Fighting on the Mort-Homme and Hill 304

After the failure of the breakthrough on the right bank, the German command attacked the left bank of the Meuse to take Verdun from behind: the heights of Le Mort-Homme and Cote 304 carried the French artillery that raked the flank of its advance. The assaults began on 6 March 1916. Cote 304 repelled a first attack on 23 March and a second on 9 April, then fell on 6 May after a thirty-six-hour bombardment and fierce close combat. The southern summit of Le Mort-Homme, Cote 295, was carried on 24 May. Both positions remained German; the French only retook them on 20 August 1917. The advance nonetheless halted well short of Verdun, whose encirclement failed.

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.

Losing the two heights deprived the French artillery of its observation posts on the left bank, but the German offensive spent itself before reaching Verdun. The human cost, heavy on both sides, made Le Mort-Homme and Cote 304 major places of memory. The ridges were retaken only in August 1917, during local offensives on the Verdun front.