On June 1st, Germany launched a massive
attack at Verdun. By June 23rd, they got within 2.5 miles from Verdun itself -
but this attack faltered as the German army itself had given all that it had and
it could give no more. On June 24th, the bombardment on the Somme
could be heard at Verdun and with days, the battle at the Somme was to dominate
military planners on the Western Front. By
the end of October 1916, the French had re-captured the two forts at Vaux and
Douaumont but the
surrounding land where the battle had been fought since February was a
wasteland. The battle at Verdun continued to December - ironically after the
Somme conflict was considered to have ended.
