WAR

21, 1916, the German Fifth Army began the bombardment that was the curtainraiser
to the Battle of Verdun.
Artillery was the characteristic feature of this battle: the guns massed for
the opening represented the heaviest concentration of firepower in history. From
February until June the earth was mauled along a constricted 15-mile front
until it looked like the barren surface of the moon. Entire regiments were wiped
out in the trenches. The trenches themselves were obliterated and soldiers were
driven mad by the fearful pounding. Men were buried alive under the vast
quantities of earth thrown up by the explosions, dug out and buried again. Both
sides used the expression "the hell of Verdun" to describe the battle that for
sheer horror is
unsurpassed.
General Henri Phillipe Petain took command of the defense of Verdun within
a week of the start of the battle and declared in one of his first orders the
absolute necessity of obtaining air parity.
At the start the Germans held the air. They had, in fact, aerial supremacy,
although it wasn't called that yet. It was the high-water mark of the Fokker