Fighting on the Mort-Homme and Hill 304

Fighting on the Mort-Homme and Hill 304, on the left bank of the Meuse, ranks among the bloodiest and most symbolic of Verdun. After the failure of the initial German breakthrough on the right bank, German command attempted to outflank French defence to the west, aiming to take Verdun from the rear. From 6 March to 30 May, the summits of the Mort-Homme (height 295) and Hill 304 became the theatre of unceasing attacks and counter-attacks: every square metre was disputed at the price of blood. Artillery, deployed on an unprecedented scale, literally levelled the landscape: hills were flattened, forests annihilated, ground pitted with craters and saturated with corpses. French divisions held at all costs, despite hunger, thirst, mud, gas, and extreme fatigue. The Mort-Homme sector became an inferno of fire, steel, and mud, immortalized by the motto 'They shall not pass'. German assaults, conducted with relentless determination and supported by elite troops, failed to break through: French defence resisted heroically, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy and preventing the encirclement of Verdun.

After the initial surprise at Verdun (February), the Germans understood that only a manoeuvre on the left bank could break French resistance. The Mort-Homme and Hill 304, two strategic heights dominating the Meuse plain, were erected into fortified bastions by French artillery and infantry. The Germans committed immense means: heavy artillery, Minenwerfer, pioneer units, massive use of gas. Terrain, initially wooded and rolling, was transformed into a lunar landscape by the intensity of bombardments (sometimes 80,000 shells per day). Lines shifted constantly: the Germans temporarily seized the Mort-Homme and Hill 304, but French counter-attacks (notably by the 129th DI, 38th and 39th DIs, colonial regiments) restored the front. Supply was made under fire; losses were such that divisions were relieved every 8 to 10 days. The legend of the Mort-Homme was forged in suffering and fierce resistance.

Fighting alternated artillery bombardments, mass attacks, night raids, mining warfare, and intensive use of grenades. The Germans sought to 'erase' defences by fire, then launch infantry assaults supported by flames and gas. The French defended every trench, every sap, multiplying isolated strongpoints, underground refuges, and defensive artillery barrages. French counter-attacks, often improvised but of extreme bravery, were conducted at the bayonet, sometimes without support. Sappers dug shelters in chalk and mud. Artillery-infantry coordination became essential, with signallers, carrier pigeons, and the first field telephones. Sanitary conditions were appalling: wounded abandoned in shell holes, corpses impossible to bury, thirst and disease.

Resistance on the Mort-Homme and Hill 304 was one of the turning points of the battle of Verdun. By preventing the enemy from breaking through on the left bank, the French saved Verdun from certain encirclement. Soldiers' bravery and their tenacity despite horror entered national legend. Immense losses traumatized an entire generation: entire regiments annihilated, villages wiped from the map. These combats marked the evolution of French defensive doctrine, the importance of artillery, the need for intensive troop rotation, and solidarity between front and rear. The Mort-Homme sector remains, even today, a symbol of sacrifice, commemorated by numerous monuments and ossuaries. The motto 'They shall not pass' anchored itself in French collective memory, associated with Verdun's resistance.