Nowhere should the enemy feel himself safe. [WWI]

[**The following is in regards to the German plan of attack for what would later become the Battle of Verdun.**] >The whole of the French defensive zone on a front of eight miles – one German division and 150 guns to each mile – was to be deluged with preparatory fire, so that “no line is to remain unbombarded, no possibilities of supply unmolested, nowhere should the enemy feel himself safe.” >[Falkenhayn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Erich_von_Falkenhayn-retouched.jpg)’s plan was brutally simple. The French, forced to fight in a crucial but narrowly constricted corner of the Western Front, would be compelled to feed reinforcements into a battle of attrition where the material circumstances so favoured the Germans that defeat was inevitable. If the French gave up the struggle, they would lose Verdun; if they persisted, they would lose their army. ____________________________ **Source:** Keegan, John. "The Year of Battles." *The First World War*. New York: A. Knopf :, 1999. 279. Print. ____________________________ **Further Reading:** [General Erich Georg Anton von Falkenhayn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_Falkenhayn) [Bataille de Verdun / Schlacht um Verdun (Battle of Verdun)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verdun)