Word: verdun
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Prelude. The first (precise) half of Verdun is a Prelude and opens with a leisurely description of the Western Front and its strategy in 1915, done in a dispassionate tone between solemnity and irony. "The two High Commands had taken the field with a whole dossier of formulas guaranteed to be infallible by such experts as Napoleon or Moltke and perfected by generations of professors in the military art. All this printed accumulation of tactical genius, which ought to have ensured victory in three weeks, turned out to be no less productive of almost immediate defeat - though not car ried...
...Focus appears almost casually as Gallieni, the sharp, sickly Minister of War, sends Gurau to drop a word to the Commander in Chief about the weak de fences at Verdun, so far an inactive part of the front. Gurau is charmed by the apple-cheeked, comfortable Joffre, reassured at lunch but beset by doubts later. The French Intelligence has positive proof that the Germans plan no offensive at Verdun: they have prepared enormous dug outs there but no assault trenches. Nevertheless . . . from that moment the reader is treated to an extended, coolly elaborated piece of such dramatic irony...
...famous international journalist calls on the Kaiser, finds him weary, baffled, eager for disinterested advice on the risky plan of General von Falkenhayn, who believes that a tremendous blow at Verdun and Belfort will catch the French napping, end the war. Hindenburg opposes...
...committee of deputies visits quiet Verdun. In a scene of delicate comedy they are given the run-around by officious officers, reflect dazedly afterwards that if the famed Citadel of Verdun really only contains four field pieces . . . perhaps they should have insisted...
Duroure plays suave army politics, gets himself talked about as a coming saviour in the wire-pulling Paris salon of Mme Godorp, Gurau's mistress, whose friends are out to stab Joffre in the back over a rumored neglect to fortify Verdun...