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Post by Greece on Oct 11, 2004 20:36:38 GMT -5
OOC: Yeah, I knew somebody was fighting for indochina. I just dont pay too much attention to the Asian boards and just didn't know who exactly was going after it. OCC: That's us
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Post by Germany on Oct 12, 2004 15:05:35 GMT -5
OOC: France, you were totally unactive like so 2 days ago! I'm finnaly just going to finsih this war by myself since we've already been through about 5 Frances and this war has been going on for a month and a few days.
IC: VERDUN, FRANCE
The fierce shootings start again, if possible even more intense than the day before. The left bank of the river Meuse and the Woevre sector (on the right side of the Verdun salient) is also heavily bombarded. The German attack concentrates on the village of Haumont and the Bois des Caures, where colonel Driant is surrounded after heavy combat. He loses his life in this attack. The remaining soldiers retreat into the village of Beaumont. The village of Brabant is taken under fire by the Germans and the French decide to evacuate that evening. At the end of the afternoon the villages of Haumont and the Bois des Caures are completely in German hands. The Bois de l’Herbebois, however, is still French, due to fierce resistance. The French headquarters are still not responding: the incoming reports are still not showing the seriousness of the situation.
Heavy fighting occurs again the next day. The village of Brabant falls into German where the 351st French regiment offers fierce resistance and withdraws at Samogneux. The battle for the Bois de l’Herbebois continues with great violence. A French counterattack at the Bois des Caures warded off. From the nearby Bois de Wavrille, the Germans attack the Bois de l’Herbebois from the flank. The 51st French division withdraws but makes the Germans bleed heavily at the occupation of the Bois de Fosses. The fighting over Samogneux is fierce but the village is still in French hands. But for how long? The French are forced to withdraw unto the line Samogneux-Beamont-Ornes.
The French are driven away from their first line of defence; their second and third lines of defence, which were weak to begin with, are entirely vanished - there is almost nothing that can stop the Germans now. At the French headquarters it is slowly becoming clear that the situation is far more serious than initially thought. Joffre sends one of his members of staff to Verdun in order to observe the situation. The next day, the Germans bring in new offensive troops into the battle. These are bombarded heavily by the French artillery from the left bank of the river Meuse, which is after all not being attacked by the Germans. This was one of the points of criticism against the plan of Falkenhayn who wanted to attack, solely on the right riverbank. In spite the heavy bombardment the Germans succeed in taking Cote 344, as well as the Bois de Fosses, the Bois de Chaume and the village of Ornes.
But precisely on this day French relief troops have arrived: the XXth army corps, under command of general Balfourier is going to replace the XXXth army corps of general Crétien. The troops are getting cold, tired and hungry from the forced marching during the day but this new troops are thrown into the fray immediately.
The battle rages on and the French withdraw, sometimes uncoordinated and panicking, further and further. The Germans move on and they are approaching the infamous Fort of Douaumont, inch by inch. The fort’s entrances are poorly defended, because the French troops are withdrawing.four platoons of the IIIth (Brandenburg) army corps see the opportunity to take the insurmountable Fort Douaumont independently. It becomes clear the fort has a minimal garrison of 56 French reservists. This small garrison is due to the fact that at the fall of Liège in 1914, the surrounding forts were completely destroyed by the Germans and their heavy guns. The French supreme command was therefore of the opinion that the forts along the eastern border could no longer be used for the defence and had them dismantled. The guns, as far as they were movable, were taken away to be used by offensives somewhere else. Shortly before, a command has been given to send an army unit to the fortress as reinforcement but somebody has forgotten to pass on the command. It is said that this misconception of the French supreme command has caused, in the course of the following months, the lives of at least 100,000 French soldiers.
***
The French headquarters appointed general Phillipe Pétain commander-in-chief of the Verdun front. He immediately ordered the formation of a line of defence on the right bank of the Meuse. This line had to be formed between the remaining fortresses which had to be defended at any cost to buy the time needed to build fortifications. Especially on the left bank more artillery was quickly set up to check the German advance. However, it had became usless as the Germans broke through the line near the village of Douaumont.
OOC: More to come
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Post by Germany on Oct 12, 2004 15:19:06 GMT -5
VERDUN, FRANCEThe German army command decided to attack both banks of the Meuse at the same time. The most important aim of attack on the left bank was the Bois Bourrus. The French artillery was concentrated here. Before this Bois could be attacked a hill called Le Mort-Homme [Dead Man Hill] had to be taken.
At first the Germans advanced well, but Le Mort-Homme was fiercely defended by the French and the Germans were more and more bothered by gun fire from a nearby hill: the Cote 304 [Hill 304]. That is why they decided to take the Cote 304 first. The attack started on 3 May with 500 guns thundering on a field of not even a square 2 kilometres. Under terrible circumstances and suffering horrible losses the Côte 304 and then Le Mort-Homme were taken by the Germans. The Bois Bourrus was now German.
***
Two days later, the battle started on the right bank. The aim of attack was the fortress of Vaux that had by now been fortified and could be counted among the strongest forts of war. Despite French gunfire, the Germans had air supuriority and could easily take out the French guns via air support. The fortress of Vaux then later fell to the Germans. attempts to recapture the fort ended in pointless massacres. The next major German offensive was aimed at the occupation of the village of Fleury and fort Souville. From these points the Germans intended to advance to Verdun. On 23 June three German army corps attacked. This was the first attack in which phosgene gas was used. 230 Guns fired a total of 110,000 of these poison gas shells.
***
After months of fighting; Fort Douaumont, Fort Vaux, and the city of Verdun lay in German hands. The French lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers and had hardly anything to stop the Germans from advancing toward Paris. The French were willing to loose everything for Verdun, and indeed they have. On the other hand, the Germans also lost countless soldiers, but in the end prevailed. The Germans in France now continued on their march toward Paris. There was no stoping them now.***
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Post by idewowaxihox on Nov 20, 2019 1:08:53 GMT -5
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