Hill Mort Homme (Dead Man)
The fast conquest of the Douaumont made the French panic. When the news broke that the Maas bridges were prepared to be blown up, the food depots were looted. Everything looked like a withdrawal. This only changed when the representative Joffres, General Castelnau, decided to hold the forward positions. He regarded the Battle for Verdun as a touchstone of the ability of France to continue the fight. He entrusted General Petain, who was the ideal counterpart from von Falkenhayns point of view, with the execution. He was a man who never gave up.
Petain immediately recognized the necessity of an improvement of the reinforcement situation and a better coordinated use of artillery. Petain declared the only feeder road between Verdun and Bar le Duc as a reinforcements route and banished any traffic apart from heavy goods vehicles along the 80 km to Verdun. In shortest time he had confiscated 3 500 trucks which supplied the fighters with 2 000 tons of goods daily. After the entire country had been searched for vehicles, 12 000 trucks were later en route on the Voie Sacree, the Holy Road.
The improved use of the French artillery as well as the desperate resistance of the infantry finally had the German advance stopped. It was said already on February 27 there would be success nowhere. Among the French who were taken prisoners seriously wounded that day was also another Captain Charles de Gaulle. More and more German guns were commissioned to the front and pulled into position over a cratered landscape by horses under inconceivable suffering. On one day more than 7 000 of them died. Until the evening of February 27, the Germans had approached Verdun except for six kilometres.
Von Falkenhayn and the Kronprinz decided on a new strategy. An attack on the left shore of the river Maas should get the advance going again. Aims were the artillery positions behind the rounded hilltops of "Mort Homme" (dead man) and "Hill 304". In the report of the German "Great Headquarters" it was noticed: „The territory represents a plateau dropping down slowly from the Argonne Woods to the Maas valley. The elevations are partially covered by vast woods, to some extent completely treeless and free from water. A number of villages are embedded in the flat depressions with solid stone houses. The woods, the hills, the villages offered the defenders bases which had been strengthened and were further still strengthened with all means. The battle for these points formed the real content of the murderous struggle, which almost uninterruptedly happened here within the months of March, April and May 1916“.
The offensive started with a drumfire on March 6. It snowed when the Silesians of the VI. Reserve Corps started moving in the direction of the "Mort Homme". Among other things they also were supported by an armoured train which drove on the left shore of the Maas from Dannevoux in the direction of the Verdun. The train broke through the wire entanglements of the French, but had to move back soon because the steam of the engine lured French artillery. Within the next days the Germans pressed forward unstoppably in the direction of the "Mort Homme", until the Silesians of the Reserve Infantry Regiment 38 occupied the rounded hilltop on March 14. Still, they could have moved forward even further, but were prevented from their superiors, however. A gross mistake, because now both, Germans and French, sat on the "Mort Homme" which possessed not only one but two summits.
On March 8 another attack on Fort Vaux and the neighbouring village also had started. It was wrongly said in the evening the Fort would have been taken and it was announced so also in the army report on March 9. The commander of the 9. Reserve Division, General von Guretzky, was even awarded the Pour Le Merit. But the seizure of the Fort did lay in a wide distance still.
The soldiers had to endure sheer hell. Cold, snow, rain, uninterrupted drumfire and resulting from this a constant lack of food-supply made the existence on the battlefield to an ordeal. On top there was the two class society system. The General Staff Officers lived in the communications zone without the horror of the front. Only through the stereo telescope did they face death and horror. To that end cold arrogance arrived. What should a normal front-line fighter think if a General Staff Officer would have him asked: „Are you cold? Only masturbators, alcoholics and whoremongers shiver. What are you?"
On April 9 the Germans strengthened their efforts again and started their third offensive. For four days they ran against the enemy positions until the rain suffocated every further fight in the mud. The artillery took charge of the progress now and kept the "bone mill" Verdun running. In May the weather improved and the attacks were resumed.
Inferno inside the Douaumont
The Fort Douaumont was used by the Germans as an organisation head office since the seizure in February. There was a signal station to make contact with the rear, there were ammunition depots set up and there was a army medical service for the many injured. Captain in the Medical Corps, Dr. Hallauer of the Medic Company 3 of the III. Army Corps had demanded at the beginning of May to equip a hospital in the Douaumont as most of the major casualties died during the six kilometres long way to the hospitals in the rear. On May 6 he established an operating theatre with four volunteers in the lower story of the west wing.
