![]() One line coming from the south into Verdun had been severed when the Germans occupied Saint-Mihiel in 1914, while the other, leading westward out of Verdun towards Paris, was under direct German observation and artillery fire at Aubreville. The German General Staff had chosen Verdun as a strategic target, instead of Belfort, because the peacetime standard gauge railway lines going through Verdun had long been interrupted. The German military planners had neither anticipated the intense trucking on the Voie sacrée nor the later opening of the Sommeilles-Nettancourt to Dugny standard gauge railway line. Furthermore, during the summer of 1916, a standard gauge railway bypass (the Sommeilles-Nettancourt to Dugny line) was completed and took over from the traffic on the " Voie Sacrée" and from the narrow gauge " Chemin de fer meusien". The intensive use of trucking to maintain the supply of troops and materiel to the front lines was a significant factor that helped level the odds between the two armies. ![]() ![]() As time passed, Verdun became a battle of attrition in which artillery played the dominant role, leaving craters that are still partially visible today. However, it is quite clear that the French High Command had been caught unprepared by the assault in February 1916. The Battle of Verdun-also known as the "Mincing Machine of Verdun" or Meuse Mill-became a symbol of French determination to hold the ground and then roll back the enemy at any human cost.
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