Verdun Ossuary and Cemetery, France. © 2015 John M. Shea
"The Germans held [Fort Vaux] until November 2d, then suddenly evacuating the position and retiring to the Woevre Plain. With the restauration of Vaux, the circle of Verdun defences was once more complete.Eight months before the French had said: 'They shall not pass.' And the Germans did not pass Verdun. Instead they had retired a defeated army, leaving half a million of their dead on the slopes round about Verdun."
German forces launched the Battle of Verdun with a massive bombardment the night of February 21–22, 1916, and continued assaults and bombardment of the Verdun salient through the spring and summer. The July 1 beginning of the Anglo-French assault on the Somme forced the Germans to wind down the Verdun offensive. One of the principal forts defending Verdun was Fort Douaumont, which had fallen to the Germans on February 25, in the first days of the battle. Fort Vaux fell on June 7. The reconquest of the forts was a major French objective in the autumn. Under intense bombardment since October 20, the German defenders of Fort Douaumont had evacuated on the night of the 23rd after a French shell had ignited a fire inside the Fort. A small group of German soldiers re-occupied the Fort the morning of the 24th, but were easily overwhelmed by the French. Fort Vaux was evacuated by the German defenders on November 2, and French troops reoccupied it that night.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, pp. 217–218, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
1916-11-02, 1916-11-03, 1916, November, Vaux, Fort Vaux, map, Verdun, siege of Verdun