In the morning of May 7, a heavy shell struck the corridor of the hospital and filled up the ventilation shaft. A strong chlorine smell immediately spread out, an infallible proof that it had to be a gas shell. Only when the ventilation had been restored, the breathing got tolerable again. Suddenly toward four o'clock in the morning cries echoed through the corridors, "the blacks come" before three violent explosions sounded. The light suddenly went out and an enormous shock wave raced by the Fort.
Second Lieutenant Wolfstieg of the 12. Battalion of the 5. Infantry Division was the first officer who had the courage to explore the inside of the Douaumont with the help two soldiers and gasmasks. At first nothing could be seen because of darkness. To be able to see better they removed the masks and stiffened with fright. The hallway was full of soldiers who were lying dead in their sleep blankets. In other corridors leading to various casemates, were mutilated corpses, sometimes only parts of human bodies such as arms, legs, torsos, all blackened and covered with powder-dust. The enormous shock wave had the killed squeezed into the corners of the corridors. The corpses lay in several layers about each other there. Some seemed to stick on the walls. The lower corridor was completely blocked with earth and concrete and exploding infantry ammunition could be heard.
Dr. Hallauer started to examine the dead soldiers and officers. He valued the number of casualties at 700 to 800 men. He found out, that most were killed by air pressure, splinter effect, burns and suffocation. The survivors were in a condition of shock, confusion and state of excitement. Many suffered from language paralysis, hysteria, cramps and psychoses. However, many of the corpses were not distorted at all. These people had died of smoke and gas poisoning.
Dr. Hallauer tried now to find the causes of the explosions and soon got rich. It turned out that nearby the south exit flame-throwers and the appropriate oil had been stored in a corridor of the basement next to a stack French 15 cm shells and the storage room for hand grenades. Infantrymen probably had rather carelessly heated coffee with gas stoves and lit the flame oil. In turn this led to strong fires which also caused the blackening of the faces ("the blacks come"!). Other soldiers now believed to be under attack from black French colonial soldiers and threw hand grenades at them. These lit the shells and further gas mines which were also stored there. The recovery of the corpses was so arduously and difficult that the sappers decided to stack most corpses in the two left outer casemates. Brick walls were then pulled up.
The French tried on May 22 to reconquer the Douaumont. Their storm troops managed to advance up to the outer walls, where they were then thrown by the Germans again, however. The Germans finally tried to take the Fort Vaux between June 1 and 7. The divisions of the 1. Bavarian Army Corps, the X. Reserve Corps and the XV. Army Corps attacked, supported by 600 guns on a five kilometres wide front. A bitter fight raged around the Fort whereby mine explosions and flame-throwers took the individual sectors under fire. The commanding officer, Major Raynal, finally had to surrender because of water shortage.
The Germans, impressed by the enormous defence will of the French gave military honours to Major Raynal. The German Kronprinz greeted the Major to express his respect. When he remarked that Raynal had lost his rapier, he gave him a different one as a sign of his recognition.
Up to exhaustion
Another German attack started in the direction of the two Forts of Souville and Tavannes on June 22. Here they also used choking gas shells against the hostile artillery positions for the first time. Because of the missing artillery support the lines of the French swayed at the rush of the Alpenkorps (alpine corps), an elite division of the Bavarian Prince own Regiment and a Prussian Rifle Regiment. One of them was the later Commander-in-Chief of the 6.Army in Stalingrad, General Field Marshal Paulus. The Bavarians succeeded in a headline on June 23. The1. Bavarian Division conquered the intermediate work Thiaumont and their neighbours, the Alpenkorps took the village of Fleury. Both units pushed another kilometre forward up to the "crab louse", a strong French position near Belleville. The furthest push contrived to the Company Commander and later SA leader Ernst Röhm. He and another officer, together with 15 men, they made it to the Infantry Stronghold 147 on ridge "Froide Terre" (cold earth).
The Germans did not suspect how close they were to a breakthrough. Up to the suburbs of Verdun the defenders had run in panic. Everywhere gas sick persons rolled on the ground and died under unutterable pains. Trenches were already laid out in the suburbs and the commanding officer of the tunnel of Tavannes wanted to blow up the entrances although this was the only refuge for injured persons. And once again it was up to a couple of machine guns, a few field guns and a couple of officers who were not infected by the panic who organized the resistance and stopped the advance of the Germans
The Chief of Staff of the 5. Army, Lieutenant General Schmidt von Knobelsdorf, wanted to start another attack by all means as he was only 3 km far from the city of Verdun. But von Falkenhayn was obviously tired of Verdun. Knobelsdorf, however, wanted a last attempt since he did not see any alternative. He did not want a withdrawal as the Kronprinz had demanded, because that would be equal to acknowledgement of defeat. Von Falkenhayn could be convinced on June 24 once again and ap proved the battle plan of von Knobelsdorf
But the French anticipated von Knobelsdorfs war game. On the same day they opened their large-scale attack after a four-hour drumfire and mixed up the German preparations completely with that. The Bavarians who had entrenched themselves in Fleury desperately defended themselves. Prinz Heinrich von Bayern, an exception among the sons of German royal houses, since he led a battalion in the very frontline, was spilled by a direct hit on his dug-out. Since the sources lay under fire, the infantrymen had to fetch water from the shell craters. It quite happened that they discovered worms in the rusty brown water the next morning, water from craters in which corpses did lay for days.
