History of Warfare Summary 9 - World War I 10 The Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme

In 1916, two major battles representative of the war took place on the Western Front. First, the German army attacked Verdun to deplete the French forces. The battle, which began in February, saw both sides deploy large numbers of artillery and infantry, and the fighting continued for months. The French army defended Verdun despite suffering immense casualties, and the German army also sustained heavy losses. Following this, in July, British and French forces launched a major offensive in the Somme River area. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the British army suffered very high casualties, and both sides incurred massive losses throughout the entire battle. Tanks were deployed in large-scale combat for the first time, but their technological limitations were significant at the time. Neither the Battle of Verdun nor the Battle of the Somme created a decisive breakthrough, but they severely depleted the manpower and equipment of both sides. These battles became prime examples of how costly an offensive could be in modern warfare when machine guns, artillery, and trenches were combined.