French folding postcard map of Verdun and the Meuse River, number 9 from the series Les Cartes du Front. Montfaucon is in the upper left and St. Mihiel at the bottom.

Les Cartes du Front

Verdun et Côtes de Meuse

Echelle 1:32,000

Routes

Chemin de fer

Canaux



Maps of the Front

Verdun and the Hills of the Meuse

Scale: 1:32,000

Roads

Railways

Canals



1. - Les Flandres

2. - Artois, Picardie

3. - Aisne, Champagne

4. - Argonne et Meuse

5. - Lorraine

6. - Vosges et Alsace

7. - Route des Dame et Plateau de Craonne

8. - Région de Perthes

9. - Verdun

10. - Somme et Santerre

11. - Plateau d'Artois

12. - Belgique - Flandres



A. Hatier. Editeur.8.Rue d'Assas, Paris.



Outer front:

Correspondence of the Armies

Military Franchise

Other views: Larger, Larger, Back

Monday, August 13, 1917

"Artillery preparation began on the morning of August 11. Using 3,000 pieces, the French initially fired counterbattery missions and on August 13 began destroying enemy positions. From August 11 to 20 they fired 3,000,000 rounds of artillery, including more than 1,000,000 rounds from heavy guns. Using a technique borrowed from the British, the French also used machine guns to fire indirectly toward passage points, crossroads, supply lines, and enemy artillery batteries. The Germans responded with their own artillery fire and chemicals, but the French maintained control of the air with their fighters and obtained better results."

Quotation Context

French commander in chief Henri Pétain agreed to support British commander Douglas Haig's offensive in Flanders by attacking at Verdun to recapture territory lost in the German siege of 1916. The French army mutinies delayed Pétain's offensive until after Haig had already launched the Third Battle of Ypres. The Verdun offensive complied with the conditions Pétain had promised his army: greater use of artillery and other weapons before an assault by the infantry, all to achieve clear and limited objectives.

Source

Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, pp. 380–381, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005

Tags

1917-08-13, 1917, August, Verdun, artillery, Verdun et Cotes de Meuse