Verdun day 1
The morning of February 21st was filled with the sounds of screaming shells impacting on French positions all across the Verdun sector, battering trenches and bunkers into dust. The bombardment had been going on since nightfall the previous night without let up. The Germans watched eagerly from their Stollen, the darkness continuously lit up by the flashes of bursting shells. The French soldiers had a much different and altogether more horrifying experience. The first and second defensive positions were specially targeted, an experience that did not make the infantry feel very special. Forested hills were denuded within hours, men blasted into oblivion or crushed when their positions collapsed, and mutilated bodies decorated the shattered trees like satanic tinsel as the German artillery worked its macabre magic. Gas also permeated every position, the insidious chemicals working their way into the masks and pores of the defenders, causing agony, as men were reduced to vomiting in their masks and clenching burning cavities that were once eyes. Tearing their masks off to free themselves from the foulness inside, the tormented men often succumbed to the suffocating Chlorine-Phosgene mixture accompanying the other gases. Those that did not would suffer and fall in the coming hours and the slow-acting Phosgene disintegrated their lungs, leaving corpses with a bloody froth at their lips. Particularly hard hit was the 67th division on the west bank of the Meuse; being a new division, the men did the worst thing possible to escape from the gas: they ran from their positions into the barrage isolating them from the rear.
When the order came to attack at 0400, the soldiers of the 5th army left their positions falling on the French with a fury borne of desire; they wanted to win and no one was going to stand in their way. Proceeding the echeloned assault were the men of the pioneer and special Flammenwerfer units, clearing obstacles and marking attack paths for the infantry. Astonishingly, men actually survived the brutal onslaught of artillery that prepared the attack. Especially around Brabant, Haumont, Ornes, and Beaumont, pill boxes and scattered groups of infantry fired into the attackers, desperate, deaf, and furious.
West Bank
On the West Bank, two corps where on attack, with assistance from a third on the flank of the advance. Forge fell with little resistance and the Cote d’Oie was mounted by an entire corps, the few organized pockets of resistance being overrun or wiped out by attacks on their flank or rear. The forest was cleared by the afternoon, with an assault starting on the Mort Homme from three sides. The peak was captured by 2200 hrs with the last pocket of resistance falling soon thereafter.
To the west, another corps took Bethincourt and Haucort quickly, and proceeded to ascend the heights above. The goal rested on the peak of Cote 304, which overlooked the action below. A division from the 6th reserve corps also participated in the attack, capturing the town of Avocourt and attacking Cote 304 from the west. By nightfall the peak had fallen, and the village of Esnes was in sight.
The men of the French 7th corps that had been tasked with holding the west bank were savaged by the bombardment the starting the previous day. Being new to the area and occupying incomplete defenses, the artillery worked horrors on them, making the fall of their crucial zone much easier. Though the corps artillery survived, it fell back with the survivors, all having been pummeled by the German guns, many having
been gassed.
East Bank
The fighting on the east bank was especially fierce, was the men of the French 30 corps were dug in and ready to die beating off their attackers. The 72nd division, with the famous Cl. Driant, was the subject of the flamethrower-wielding pioneers, and suffered badly, despite inflicting heavy casualties to these formations. Tongues of flame licked the pillboxes and bunkers of the 72nd, the shrieks of the men and pops of cartridges cooking off echoing in the ears of the assault formations.
On the extreme west of the sector, the 7th reserve corps echeloned its divisions for an attack on Brabant, the first taking the hill by early afternoon and the second moving through to take Samogneux and moving up the neighboring hill by the evening.
To their sides was the 5th reserve corps, which contributed a division to taking Haumont, which they did with heavy casualties. The survivors moved forward, stopping on the foothills of the next range of hills. The 18th corps attacked along both sides the road running from Ville to Beaumont, pushing through the Bois le Comte and Bois de Ville, ending the day in Bois des Coures and Bois la Wavrille, exhausted and having lost significant numbers of men. Attacking from the flank, the 3rd corps captured the destroyed villaged of Ornes quickly, but bogging down quickly while moving up the Bois le Chaume. Their other division pushed through the Bois Herbebois, crossing a road junction and stopping for the evening on the edge of the Bois des Fosses.
Overall it was a tremendously successful day, with first and second lines of French resistance shattered, and the better part of two French corps wiped out. The success came at a price of nearly 20,000 casualties and the fighting was only beginning. Artillery began displacing, moving forward along the inadequate roads, trying to keep the advance within range. However, the French managed to scrape together over half of the artillery of the battered formations and about twenty percent of the infantry. The 14th division on the flank of the advance had not been engaged and pulled out of the Woevre plains, setting up on the heights overnight at la Vauche, Bezonvaux and later moving on the Haudromont the next day. The remaining French forces attempted to set up on Cote 344, Mormont farm and to the northeast of Louvemont, attempting to hold the Germans coming toward Bois des Fosses. On the West bank, things were much more grim, with the few units left holding at Esnes and the heights about
Chattencourt.
The worst part of the tragedy was that the sector commander was not even aware that a major offensive was on. Due to the disruption of communications the massive losses on the frontier were not known, and the limited reports that did come in were dismissed as diversions. The rest of the front from Alsace through Verdun were under bombardment and Joffre was convinced it was all a feint. He issued an order to the front to disregard probing attacks in the Verdun region, as they were probably being made to draw forces away from the main offensive. As a result, the only action taken by sector command was to issue a warning order to the 37th division, the sector reserve. While the French waited, the Germans prepared for the next morning.