The Battle of Verdun began on 21 February 1916 and was fought until 18 December 1916. One of the greatest and longest battles of the First World War, it lasted 300 days and cost some 800,000 French and German lives. Allied offensives were launched during the summer of 1916 to relieve German pressure on the French at Verdun, including the Somme, but it was the Russian offensive against the Austro-Hungarians on the Eastern Front that forced an end to the battle when Germany had to send troops east to bolster the Austro-Hungarians.

Below, a German soldier near Fort Vaux with a dead French soldier on his left,

THE BATTLE OF VERDUN, FEBRUARY-DECEMBER 1916© IWM (Q 23760)