Unlike the popular view, the French army did not cease offensive
operations after the disastrous Nivelle Offensive of spring 1917 and the
subsequent mutinies. Nor did the fighting at Verdun come to an end in
1916.
The successful French counter offensives at the end of that year led to
preliminary planning for a two Army operation in 1917 to break out of
the Verdun salient and recapture the strategically very significant
Briey coal basin. The French Army mutinies of May and June 1917 led to a
more limited version of the plan being implemented, with the aim of
establishing new lines for a break out in 1918.
The need to rebuild morale in the French army meant that nothing was
left to chance. The immense logistical effort of this late summer 1917
campaign and the detailed planning and careful training at all levels
brought success to an army weary of war but determined to win. The
industrial nature of the preparations, the spectacular numbers of guns
and the first appearance of the Americans at Verdun presage the
campaigns of 1918 and the final Allied victory.
Once more Christina Holstein, the premier expert in Britain of the
battlefields around Verdun, leads the reader around the various vital
points of this largely unknown battle of 1917, one which was vital for
the rebuilding of a French army that played such a notable part in the
victorious allied campaign of 1918.
As for all the books in the Battleground Europe series, it is profusely
illustrated and mapped using contemporary and modern material, supported
by clear maps to support each of the tours.
