Verdun is one of the most titanic struggles of the Great War,

a defining point in the conflict for both France and Germany.

And once you begin to read about it, the figures connected to Verdun in 1916 are mind-boggling.

Lasting more than 300 days and 300 nights, it was the longest single battle of the Great War.

Two and a half million shells fell in the first nine hours of the battle. In the central area of the battlefield, more than a thousand shells fell for every square metre,

and by the conclusion of the fighting, the casualties for both nations combined exceeded 700,000.

The wider effects of the battle for France ran through the veins of the nation

for the rest of the century, perhaps still do so today, and for most people, if Grand

Peres served anywhere, it was Verdun. We've covered Verdun in quite a few previous podcasts,

and rather than repeat the wider aspects of the history there, 110 years ago, in this episode, we'll focus on one action that came to personify the early phase of the battle and gave France arguably its first Verdun hero.

In this, we'll look at an action around a wooded area on the northern sector of the battlefield,

known as the Bois de Corps, and the man who led the defenders there,

Lieutenant Colonel Emil Drian.

And just before we continue, episodes about Verdun always provoke questions about

what books to read. And it's always good to start in my mind with Alistair Horne's Price of Glory,

that classic book that's largely not been surpassed in terms of a single history of the battle,

single volume history, even in recent years,

and also the work of Christina Holstein, with her books on walking and interpreting and visiting the ground as it is today. And if you speak French, Jacques Perricard's essential study about Verdun,

which will reference in this episode,

which he produced in the 1930s, has unfortunately never been translated.

Pericard's book, assembled through interviewing hundreds, if not thousands, of men who fought at Verdun,

not just in 1916,

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