Wurzburg R.I.P

"Operation Gericht" doesnt mean Judgment. "Urteil" would mean Judgment. Gericht means "Court or Trial" - just saying 🤓

Horrid. Hundreds of thousands killed for nothing. A total waste.

oh