Stereo card of French Generals, Henri Philippe Pétain, Paul Henrys, and Émile Fayolle and French Raymond President Poincaré in the Verdun sector. Pétain is on the left and Poincaré behind him. Henrys is in the foreground, back to the camera, and Fayolle on the right.
No.2 Pétain, Poincaré, Henrys, Fayolle devant VerdunPages d'Histoire OculaireReverse:Stéréo Édition F Meiller - Vitry-sur-Seine
"At 4:30 A.M. on August 20 [1917], eight divisions of French infantry swept forward. By August 26 they had driven the Germans off the heights and had captured ten thousand prisoners and hundreds of artillery pieces and machine guns. The French bombardment had been overwhelming. More than a thousand Germans died when one tunnel in the Mort Homme defenses was sealed up by accurate gunfire. And now, his objective accomplished, Pétain stopped the attack. His troops were amazed—'it has been too easy!'—and, as their trucks drove back from the victorious assault, observers marveled that men 'were singing, bursting with enthusiasm, their faces radiant with hope!'"
In ending the French army mutinies, commander in chief Henri Pétain had promised his army that he would make greater use of artillery and other weapons before any infantry assault, and that his objectives would be clear and limited. His offensive at Verdun in August, 1917 met these conditions, and demonstrated how successful they could be. His soldiers responded, seeing that every battle need not be a slaughter. Pétain was recapturing territory lost in the German siege of 1916, and providing support for British commander Douglas Haig's offensive in Flanders, the Third Battle of Ypres.
Dare Call it Treason by Richard M. Watt, page 225, copyright © 1963 by Richard M. Watt, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1963
1917-08-20, 1917, August, Verdun, artillery, Verdun et Cotes de Meuse
