Verdun and the Somme: the war of attrition and total war

Date

21 February to 18 December 1916 (Verdun and the Somme)

Category

Military & conflict

Region

Western Europe (France)

Era

Modern

Significance

In 1916 the Western Front produced two of the deadliest battles in history, epitomising the industrialised attrition warfare of World War I.

At Verdun (21 February to December 1916), the German offensive aimed to 'bleed France white'; the months-long struggle inflicted roughly 700,000 to 750,000 combined French and German casualties. The Anglo-French offensive on the Somme (1 July to 18 November 1916) opened with about 57,000 British casualties on the first day alone, the bloodiest day in British military history, and produced over a million casualties on all sides while advancing only a few kilometres. The battles displayed the lethal dominance of artillery, machine guns, and entrenched defence, and saw the first use of the tank by Britain in September 1916. They also exemplified 'total war': entire national economies, populations, and colonial manpower were mobilised for sustained mass slaughter, with no decisive breakthrough achieved.

Empires active in 21 February to 18 December 1916 (Verdun and the Somme)

• Empire of Japan
  1868 CE to 1947 CE
• French Colonial Empire (Second)
  1830 CE to 1962 CE
• German Empire
  1871 CE to 1918 CE
• Russian Empire
  1721 CE to 1917 CE
• British Empire
  1583 CE to 1997 CE
• Spanish Empire
  1492 CE to 1976 CE

Related military & conflict events

• D-Day: the Normandy landings
  6 June 1944
• Fall of France
  May to June 1940
• Assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the outbreak of World War I
  28 June to 4 August 1914
• Russo-Japanese War and Japan's Rise as a Great Power
  1904 to 1905
• Italy Invades Ethiopia
  1935 to 1936
• Second Sino-Japanese War and the Nanjing Massacre
  7 July 1937 to 2 September 1945

Also relevant

• Armistice of 11 November 1918 ends the fighting
  11 November 1918

Essential reading

• Haber-Bosch Process Industrialises Synthetic Nitrogen Fertiliser
  September 1913
• 1931 Central China Floods
  June to August 1931
• The Dust Bowl
  1930 to 1940 (peak 1934 to 1936)
• Cárdenas Nationalises Mexico's Oil
  1938

Further reading

Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire

The wider story

Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire

Roger Crowley

Fast-paced narrative of Portugal's seaborne empire.

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