Their diaries and memoirs tell their story in the most compelling way, and through their words the larger human story of the French soldier during the war comes to life. Yet their ordeal was no different from that of hundreds of other infantry units that fought and endured in this meat-grinder of a battle. The French 151st Infantry Regiment spent fifty days under fire at Verdun in 1916 and another thirty-five in 1917, and lost 3,200 soldiers killed or wounded. That is what Johnathan Bracken does in this meticulously researched, detailed and vivid account. But we can gain a genuine insight by focusing on one of the defining battles of that war, at Verdun in 1916, and by looking at it through the eyes of a small group of soldiers who served there. The immense size of the French armies, the number of battles they fought, and the enormous losses they incurred, make it difficult for us to comprehend their experience. On July 1, 1916, after a week of prolonged artillery bombardment, 11 divisions of the British Fourth Army (recently created and placed. The horrific bloodshed on the first day of the battle became a metaphor for futile and indiscriminate slaughter. The chaos resulted in massive casualties and destruction. First Battle of the Somme, (July 1November 13, 1916), costly and largely unsuccessful Allied offensive on the Western Front during World War I. It was also the largest battle of the global conflict, with a staggering number of munitions used and soldiers deployed. Although the French fielded the largest number of Allied troops on the Western Front in the First World War, the story of their soldiers is little known to English readers. The Battle of Verdun was the longest fight of all the battles of WWI, lasting from February of 1916 to December of that year.
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