21 FEBRUARY:The Battle of Verdun in 1916 was the longest single clash of World War One
The Battle of Verdun in 1916 was the longest single clash of World War One. The setbacks from Verdun and the effect the fight had on the French Army was an essential purpose behind the British beginning the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 with an end goal to take German weight off of the French at Verdun. The Battle of Verdun began on February 21st 1916 and finished on December sixteenth in 1916. It was to make General Philippe Pétain a saint in France. The assault on Verdun (the Germans code-named it 'Judgment') happened on account of an arrangement by the German Chief of General Staff, von Falkenhayn. He needed to "drain France white" by dispatching a huge German assault on a restricted stretch of area that had notable slant for the French – Verdun. The region around Verdun contained twenty noteworthy posts and forty littler ones that had generally ensured the eastern outskirt of France and had been modernized in the early years of the Twentieth Century.