Peter Reviews - The Price of Glory, Verdun 1916 by Alistair Horne

Peter Reviews - The Price of Glory by Alistair Horne

Verdun, 1916, the epic ten-month battle between Germany and France. Over 700,000 soldiers fell in battle, nearly half of them dead. This intense, attrition battle symbolized the devastating realities of industrial warfare, mass armies, and the endurance-testing strain on warring nations. The pre-1914 military ideals of elan and glory seemed quaint. Now warfare was defined by relentless artillery battles, thousands of casualties each week, and mountains of logistics to support armies desperately fighting to seize a contested hilltop, a battered fort, or a crossroads. Battlefields resembled a muddy moonscape, devoid of nature.

Written sixty years ago, Alistair Horne’s The Price of Glory remains a classic account of Verdun. The author explains why the Germans chose Verdun to attack the French. He draws on extensive literature and interviews with war veterans to understand the battle’s strategic motivations. He assesses German commanders and their planning, which proved wanting at the strategic level of war. There is little sympathy for the German commander Falkenhayn and his desperate attempts to revise the historical record after the war. For the French, there’s little praise for Joffre, but much for Pétain, who understood the power of defense, supply, and the regular rotation of units across the battlefield.

Verdun greatly affected both armies. Germany believed it would crack the French Army, break open the Western Front, and secure victory. Its failure at Verdun—the heavy casualties and the unbelievable consumption of supplies—left the army sapped. The Germans missed a strategic opportunity to knock a tottering Russia out of the war earlier; instead, they opted for Verdun, a strategic mistake. Germany faced mounting economic pressures due to its failure to prepare for a prolonged industrial war. Food shortages from the blockade and crop failures led to unrest on the home front and a hungry army.

For the French, Verdun was about endurance – 70% of the Army served in the battle. But the Army was exhausted, and within a year, mutinies rocked it. To the nation, Verdun became a symbol that still resonates in modern France.

By 1917, European armies had fought to a standstill; only the arrival of American forces tipped the war in favor of the Allies the next year. Verdun marked the end of the old world; it had been bled white and was now economically crippled.

The Price of Glory is expansive, well-written, and accessible to readers alike.

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