"Christmas meeting": the TL

I figured it was time to make something of mine. Since English is not my native language, and I help myself in writing longer texts by google translator, I will avoid like the plague dialogues. That means that the timeline will take the form of a "historian's notebook" rather than the story. I warn you right away: they can appear quite rudimentary posts, which will possibly later be supplemented by more detailed.
If a thread from AH.com will be an inspiration for a post: I'll give a link, in so far as possible. So, a little preview, and POD.

Christmas 1915, Berlin
Unexpected arrival of crown prince surprised Falkenhayn, and he not canceled his meeting with the Emperor. More unexpected was presence of the heir to the throne at the meeting . When Falkenhayn presented his plan of attack on Verdun, crown prince Willhem had a few observations:
- If an attack is pllaned to be the decisive battle of the war, 5 Army should be supported by entire western front, passing to her part of reserves.
- The local advantage of a short stretch will not break the front because the French sure will bring their reserves. The attack must be made on as longest section of the front as possible in terms of available resources, in several places to distract attention of French HQ from main attack
- Offensive should be carried out in several stages: inrushes deeply into French line of defense, and when it encounters thought resistance, the German forces should entrench, repel counterattacks, move heavy artillery on new positions and attack again.

But Willhelm undertook the task and the next day sent a telegram to his staff with following guidelines:
"Prepare plan of 5 Army offensive at Verdun. Reach the outcome of the stab wargames before the war, on this issue. Line of of attack should be on shothest distance from German lines to city of Verdun. Propably on north. Develop a strategic approach to the closure of the salient, and bypass the line of forts. The plan should be developed to maintain the minimum possible losses, and to increase the personal losses of the enemy. Begin preparation of the reserves and stocks on the basis of any possible source"

When he arrive to headquarter of 5th Army in 3 January, gen. Shmidt von Knobelsdorf was waiting for he with inital plan: The attack was to be held north of the city, by 2 separate groups, on both banks of the Meuse, at the end of February. Troops were to move in the direction of the city to cut off the French forces on the eastern bank, which without supplies can then be easily crushed...

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Plans

But preparations was inact from half of december. The 5th Army headquarter developed two different plans: encirclement the fortress, so as to keep the artillery fire on its nodes:
verduninitial.png
verduninitial.png

And second, the rapid march directly to the city, coupled with the assault on the forts, which will be destroyed by heavy artillery.
10 January, after the reports and discussions between the General Staff and command of 5th Army, was finally established an overall plan of operations: it had to be a combination of assumptions from both earlier versions:
- The attack occurs on both sides of the Meuse, but the VI Reserve Corps will be ancillary, will not constitute the main axis of attack
- The main strike force in the direction of Douaumont and maybe Vaux forts and, after their taking: the forts of Belleville, St. Michel and Souville. With these positions will be able to destroy by artillery crossing in the city and cut off the other French forces on the east bank of the river.
- The attack will start on 11 February. VI Res.Corps: a day later.

Crownprince also wanted circa 4-6 more divisions and around 800 heavy cannons over support appointed by OHL: VII Reserve Corps, XVIII, III, XV Army Corps and near to 1000 field guns and mortars, but Falkenhayn disagreed, arguing the fear of an expected spring or summer offensive by the english forces.
verdunfalk.png
 
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