What was the worst war in history?

To say the worst battle, there is no doubt that nearly one million soldiers on both sides of Verdun were disappointed. Pay attention to the fact that all the dead were soldiers, not civilians! !

During the First World War, the German and French armies fought in the area where Verdun built a base from February to December, 1916.

Battle attempt and deployment of troops In early 1916, the German high command planned to defend on the eastern front, concentrating its forces on the Verdun projection of the French army on the western front, so as to contain and consume the main force of the French army and force France to surrender. The troops receiving the offensive mission are the 5th Army under the command of Crown Prince William of Germany (with 7 armies, 18 divisions, more than 1,2 artillery pieces and about 17 planes; Later, it increased to 5 divisions, accounting for about 1/2 of the total German troops on the Western Front). Its deployment is as follows: the 7th, 18th and 3rd armies (6 and a half divisions, 879 guns and 22 mortars) carried out major assault on the 15km-wide front from Kongsanwa to Orn River, and the 5th army covered its left flank; The 15th Army carried out auxiliary assault 6 kilometers south of the Orne River, and the 6th Army took containment action on the west bank of the Meuse River. In the direction of the main thrust, the German infantry is twice as many as the French infantry and the artillery is 3.5 times more. In order to achieve the suddenness of the battle, the Germans carried out a series of feints on the western front in January of the same year. Verdun, about 5 kilometers away from the Franco-German border, is the northeast gateway of Paris, the capital of France, and a battleground for both sides. Verdun, the French army, built a base across the banks of the Meuse River, with a front width of 112 kilometers and a depth of 15-18 kilometers. There are four defensive positions, the first three are field defensive positions, and the fourth is a solid position composed of the fortress's permanent fortifications and two fortified zones. It is commanding and easy to defend but difficult to attack. The 3rd Army of France (with 11 divisions and more than 63 guns, under the command of General F. El; After that, it increased to 69 divisions, accounting for about 2/3 of the total strength of the French army.) Five divisions defended the north of Verdun, three divisions defended the east and southeast of Verdun, and the other three divisions were deployed as reserves in the west bank of the Meuse River south of Verdun.

after the battle, at 7: 15 on February 21st, the Germans began to prepare for artillery fire. In order to conceal the direction of the main thrust, the German artillery simultaneously shelled the 4-kilometer-wide front, and the aviation bombed the French positions for the first time, destroying some defensive positions and killing a large number of effective forces. At 16: 45, the German infantry launched an attack and occupied the first defensive position that day. In the next four days, they successively captured the second and third defensive positions, pushed forward for 5 kilometers, and occupied the important support point of Duomengbao. On February 25th, the French high command appointed H.P. Petain, commander of the 2nd Army, as the front commander of Verdun (succeeded by R.-G. Nivelle on May 1st), and mobilized all available troops, determined to fight the Germans in Verdun. On the 26th, Petain ordered the recapture of Fort Doumont. After four days of fierce fighting, the French army suffered heavy losses and failed. Since February 27th, the French army has used the only Leduc-Verdun highway (also known as the "Holy Road") that keeps in touch with the rear to continuously dispatch troops and materials to Verdun, organizing 3,9 trucks within one week, transporting 19, personnel and 25, tons of materials. This is the first large-scale automobile transportation in the history of war. A large number of French reinforcements went into battle in time, which strengthened defense in depth and had a great impact on the campaign process. By the end of the month, the German army consumed a lot of ammunition, and the strategic reserve team did not arrive in time, and the attack power dropped sharply, thus losing the opportunity to break through the French defense.

On March 5th, the German army expanded the frontal attack and shifted the main thrust direction to the west bank of the Meuse River, in an attempt to capture the 34th and 295th highlands, relieve the threat of French artillery on the west bank, and surround Verdun from the west. At the same time, we continued to strengthen the offensive on the east coast, changing from rapid attack to steady attack, but the French army stubbornly resisted and only captured a few small strongholds after paying huge casualties. From April to May, the German army concentrated its weapons, including flamethrowers, asphyxiating gas and bombers, and carried out a key assault on the French army in the west bank. However, after the infantry reached the first line of the 34 highland and the 295 highland, they were violently countered by the French artillery fire and stopped attacking at the end of May. On the east coast, the French army frequently rotated combat troops, constantly carried out counterattacks, repeatedly competed with the Germans, and delayed the German attack. At the beginning of June, the Germans launched a large-scale offensive again. After seven days of fierce fighting, they cut off the connection between Fort Wobbe and other positions of the French army, forcing the defenders of Fort Wobbe to surrender on the 7th. In late June, the Germans used phosgene asphyxiation gas bombs and tear gas bombs to storm Fort Suvier for the first time, and fired 11, gas bombs on the 4-kilometer-wide front, causing heavy casualties to the French army. At one time, they reached less than 3 kilometers away from Verdun, but they were eventually repelled.

After the Russian offensive in the summer of 1916 and the Battle of the Somme on the western front began, the Germans did not invest any new troops in Verdun, and the subsequent offensive was only to contain the French army face to face. After months of hard work, although the Germans wedged into the French defense line for 7-1 kilometers in the north and east of Verdun, they failed to reach a breakthrough in the campaign. On August 29th, E.vn Falcken Hain was dismissed, and Marshal P.von Hindenburg took over as the German Chief of Staff. On September 2, the Kaiser approved to stop the attack. On October 24, the French army launched a large-scale counterattack, and in early November, it recovered Fort Doumont and Fort Warburg. From December 15 to 18, the French army launched a counterattack again and basically recovered the positions captured by the Germans. The battle is over.

this campaign is a typical positional war and attrition war. Both sides participated in the war with a large number of troops and heavy casualties. The French army lost 543, people and the German army lost 433, people, so the service was called "meat grinder", "slaughterhouse" and "hell". During the campaign, the experience of organizing defense by combining French field fortifications with permanent fortifications became the basis for countries to build fortress fortifications after the war.