Verdun The Lost History of the Most Important Battle of World War I, 1914-1918

Alongside Waterloo and Gettysburg, the Battle of Verdunduring World War I stands as one of history's greatest clashes. Yet it is alsoone of the most complex and misunderstood.Conventional wisdom holds that the battle began in February1916 and lasted until December, when the victorious French wrested all theterritory they had lost back from the Germans. In fact, says historian JohnMosier, from the very beginning of the war until the armistice in 1918, nofewer than eight distinct battles were waged for the possession of Verdun.These conflicts are largely unknown, even in France, owing to the obsessivesecrecy of the French high command and its energetic propaganda campaign tofool the world into thinking that the war on the Western Front was a steadyseries of German checks and defeats.Although British historians have always seen Verdun as aone-year battle designed by the German chief of staff to bleed France white,Mosier's careful analysis of the German plans reveals a much more abstract andtheoretical approach.Our understanding of Verdun has long been mired in myths,false assumptions, propaganda, and distortions. Now, using numerous accounts ofmilitary analysts, serving officers, and eyewitnesses, including French sourcesthat have never been translated, Mosier offers a compelling reassessment of theGreat War's most important battle.