Neruda Poema 3

German gains continued but slowly. By mid June they had assaulted and taken Fort Vaux, which was located on the east bank of the Meuse River. Encouraged by the success in capturing Fort Vaux, Germantroops almost succeeded in breaking through the French line, getting close to Belleville Heights, which was the last stronghold before the town of Verdun. At this stage Philippe Petain was preparingto evacuate the east bank of the Meuse River when the Allies’ offensive on the Somme River began on July 1, to the relief of the French as the Germans could no longer afford to commit more troops toVerdun. German units were shifted to the trenches of the Somme.

From early October to December 1916, the French regained the forts and territory they had lost earlier through a series ofcounter-attacks. Falkenhayn was replaced by Paul von Hindenburg as Chief of Staff as Philippe Petain became a hero, eventually replacing General Nivelle as French commander-in-chief. In the Battle of Verdun thatlasted almost a year, 300,000 men were killed and almost 400,000 were wounded.

A German officer: …the number of defectors increases, the front soldiers become numb by seeing the bodies withoutheads, without legs, shot through the belly, with blown away foreheads, with holes in their chests, hardly recognisable flab’s, pale and dirty in the thick yellow brown mud, which covers the battlefield…A French soldier describes the horrors of a bombardment: ...When you hear the whistling in the distance your entire body preventively crunches together to prepare for the enormous explosions. Everynew explosion is a new attack, a new fatigue, a new affliction. Even nerves of the hardest of steel, are not capable of dealing with this kind of pressure. The moment comes when the blood rushes toyour head, the fever burns inside your body and the nerves, numbed with tiredness, are not capable of reacting to anything anymore. It is as if you are tied to a pole and threatened by a man with a...