The Great War: Verdun and the lost generation
France holds the Western Front for four years at the cost of about 1.4 million soldiers' lives, and wins a victory that feels like a wound.
- France and the Great War, 1914–1918 — Leonard V. Smith, Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, Cambridge University Press (2003)
- The Cambridge Illustrated History of France — Colin Jones, Cambridge University Press (1994)
When war came in August 1914, the country rallied in a “sacred union” across left and right. German armies drove deep into northern France before being stopped on the Marne in September. Then the front froze into trenches running from the Channel to Switzerland, much of it on French soil.
- France and the Great War, 1914–1918 — Leonard V. Smith, Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, Cambridge University Press (2003)
The battle of Verdun, from February to December 1916, became the symbol of French endurance: most of the French army rotated through it, and “Ils ne passeront pas” (“They shall not pass”) became a national motto. After the failed Nivelle offensive in 1917 mutinies broke out in many units, and Pétain, the “victor of Verdun”, restored order partly by improving conditions.
- France and the Great War, 1914–1918 — Leonard V. Smith, Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, Cambridge University Press (2003)
About 1.4 million French soldiers died, among them many from the colonies, and millions more were wounded; the “gueules cassées” with shattered faces became a familiar sight. Victory in November 1918 returned Alsace-Lorraine, but at a cost that left France exhausted and fearful of Germany.
- France and the Great War, 1914–1918 — Leonard V. Smith, Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, Cambridge University Press (2003)
- The Cambridge Illustrated History of France — Colin Jones, Cambridge University Press (1994)
Why it matters today
In France "la Grande Guerre" is still the war of mourning. Almost every town and village has a monument aux morts listing its dead, 11 November is a public holiday, and family stories of grandfathers and great-grandfathers in the trenches remain common. The war's scale helps explain the desperate wish to avoid another in the 1930s, and the deep commitment to Franco-German reconciliation after 1945.