Trận Verdun
Bách khoa toàn thư mở Wikipedia
Tiêu bản:Chiến tranh
Tiêu bản:Các trận đánh Mặt trận phía Tây (Thế chiến I) Trận Verdun là một trận đánh chính của mặt trận phía Tây trong Thế chiến I. Trận đánh nổ ra giữa quân đội Đức và Pháp từ 21 tháng Hai đến 19 tháng Mười Hai 1916 xung quanh Verdun-sur-Meuse ở đông bắc Pháp. Kết quả hơn 1/4 triệu người chết và hơn 1/2 triệu người bị thương. Đây là trận chiến kéo dài nhất trongThế chiến I, và là trận đẫm máu lớn thứ hai sau trận Somme (1916).
"Họ không thể vượt qua" — Robert Nivelle
Mục lục |
[sửa] Giá trị của Verdun
Verdun có một giá trị biểu tượng to lớn đối với nước Pháp. Trong lịch sử, nó đóng một vai trong quan trọng trong việc bảo vệ khu vực này và khu vực phía sau nhờ vào vị trí chiến lược trên sông Meuse. Atilla the Hun chưa bao giờ thành công trong việc vây hãm thị trấn. Khi chia tách đế chế Charlemagne, Hiệp ước of Verdun năm 843 đã quy định Thị trấn là một phần của đế chế Holy Roman. hòa bình unster năm 1648 cho phép sát nhập Verdun vào Pháp. Verdun đã đóng một trai trò quan trong trong phòng tuyến được xây dựng sau chiến tranh Pháp-Phổ năm 1870. Để bảo vệ trước mối đe dọa của Đức từ phía Đông, các phòng tuyến giữa Verdun và Toul và giữa Epinal và Belfort đã được xây dựng. Verdun bảo vệ hướng xâm nhập phía Bắc vào đồng bằng Champagne và như vậy sẽ tiếp cận với Paris.
Trong năm 1914, Verdun đã đứng vững trước các cuộc tấn công của Đức, và phòng tuyến đã chịu được ngay cả các cuộc pháo kính của Big Bertha. Các đơn vị đã được đồn trú trong các thành cổ do Vauban xây dựng từ thế kỷ 17. Cuối thế kỷ 19, một hệ thống ngầm dưới mặt đất đã được xây dựng để làm công binh xưởng, bệnh viện, và cả doanh trại cho quân Pháp.
[sửa] Bối cảnh
Sau khi Đức thất bại trong việc giành chiến thắng trong năm 1914, cuộc chiến nhanh chóng sa lầy vào bế tắc. Chiến tranh chiến hào đã được phát triển và không một bên nào có thể vượt qua.
Trong năm 1915 mọi nỗ lực nhằm phá vỡ bế tắc của quân Đức tại Yprescủa quân Anh tại Neuve Chapelle và của quân Pháp tại Champagne đã thất bại với con số thương vong khủng khiếp.
The German Chief of Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, believed that although a breakthrough might no longer be possible, nonetheless the French could be defeated if they suffered enough casualties. He therefore planned to attack a position from which the French could not retreat, for both strategic reasons and reasons of national pride, and so impose a ruinous battle of attrition on the French armies. The town of Verdun-sur-Meuse was chosen for this "bleeding white" of the French: the town, surrounded by a ring of forts, was an important stronghold that projected into the German lines and guarded the direct route to Paris. Rather than a traditional military victory, Verdun was planned as a vehicle for destroying the French army. Falkenhayn wrote to the Kaiser:
- "The string in France has reached breaking point. A mass breakthrough—which in any case is beyond our means—is unnecessary. Within our reach there are objectives for the retention of which the French General Staff would be compelled to throw in every man they have. If they do so the forces of France will bleed to death."
[sửa] Trận chiến
Verdun was poorly defended because artillery guns had been removed from the local fortifications, but good intelligence and a delay in the German attack due to bad weather gave the French time to rush two divisions of 30th Corps, the 72nd and 51st, to the area.
The battle began on 21 February 1916 with a nine-hour artillery bombardment firing 1,000,000 shells by 1,200 guns on a front of 40 km, followed by an attack by three army corps (the 3rd, 7th, and 18th). The Germans used flamethrowers for the first time to clear the French trenches. By 23 February the Germans had advanced three miles capturing the Bois des Caures after two French battalions led by Colonel Émile Driant had held them up for two days, and pushed the French defenders back to Samogneux, Beaumont, and Ornes. Poor communications meant that only now did the French command realize the seriousness of the attack.
On 24 February the French defenders of 30th Corps fell back again from their second line of defence, but were saved from disaster by the appearance of the 20th Corps under General Balfourier. Intended as relief, the new arrivals were thrown into combat immediately. That evening French Army chief of staff, General de Castelnau, advised his boss, Joseph Joffre, that the French Second Army under General Phillipe Petain, ought to be sent to man the Verdun sector. On 25 February the German 24th (Brandenburg) Infantry Regiment captured a centre-piece of France's fortifications, Fort Douaumont.
Castelnau appointed General Philippe Pétain commander of the Verdun area and ordered the French Second Army to the battle sector. The German attack was slowed down at the village of Douaumont by the tenacious defense of the French 33rd Infantry Regiment and heavy snowfall. This gave the French time to bring up 90,000 men and 23,000 tonnes of ammunition from the railhead at Bar-le-Duc to Verdun.
As in so many other offensives on the Western Front, by advancing, the German troops had lost effective artillery cover. With the battlefield turned into a sea of mud through continual shelling it was very hard to move guns forward. The advance also brought the Germans into range of French artillery on the west bank of the Meuse. Each new advance thus became costlier than the previous one as the attacking German Fifth Army units, often attacking in massed crowds southward down the east bank, were cut down ruthlessly from their flank by Petain's guns on the opposite, or west, side of the Meuse valley. When the village of Douaumont was finally captured on 2 March 1916 four German regiments had been virtually destroyed.
Unable to make any further progress against Verdun frontally, the Germans turned to the flanks, attacking the hill of Le Mort Homme on 6 March and Fort Vaux on 8 March. In three months of savage fighting the Germans captured the villages of Cumières and Chattancourt to the west of Verdun, and Fort Vaux to the east surrendered on 7 June. The losses were terrible on both sides. Pétain attempted to spare his troops by remaining on the defensive, but he was relieved on 1 May and replaced with the more attack-minded General Robert Nivelle.
The Germans' next objective was Fort Souville. On 22 June 1916 they shelled the French defences with the poison gas diphosgene, and attacked the next day with 60,000 men, taking the battery of Thiaumont and the village of Fleury. But they were unable to capture Souville, though the fighting around it continued until 6 September.
The opening of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916 forced the Germans to withdraw some of their artillery from Verdun to counter the combined Anglo-French offensive to the north.
By the autumn, the German soldiers were exhausted and Falkenhayn had been replaced as chief of staff by Paul von Hindenburg and as commander at Verdun by General Erich Ludendorff.
The French launched a counter-offensive on 21 October 1916. Fort Douaumont was bombarded with new 400 mm guns (brought up on rails and directed by spotter planes), and captured on 24 October. On 2 November the Germans lost Fort Vaux and retreated. A final French offensive beginning on 11 December drove the Germans back to their starting positions.
[sửa] Thương vong
It was crucial that the less populous Central Powers inflict many more casualties on their adversaries than they themselves suffered. At Verdun, Germany did inflict more casualties on the French than they incurred—but not in the 2:1 ratio that they had hoped for, despite the fact that the German army grossly outnumbered the French.
France's losses were appalling, however. It was the perceived humanity of Field Marshal Philippe Pétain who insisted that troops be regularly rotated in the face of such horror that helped seal his reputation. The rotation of forces meant that 70% of France's army went through "the wringer of Verdun", as opposed to the 25% of the German forces who saw action there.
[sửa] Ý nghĩa
The Battle of Verdun, also known as the 'Mincing Machine of Verdun' or 'Meuse Mill' became a symbol of French determination, inspired by the sacrifice of the defenders.
The successes of the fixed fortification system led to the adoption of the Maginot Line as the preferred method of defence along the Franco-German border during the inter-war years.
[sửa] Xem thêm
- Émile Driant
- French villages destroyed in the First World War – all of which were ruined during the Battle of Verdun, and six of which have not subsequently been rebuilt
- Douaumont ossuary
- Verdun Memorial
- Voie Sacrée
[sửa] Tham khảo
- Robert T. Foley, German Strategy and the Path to Verdun, ISBN 0521841933
- Alistair Horne, The Price of Glory, ISBN 0140170413
- William Martin, Verdun 1916, "They shall not pass"; Osprey Campaign Series #93, Osprey Publishing, 2001.
- John Mosier, The Myth of the Great War, ISBN 0060084332
- Anthony Clayton Paths of Glory - The French Army 1914 - 18, ISBN 0304366528
[sửa] Liên kết bên ngoài
- The Battle of Verdun (English-Dutch Site)
- DIE SCHLACHT UM VERDUN - EINE EUROPÄISCHE TRAGÖDIE
- Info from firstworldwar.com
- Verdun book excerpt
- Verdun - A Battle of the Great war.