It was tried on July 11 the last time to expel the French from the Fort Souville. Raiding parties reached the roof of the Fort, however, were beaten back. It was obvious even for the greatest optimist among the Germans that all efforts were in vain. With the beginning of the Somme offensive troops and heavy artillery were transferred to the new theatre. On July 12t the Kronprinz passed a decree hence it followed that the offensive should be suspended "temporarily".
On August 15, von Falkenhayn, in a memorandum to Kronprinz Wilhelm, took for the first time into consideration to break off the battle, because "parsimony in the issuing of manpower and ammunition". Wilhelm's Chief of Staff, General Schmidt von Knobelsdorf insisted, however, on continuation of the offensive. The Kronprinz outragedly asked his father, Emperor Wilhelm II., for the withdrawal of von Knobelsdorf. Wilhelm II.complied with this request on August 23 and prepared as well the relief von Falkenhayns which was carried out six days later. General Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff took von Falkenhayns place. Hindenburg immediately ordered the termination of the battle and the development of a permanent position in the existing front line.
The battle of Verdun had not ended with the transition of the 5. Army to defensive tactics yet. General Nivelle planned a large-scale counteroffensive in which the reconquest of the fort Douaumont was the primary aim. The French infantrymen went over to the attack on the fort after a drumfire of several days on October 24. After serious losses, caused by machine gun fire, the French managed to storm the fort. They soon afterwards reconquered the village of Douaumont, too. After a further French push the German garrison of Fort Vaux felt forced to a withdrawal on November 2. These territory wins contributed to Nivelles promotion as Commander-in-Chief of the French defense forces replacing General Joffre on December 15. On the same day a final French large-scale attack happened on the right shore the Maas which forced the German units near Douaumont back by over three kilometres until December 18. The French offensive was ceased on December 20.
The final attack
The year 1917 passed with attack and counterattack, patrols and position improvements. Because of the rapidly deteriorating ammunition situation German troops began to tidy up their ground and found thousands of shells in their area that were simply lying around. Even poison gas shells were found in shelters on which soldiers slept. Even abandoned guns being lying around were found and put in service again. The German leadership wanted to undertake front shortenings to save troops. This was problematic in the area of Hill "Mort Homme" and Hill 304" since Army Commander Gallwitz and others did not want to abandon the hills that cost so many lives.
Both hills were equipped with artful installations which made a conquest difficult the supply of the troops easier. Two gigantic tunnels which guaranteed undisturbed reinforcements and safe reliefs were taken there into operation at the beginning of May. A sapper officer named Lenze who was a top engineer at Thyssen before the war had completed these tunnels in record time. The one which was leading to the front was named after the Army Chief, "Gallwitztunnel". It started in the "Rabenwald" (raven woods) and was 630 m long. At the end of the tunnel in the Caurettes hollow, it went up for 45 m on ladders to the daylight. The second tunnel, "Kronprinzentunnel", ran 905 metres under the Hill "Mort Homme" to the rear. Quarters, stables, medical installations and a small soda water factory were put here. A conveyor track connected these individual facilities.
The French started with their great attack on August 18, 1918 to seize these to two hills. Gigantic 40 cm railway guns drummed on the hills and caused an inferno. For seven days this fire lasted that even destroyed the pride of German engineers, the tunnels. The 12 m strong tunnel ceiling of the north exit of the "Kronprinzentunnel" was penetrated by two 40 cm shells on August 19. 140 men died, 60 suffered from gas poisoning only 30 could save themselves by a ventilation shaft. The southern exit of the tunnel was lost in the morning of August 20. The "Gallwitztunnel" was also lost the next day. On August 22 the Germans were wiped off the "Mort Homme" and "Hill 304" also had to be vacated on August 24.
Ludendorff planned a relief attack at Verdun in spring 1918 to support the "Michael Offensive" against the British. It did not come to that, however, any more, because the French and Americans went over to the attack for their part. In the November fog of 1918 the battle came to an end around Verdun definitely.
