The battle of Verdun was one of the longest battles of the World War One (WWO). The battle, which involved the French and German armies, lasted for a period about eleven months, from around February to December 1916. Perhaps, it is called the battler of Verdun because it was fought at the Verdun-sur-Meuse hills, north-eastern region of France (Hickman, 2013). The French army, of about 300,000 men, was under the commandership of General Philippe Petain and General Robert Nivelle; while the German army, of about 150,000 men, was under the commandership of Enrich von Flaknhayn and Crown Prince Wilhelm. In this battle, the Germans took it as an opportunity to win the WWI, because weakening France was seen as a breakthrough in weakening of the other allies. Therefore, instead of concentrating on the Eastern Front alone, the Germans saw it as an opportunity to divert the attention of France by engaging them in war (Grabolle, 2004).
On the other hand, the battle of Somme resulted from the causalities as well as the impact it had had on the French army at Verdun. In Somme battle, which began in July 1996, the British intended to release pressure of the Germans on the French at Verdun (Eksteins, 2000). The attack was initiated from the northern sides of River Somme between Albert and Arras. As mentioned above, the main objective of the Somme battle was to relieve pressure on France from the Germans. By initiating the Somme battle, the Germans were forced to divide their soldiers between the two battles, making them relatively weaker. This appeared to have worked because despite the heavy bombardments and massive destruction, the Germans failed to capture the Verdun areas as per their initial plan (Thompson, 2012).
The two battles are seen as the bloodiest and the longest battles to be ever fought in the course of WWI; perhaps because of the number of causalities and deaths that were recorded by the players involved. In the Verdun battle, the French recorded about 160,000 deaths, 217,000 causalities, and approximately 100,000 missing. On the other hand, the Germans recorded about 143,000 deaths, and 186,000 causalities (Grabolle, 2004). Based on this statistics, it appears the goals and objectives of the German launching the battle had been attained, because their objective was not to win the war but to pin the French army at a place where retreat was not possible. In the battle of Somme, the British and the French got a big loss, combined. The British lost about 59,000 soldiers in the first day and about 421,000 by the end of the battle. The French lost about 201,000 soldiers in total. On the other hand, the Germans recorded about 490,000 dead soldiers (Eksteins, 2000).
At the end of the both battles, significant damages had been incurred by both sides. However, although the French and the British appeared to have incurred greater damages in terms of causalities and deaths, they managed to counter the strategies of the Germans (Hickman, 2013). The Germans had hoped to divert the attention of the French in the Verdun battle to prevent them from participating in the eastern front. However, through the assistance of the British in the Somme battle, the Germans failed to realize this objective when they were finally defeated in both battles. The Verdun battle made a mark in the French military history as a result of the determination portrayed by the country in defending its soil in every way possible (Thompson, 2012).
References
Eksteins, M. (2000). Rites of spring: The great war and the birth of the modern age. Boston [u.a.: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Grabolle, H. (2004). Verdun and the Somme. Budapest: Akadémiai K.
Hickman, K. (2013) World War I: The Battle of Verdun. Retrieved from http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwari/p/verdun.htm
Thompson, J. (2012). The Somme and Verdun 1916: The bloodiest battles of World War I. New York: Carlton Books Ltd.
