The city of Verdun was surrounded by 13 reinforced concrete fortresses which had been dug deeply into the ground. For many years these fortresses had made Verdun to the strongest city in France. But in 1916, they were practically unusable, as every cannon had been dismounted and used elsewhere.
Early February 1916, German soldiers brought 1.400 heavy cannons to the hills around the city. Even though the French generals claimed that the fortresses was useless, the politicians decided that the fortresses should not fall into German hands. Five months later, the Germans cancelled their attack. They had fired more than 23 million grenades, killed 315,000 French soldiers, and destroyed the city. The Germans themselves lost 282,000 men. Even though the cannons were dismounted, the fortress had proven to be stronger than the German artillery.
