Here is Richard Faulkner presenting Verdun: The Bleeding of Nations at the WWI Museum in Kansas City. I'm familiar with Faulkner. He teaches the US Army's CGSC and he is most known for some excellent work on the AEF. His presentation here is just fine - its very entertaining, though experts on the battle won't find a lot of new information. A fair amount of his presentation seems to derive from Jankowski's recent book. Also there are a few errors (some obvious - 'von Ludendorff'). That said, if you haven't read much on the battle, this is a reasonable place to start and determine if you're interested in reading more.
New Video on Verdun
New Video on Verdun
"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided." - Casey Stengel
Re: New Video on Verdun
Interesting in the way that it traced the fall of Verdun and ultimately the fall of Petain as the 'leader' of Vichy France. While Falkner literally covered all the bases. He was a little 'light' on plight of Falkenhayn. Falkenhayn knew who was responsible for the Victory of Tannenberg which H&L claimed. It was Colonel Max Hoffmann, who occupied the same post in the East that Ludendorff held in the West before the war began on August 1st. Both were the General Staff's planners for the long anticipated 2 front war. The plans both men made were incredibly successful in their execution.
Liege, which was Ludendorff's assignment was considered to be the strongest defensive position in Europe. Yet it was swept aside after 24 hours, instead of the 30 days it was expected to hold out, without any outside help. Ludendorff had the extraordinary good luck to be observing the implementation of his plan, when the field commander he was 'observing' was killed. Ludendorff instantly took command and took the city of Liege via the lightly defended 'back door' and became the Hero of Liege by August 7th.
He stayed with von Bulow's 2nd Army until about the 20th of August. He really didn't have much to do, since Liege was a great many Kilometers behind. Then von Motke, the German Chief of Staff recalled him to Spa to take command in the East, where the Commander of the tiny German 8th Army, Prittwitz was panicking because two powerful Russian Armies had crossed the border and were sweeping aside his forces on the borders of East Prussia.
But Mx Hoffman, the only German soldier 'mobilized' to the Eastern Front after Germany's declaration of war on Russia, arrived and set his Battle plan in motion, which he'd spent the previous decade setting up. The Battle of Tannenberg, which destroyed the two Russian Armies of over 600,000 men with just the 160,000 peacetime garrison of the 8th Army was the result. When Ludendorff and von Hindenberg arrived, it was already underway and Ludendorff essentially said "Ok." Falkenhayn was fully aware of this. Through 1915, instead of capitalizing on Hoffmann's victory, and knocking Russia out of the war. Ludendorff and Hindenberg fought a series of inconclusive campaigns, while sucking up most of men and material Germany had in the the 'class of 1915.'
In the West, Falkenhayn had to deal with Prince Wilhelm and Prince Rupprecht, the Kaiser's son and the King of Bavaria's son. When looking for somebody to blame for the failure of the Schlieffen Plan. It rests firmly on these two. Their Assignment was to lead the victory Parade in Paris. To give them that privilege, they were given "command" of the 5th and 6th German Armies in Alsace & Lorraine.
The plan was that they would draw the French Armies out of the impregnable Verdun/Toul fortress system and deep into 'the Lost Provinces' where the 5th and 6th armies would envelope them both and cut off their retreat. Unfortunately, the quick success Ludendorff engineered at Liege caused the the German 1st Army and the German 2nd Army to chase the retreating BEF and French 5th armies at a clip as much as 30 miles a day. Wilhelm and Rupprecht became alarmed that their position at the head of the Parade in Paris would be stolen by von Kluck and von Below. They grew tired of retreating in the face of French Armies entering the "lost Provinces" and Germany's sacred soil. They demanded the Kaiser intercede with von Moltke so that they be allowed to counter attack in the 'Battle of the Frontiers" about a week early.
Joffre had his armies back out of the trap and return to the fortress system. The BEF, rather than running for the channel ports and home as expected, conformed to the path of the French 5th Army which turned south to Paris. The Miracle of the Marne was thus made possible by Germany's unfortunate success in Belgium and northern France and the impatience of the two Crowned Princes for glory. And Falkenhayn knew that too. His plan for Verdun was to do the entire job of 'bleeding France white' with artillery. No ground troops, other than recon squads to assess the damage done and pick out new targets was supposed to be involved. Welhelm was given the assignment to stand by until Verdun raised the surrender flag, and then lead the victory parade on to Paris. Unfortunately, a recon squad captured Fort Fort Douaumont, the main fortress at the apex of the French Verdun/Toul defense system. Again, Wilhelm went to his father and demanded he be allowed to attack, rather than stand around waiting for the artillery to finish the job it was doing so successfully.
