![]() ![]() Shortly after the Prussians left, the fortification for Verdun was revised. With the debt paid, the Prussian occupation force withdrew from French territory, and the Verdun garrison was the last to leave on 13 September 1873. The French government paid off the reparations two years ahead of schedule. The Treaty of Frankfurt, signed on, obliged the French to hand over most of the territory in the eastern provinces of Alsace and Lorraine and to pay reparations of five billion francs within five years, with a portion of northeastern France remaining under Prussian occupation to guarantee payment. Verdun was the last French fortress to surrender in 1870. ![]() The city was besieged from early August 1870 and held out until 8 November before accepting a Prussian offer of surrender with full military honours. Verdun again found itself under attack from Prussians during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The Prussians pulled back across the French border, and the French retook Verdun on 14 October FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR On September 2, after a short artillery bombardment, the fortress surrendered.Īfter the fall of Verdun, the Prussian force continued to advance slowly towards Paris, allowing the French to gather a large army that defeated the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy on 20 September. ![]() His pride could not overcome the disgrace of surrender, and shortly after this meeting Beaurepaire either shot himself or was murdered. However, his enthusiasm to fight was not shared by the leaders of the city and, at a council of war, municipal officers overruled Beaurepaire. The great fortress was not prepared to resist a long siege, but Beaurepaire was determined to resist for as long as possible. The garrison consisted of just forty-four men, the rest having deserted on the way to Verdun. Verdun was garrisoned by a unit from the Loire region commanded by fifty-two-year-old Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolas-Joseph Beaurepaire, a retired royalist officer who had returned to serve the revolution. In July 1792, a largely Prussian army led by Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, invaded France, and on 29 August laid siege to Verdun with a force of approximately sixty thousand men and forty guns. THE NAPOLEONIC WARSĭespite the extensive fortifications, the Prussians captured Verdun in 1792 during the War of the First Coalition but abandoned it after the Battle of Valmy. Although much of his plan was built in the following decades, some of the elements were not completed until after the Napoleonic Wars. The region is sparsely populated.įrom 1624-36, a large star-shaped (bastioned) citadel was constructed on the western end of the rocky bluff. In 1670, the world’s leading military architect, Sébastien le Prestre de Vauban, drew up an ambitious scheme to fortify the whole city. Verdun is in the Meuse department, which is part of the current region of Grand Est. The Meuse and its crossings were a key objective of the last major German WWII counter-offensive on the Western Front-the Battle of the Bulge (Battle of the Ardennes) in the winter of 1944/45. For this reason, the city has had great strategic importance, and the fortress of Verdun was the scene of heavy fighting in World War I.ĭuring WWII, the crossing of the Meuse River capped the successful German breakthrough into France in May 1940. The Meuse Valley is a natural barrier that has historically formed part of the defences as enemies approach the heart of France from the east. It is on the Meuse River in Lorraine, which flows from the south through France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Verdun (Verodunum, a latinized place name meaning “strong fort”) was founded by the Gauls and has passed back and forth between French and German control many times. ![]()
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