$15.00 CAD
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Photo of a few tents, German soldiers milling about. Land is barren, few scrub bushes used for hiding bivouac.
Date is just before the infamous, bloody Battle of Verdun.
Written on back “unser erstes biwak stellung am Hassonte wald Verdun Februar 1916” or “our first bivouac position at Hassonte(?) forest Verdun February 1916”
At LR of photo, written on negative "41 /6"
9 x 12 cm
(Red text is an electronic watermark that is not physically part of the photo for sale)
Battle of Verdun, (February 21–December 18, 1916), World War I engagement in which the French repulsed a major German offensive. It was one of the longest, bloodiest, and most-ferocious battles of the war; French casualties amounted to about 400,000, German ones to about 350,000. Some 300,000 were killed.
The fortress of Verdun with its surrounding fortifications along the Meuse River was selected because it threatened the main German communication lines, it represented a salient in the French defenses, and the loss of such a storied citadel would be an enormous blow to French morale. The keynote of the tactical plan was a continuous series of limited advances that would draw the French reserves into the mincing machine of the German artillery.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Verdun
