1916: The battle of Verdun

"It was still early in the morning when a rain of fire fell on the forts and trenches of Verdun. With 300 trainloads of ammunition, the Germans had been firing their artillery for hours on end. The thundering of cannons could be heard 150 kilometers (93 miles) away.The chief of the German General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, had given the order to attack the French."

"However, Falkenhayn had miscalculated. The end result was 10 months of brutal combat over every village and hill. The French motto was "On ne passe pas" ("They won't get through here"). The battle went down in history as the epitome of senseless carnage. Amid grueling trench warfare, the men held out in their holes in the ground, with rats, lice, cold weather and bad food testing their nerves, along with the constant fear of death."

"State-of-the-art artillery was meant to decide the battle: In addition to heavy mortars, flamethrowers and machine guns, 26 million high-explosive shells and 100,000 toxic gas grenades rained down on the trenches in an area of less than 30 square kilometers (11.5 square miles). In the summer months, the battlefield reeked of rotting corpses, while decaying human remains hung from trees due to bomb blasts."

Erich von Falkenhayn ordered a massive assault at Verdun aiming to break the stalemate on the Western Front and return to mobile warfare. German artillery unleashed 300 trainloads of ammunition and continuous bombardment, triggering ten months of grinding combat. French forces, rallied by the motto "On ne passe pas," defended every village and hill in attritional fighting. Trenches became hellish environments with constant shelling, rats, lice, freezing winters, knee-deep mud, and decomposing corpses. Modern weaponry—including heavy mortars, flamethrowers, machine guns, millions of shells, and toxic gas grenades—produced vast destruction across a compact battlefield.

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