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Soldiers and trucks advancing to and returning from Verdun along the Verdun-Bar-le-Duc road that became known as the Voie Sacrée, the Sacred Way. Under constant German bombardment, the road was maintained by thousands, some of whom can be seen shoveling dirt or gravel to fill holes. The Bois des Caures was in the northeastern corner of the Verdun sector, and was an area subjected to the first German assault of February 21 and 22, 1916.
Monument to the 40th Infantry Division at Mort-Homme, Verdun. © 2015 John M. Shea
Turkish Cavalry, from a German postcard.
Small and neutral Portugal tries to resist the pressure applied by a cheerful Great Britain to join the Entente Allied cause. British warships encourage Portuguese acquiescence, as the shadow of German militarism threatens. After German submarines sank Portuguese vessels, Portugal seized German ships in its ports. Germany responded by declaring war on Portugal on March 10, 1916. One of a series of 1916 postcards on neutral nations by Em. Dupuis.
French infantry charge near Fort Vaux, one of the bastions of Verdun. In March 1916, the village of Vaux changed hands 13 times. The fort fell to German forces the morning of June 7.Illustration by Léon Taa. . . ., 1916.
"Two days later [March 5, 1916], I was at the outpost. Happy news had reached us: We were being definitively relieved from the sector by the English, starting that very evening at 8 o'clock. This haste to relieve us was explained by the bad news from Verdun. The English were extending their front to make French troops available for reassignment.By five in the evening, with blankets rolled up and tent cloths stowed, we eagerly awaited the arrival of the 'Tommies.'" ((1), more)
"March 5th [1916].—A splinter of a 5.9 shell fired at our 6-inch battery killed a lark on the wing. German planes came over in the morning to see what yesterday's tell-tale snow and frost would reveal, and saw the guns that have been in one position for fifteen months. Now they are moving, and our billets will be the quieter." ((2), more)
"On March 6, during a driving snowstorm, the Germans launched an attack on the high ground of Mort-Homme, on the left bank of the Meuse. The preliminary artillery bombardment was as intense as that of February 21. Crossing the river at Brabant and Champneuville, and supported by the heavy gun fire from an armoured train, German troops gained an unexpected advantage when many of the shells fired at them by the French failed to explode in the soft, swampy ground. Mort-Homme held, but in the course of two days' fighting, 1,200 French soldiers surrendered. To keep the others in the line, the commander of the forces on the left bank, General de Bazelaire, warned that artillery and machine guns would be turned on any unit that retreated further." ((3), more)
"During the first months of 1916 the British made several attempts to relieve the surrounded troops of General Townshend. Two divisions from France and some other troops were brought to Busra for the purpose.The Turks had three entrenched positions, one in rear of the other, on either side of the Tigris. In bloody fighting from [January] 7th to the 9th and on the 13th and 14th, the Turks were driven from their first two positions. In the third position they withstood the enemy's attacks, which were repulsed with great loss to the British.New British attacks with fresh troops were made at Es Sinn on March 7th and repulsed." ((4), more)
"Wednesday, March 8, 1916.The fighting around Verdun is raging with redoubled ferocity. The Germans are attacking with large forces on both sides of the Meuse. Our line holds firm in spite of the intensity of their fire and the violence of their assaults." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the Notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas whose unit was in the line in Artois. German forces had opened the Battle of Verdun on February 21, 1916, and French General Henri Philippe Pétain, commanding the defense, rushed troops and supplies to the sector. To preserve morale, and his troops, Pétain relieved units after short stays in the front line, typically eight days.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, pp. 166, 167, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(2) Entry for March 5, 1916 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers and dozens of his comrades. Soldiers' writings are replete with observations of the natural world, not only that which usually made it difficult or miserable, like rain and mud, or snow and cold, but also it unalloyed beauty. In Boston, September 11, 2001, began as an exceptionally beautiful day.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 184, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(3) The advance of German forces on the right bank of the Meuse River in the Battle of Verdun exposed the French positions on Mort-Homme to German artillery bombardment, but impelled General Petain, commanding the defense of Verdun, to reply with heavy bombardment of the German positions. The Germans, in turn, attacked on March 6 to capture the French positions on Mort-Homme, on the French left, west of the city.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 233, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(4) Attempting to capture Baghdad in Mesopotamia, the British had captured Kut-al-Amara along the way, and continued their advance. In early December, 1915 they were forced back to Kut, where they were surrounded by superior Turkish forces. The increasingly beleaguered force under General Townshend, many of them Indian, awaited the Relief Army that was stopped in January and again in March. 'Busra' is Basra, the Persian Gulf port, and Britain's gateway to Mesapotamia.
Five Years in Turkey by Liman von Sanders, page 132, publisher: The Battery Press with War and Peace Books, publication date: 1928 (originally)
(5) Entry for March 8, 1916 from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia. On March 6 the Germans had launched an attack on Mort-Homme, high ground on the left bank of the Meuse, with a preliminary bombardment as intense as the one that had opened the Battle of Verdun on February 21.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 202, publisher: George H. Doran Company
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