A Century After Its End, See 10 Photos From the Longest Battle of World War I

  • General Gouraud has gathered flags of all regiments of his army to salute a division who won battles in Verdun. 1916.
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  • French mounted soldiers crossing a pond. Battle of Verdun, 1916.
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  • A group of French wounded soldiers waiting to be evacuated from the fort of Tavannes after the first dressings. Battle of Verdun, 1916.
    Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images
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  • French soldiers taken prisoners during interrogation at a German staff quarter. April 1916, Battle of Verdun.
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  • German heavy artillery. Cannon with gunner. Battle of Verdun, 1916.
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  • French troops under shellfire during the Battle of Verdun. 1916.
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  • World War One, Battle of Verdun (Meuse). After the recapture of Fort Vaux. Central corridor. In the foreground, on the right-hand corner: wounded nurse, 1916.
    Roger Viollet—Getty Images
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  • World War One, Battle of Verdun. Shelter made of corrugated iron and used as headquarters for French machine gunners near Verdun, 1916.
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  • A group of German soldiers buried by french artillery barrage within their dugout, who could be saved only many hours later after end of bombardment. Battle of Verdun, 1916.
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  • A French soldier's grave, marked by his rifle and helmet, on the battlefield of Verdun.
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By Lily Rothman and Liz Ronk

The 10 photographs seen here all bear the same basic place and date information: Verdun, 1916.

But that information hardly does justice to the battle they depict. Fighting began at Verdun, named for the French town that was its focus point, on Feb. 21, 1916. It did not end until Dec. 18, 1916—100 years ago this weekend, after what TIME later called “the crudest ten months of World War I.” By that point, it had become the Great War’s longest fight.

With its strategic location, the German military determined that Verdun would not only be worthy of attack, but that French forces would go to great lengths to defend it. The idea was that France would spend too much effort on that goal, weakening its position and helping the German effort. The idea wasn’t wrong: France was in fact willing to go to extreme lengths to repel the enemy at Verdun, successfully pushing back German advances at great cost. Though some historians have argued that what we call “Verdun” was in fact a series of battles with elements that not only filled 1916 but also stretched before and after that year, the importance of what Verdun means to 20th-century military history is hard to debate.

By Britannica’s estimation, about 300,000 were killed during the course of those brutal months, out of a total of 400,000 French casualties and 350,000 German. The region had also been physically devastated. And, despite its pivotal place in the history of World War I, it ended with the French and German armies in much the same position—at least on a map—that they had held before the whole thing started.

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In the years that followed, the word Verdun came to represent carnage and heavy losses.

In 1963, TIME reminded readers of what French president Raymond Poincaré had said: “If Verdun is taken, what a disaster! If it is saved, how can we ever forget the price?”

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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com.

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