Why did Germany select this particular point for its grand offensive?  The answer is to be found in a demand made by the great Junker associations of Germany in May, 1915, nine months before the attack was undertaken.  That demand was to the effect that Verdun should be attacked and captured.  They declared that the Verdun fortifications made a menacing salient thrust into the rich iron fields of the Briey basin.  From this metalliferous field of Lorraine came the ore that supplied eighty per cent of the steel required for German and Austrian guns and munitions.  These fields of Briey were only twenty miles from the great guns of Verdun.  They were French territory at the beginning of the war and had been seized by the army of the Crown Prince, co-operating with the Army of Metz because of their immense value to the Germans in war making.

As a preliminary to the battle, von Falkenhayn placed a semicircle of huge howitzers and rifles around the field of Briey.  Then assembling the vast forces drained from all the fronts and having erected ammunition dumps covering many acres, the great battle commenced with a surprise attack upon the village of Haumont on February 21, 1916.

The first victory of the Germans at that point was an easy one.  The great fort of Douaumont was the next objective.  This was taken on February 25th after a concentrated bombardment that for intensity surpassed anything that heretofore had been shown in the war.

Von Falkenhayn, personally superintending the disposition of guns and men, had now penetrated the outer defenses of Verdun.  The tide was running against the French, and shells, more shells for the guns of all caliber; men, more men for the earthworks surrounding the devoted city were needed.  The narrow-gauge railway connecting Verdun with the great French depots of supplies was totally inadequate for the transportation burdens suddenly cast upon it.  In this desperate emergency a transport system was born of necessity, a system that saved Verdun.  It was fleet upon fleet of motor trucks, all sizes, all styles; anything that could pack a few shells or a handful of men was utilized.  The backbone of the system was a great fleet of trucks driven by men whose average daily rest was four hours, and upon whose horizon-blue uniforms the stains of snow and sleet, of dust and mud, were indelibly fixed through the winter, spring, summer and fall of 1916, for the glorious engagement continued from February 21st until November 2d, when the Germans were forced into full retreat from the field of honor, the evacuation of Fort Vaux putting a period to Germany’s disastrous plan and to von Falkenhayn’s military career.

Lord Northcliffe, describing the early days of the immortal battle, wrote: