The Battle of Verdun was the longest and most costly battle of the First World War. It would dominate much of the fighting of 1916, forcing France's allies to fight battles that might otherwise not have been fought, or to alter the timing of their offensives to provide indirect aid to the French. By the end of the battle the French and Germans between them had lost close to one million men.
At the end of 1915 Verdun was in a quiet section of the western front. During the fighting in 1914 it had formed the pivot of the French line as it had bent back under the German onslaught. When the front line stabilised, Verdun found itself at the south eastern corner of the great German salient that bulged out toward Paris, while to the south east the Germans held the St. Mihiel salient. The only lines of communication into Verdun from the rest of France ran south west of the city.
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