The tragic result was the Battle of Verdun stretched into a year long blood bath for both sides, and then was compounded by the battle of the Somme, with equally grizzly results. All because the Crowned Princes could not wait for glory.
Liege, which was Ludendorff's assignment was considered to be the strongest defensive position in Europe. Yet it was swept aside after 24 hours, instead of the 30 days it was expected to hold out, without any outside help. Ludendorff had the extraordinary good luck to be observing the implementation of his plan, when the field commander he was 'observing' was killed. Ludendorff instantly took command and took the city of Liege via the lightly defended 'back door' and became the Hero of Liege by August 7th.
He stayed with von Bulow's 2nd Army until about the 20th of August. He really didn't have much to do, since Liege was a great many Kilometers behind. Then von Motke, the German Chief of Staff recalled him to Spa to take command in the East, where the Commander of the tiny German 8th Army, Prittwitz was panicking because two powerful Russian Armies had crossed the border and were sweeping aside his forces on the borders of East Prussia.
But Mx Hoffman, the only German soldier 'mobilized' to the Eastern Front after Germany's declaration of war on Russia, arrived and set his Battle plan in motion, which he'd spent the previous decade setting up. The Battle of Tannenberg, which destroyed the two Russian Armies of over 600,000 men with just the 160,000 peacetime garrison of the 8th Army was the result. When Ludendorff and von Hindenberg arrived, it was already underway and Ludendorff essentially said "Ok." Falkenhayn was fully aware of this. Through 1915, instead of capitalizing on Hoffmann's victory, and knocking Russia out of the war. Ludendorff and Hindenberg fought a series of inconclusive campaigns, while sucking up most of men and material Germany had in the the 'class of 1915.'
In the West, Falkenhayn had to deal with Prince Wilhelm and Prince Rupprecht, the Kaiser's son and the King of Bavaria's son. When looking for somebody to blame for the failure of the Schlieffen Plan. It rests firmly on these two. Their Assignment was to lead the victory Parade in Paris. To give them that privilege, they were given "command" of the 5th and 6th German Armies in Alsace & Lorraine.
The plan was that they would draw the French Armies out of the impregnable Verdun/Toul fortress system and deep into 'the Lost Provinces' where the 5th and 6th armies would envelope them both and cut off their retreat. Unfortunately, the quick success Ludendorff engineered at Liege caused the the German 1st Army and the German 2nd Army to chase the retreating BEF and French 5th armies at a clip as much as 30 miles a day. Wilhelm and Rupprecht became alarmed that their position at the head of the Parade in Paris would be stolen by von Kluck and von Below. They grew tired of retreating in the face of French Armies entering the "lost Provinces" and Germany's sacred soil. They demanded the Kaiser intercede with von Moltke so that they be allowed to counter attack in the 'Battle of the Frontiers" about a week early.
Joffre had his armies back out of the trap and return to the fortress system. The BEF, rather than running for the channel ports and home as expected, conformed to the path of the French 5th Army which turned south to Paris. The Miracle of the Marne was thus made possible by Germany's unfortunate success in Belgium and northern France and the impatience of the two Crowned Princes for glory. And Falkenhayn knew that too. His plan for Verdun was to do the entire job of 'bleeding France white' with artillery. No ground troops, other than recon squads to assess the damage done and pick out new targets was supposed to be involved. Welhelm was given the assignment to stand by until Verdun raised the surrender flag, and then lead the victory parade on to Paris. Unfortunately, a recon squad captured Fort Fort Douaumont, the main fortress at the apex of the French Verdun/Toul defense system. Again, Wilhelm went to his father and demanded he be allowed to attack, rather than stand around waiting for the artillery to finish the job it was doing so successfully.
The tragic result was the Battle of Verdun stretched into a year long blood bath for both sides, and then was compounded by the battle of the Somme, with equally grizzly results. All because the Crowned Princes could not wait for glory.