>Captured without a shot fired by less than 100 Germans
>millions of lesser-caliber shells were later fired at the fort to little avail
>tens of thousands of men died in attempts to recapture it.
>Hundreds of Germans died in an instant when a explosion ripped through the fort after a magazine caught fire
Truly the most interesting spot of World War 1
War is hell ain't it?
>tfw your nice defensive wall turns into a slightly sloping hill
The French Second Army made a first attempt to recapture the fort in late May 1916. They occupied the western end of the fort for 36 hours but were dislodged after suffering heavy losses, mostly from German artillery and trench mortars that had been brought at proximity. The Germans stubbornly held onto the fort, as it provided shelter for troops and served as first aid station and logistics center.
Afterwards, French artillery continued to shell the fort, turning the area into a pockmarked moonscape, traces of which are still visible today.
>>474381
>tens of thousands of men died in attempts to recapture it.
doubt.jpg
>>474524
and why is that? many offensives saw over a million die
>>474524
Makes life feel insignificant, doesn't it?
Only the French could let go of a fort that easy, only to throw thousands of lives away just to recapture it
>Kunze managed to climb inside one of them to open an access door.[2] But his men refused to go inside the fortifications as they feared an ambush. Armed only with a bolt-action rifle, the Pioneer-Sergeant entered alone.[3] He wandered around the empty tunnels until he found the artillery team, captured them and locked them up.
>No shots were ever fired in the capture of Fort Douaumont. The only casualty was one of Kunze's men who scraped one of his knees.
>>474621
>many offensives saw over a million die
even more doubt dot jay peg
as for why is that - it's a single fort
Funny how the French lost both Fort Douaumont and Fort Vaux but still "won" the battle in the end
These forts were pretty irrelevant after all
>>474743
>>474524
oh I get it.. you're actually retarded.
>>474743
> French forces gradually regained much of the ground they had lost. Fort Douaumont was recaptured on October 24, 1916; Fort Vaux on November 2. Barely six weeks later, on December 18, German commander Paul von Hindenburg (who had replaced Falkenhayn in July) finally called a halt to the German attacks, ending the Battle of Verdun after 10 months and a total of over 200,000 lives lost.
>>474750
That pic has some really uncanny valley features to it.
The guy seriously looks like one of those David Icke conspiracy reptiles.
Some areas remain off limits (for example two small pieces of land close to Ypres and Woëvre) where 99% of all plants still die as arsenic can amount up to 17% of some soil samples (Bausinger, Bonnaire, and Preuß, 2007).
Sure was worth it.
>>474847
Where'd the arsenic come from exactly?
>>474883
delousing chambers
>>474847
I hear a few stories over the years of people doing some digging in the area and hitting artillery shells or gas canisters and dying as a result.
Getting killed by 100 year old ordinance must really fucking suck.
>>474381
And now its no ones fort, instead being reclaimed by nature, just like all battlefields.
