Verdun - Little Willie's Last Thrust

Battles of the First World War Podcast

Mike Cunha

History

4.8 • 812 Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2018

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

July 1916 begins and the Battle of the Somme erupts to relieve pressure at Verdun. The Germans begin to divert all available resources for the new battle.

The German 5th Army at Verdun makes one more attempt to break through on the Right Bank of the River Meuse. The line Fleury-Fort Souville-Fort Tavannes is attacked to clear the last defensible ridge line before Verdun.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	One more effort, said the commander, and we have it.
0:07.3	They said it in March, in April.
0:11.1	They set it in May and June, and until the middle of July.
0:16.6	And then they said it no more.
0:20.8	Arnold's Feig.
0:21.6	Education before Verdun podcast, episode 11, Little Willey's Last Thrust.
1:03.3	I just said that with a straight face.
1:06.7	Real quick, I want to say thanks to new likes on the Facebook page from the 81st Infantry Regiment Reenactment Group, First Corcession.
1:17.9	Oliver, great photos on your page.
1:21.5	And the historical T Verdun shirt company based in Verdun France.
1:28.5	Just think polos with embroidered World War I helmets and propaganda posters printed on the back.
1:36.0	I am so there.
1:39.2	Okay.
1:41.2	On the 1st of July, 1916, a brilliant summer morning, 14 British and five French infantry divisions launched the long-awaited offensive on the River Somme.
1:56.0	After a solid week of a massive artillery bombardment, nearly 100,000 Tommies left their trenches
2:03.6	in the early morning and advanced in perfect ranks towards the German line a few hundred yards
2:10.1	away.
2:12.6	Their morale and enthusiasm were high. These were for the most part, the untested and poorly trained,
2:20.3	men of Kitchener's new army, and were those who had answered the call to enlist. Morale
2:28.3	and enthusiasm, though, could not overcome barbed wire that had not been destroyed in the preceding bombardment.
2:36.0	Nor could it overcome the German machine gun teams that had survived in incredibly deep dugouts,
2:44.0	and who now came rushing out to mow them down.
	...

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