Talk:Battle of Verdun

General statements and questions

The horrifying aspect about this battle is that the Germans never intended to overrun Verdun. Their primary goal was to win through a war of attrition. The German calculus was that they had one number of men coming to military age each year and France had a smaller. Eventually, the theory went, after both sides fought for long enough, France would be the first to run out of fighting men.

At Verdun there is now a memorial to the battle. Aside from the graves there, the bones of soldiers who could not be identified were removed from the battlefield and put in a massive Ostuary. Visitors can walk around the outside and see these bones piled inside through low windows.

I don't have a lot of details, how many soldiers' bones are there? How many graves? What were those numbers in the German calculus?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 171.75.4.159 (talk • contribs) 19:58 3 September 2003 (UTC)

Casualty figures and other problems

The article had considerable confusion about the size of the battle and the casualty figures (probably due to the usual way in which total casualties — killed, wounded, prisoner, missing — get reinterpreted as killed only). In particular there was a claim in the opening that the battle caused a million deaths. This seems rather unlikely given the official French figures of 162,308 killed or missing. There was also a claim that it was the bloodiest battle in history, which also seems very unlikely: makes it the twelfth bloodiest in the 20th century. I changed the numbers and claims accordingly.

there was about a quarter million killed in all and a half million wounded.

It would be nice to be able to estimate the maximum numbers of troops on each side in the battle. Gdr 13:31, 2005 Mar 18 (UTC)

Recent edits

@Military history RUS: Greetings, I haven't seen ubli before, is there a WP page for it? Regards Keith-264 (talk) 06:35, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Template:Unbulleted indent list or Template:Indented plainlist can be used Military history RUS (talk) 07:01, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks Babe Keith-264 (talk) 09:28, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Good for you Military history RUS (talk) 09:41, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Recent edits 2

@Frodnirdon: You really ought to take your own advice. There has been an extensive discussion about this recently and consensus was achieved. You're welcome to join it. Keith-264 (talk) 18:59, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

From what I see the consensus is that we should put the markers so that it's easy to look through for everyone, regardless of device. That was the consensus and that was what was done until someone removed it again (I have a feeling it was probably you but I won't waste my time going throught edit history). It is what it is, just let it be and let the information be comfortably readable for all readers, regardless of device. Frodnirdon (talk) 20:58, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

WP:civil perhaps you could reflect on your conduct. Keith-264 (talk) 21:28, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

I didn't say anything uncivil. Simply said that it was probably you considering you are so against having a simple thing to help any reader regardless of device be able to comfortably navigate the list. Majority of the commenters agreed to have them there and from what I see, others also are having the same issue when a part of the commanders name goes to the next row and it looks like there are more commanders than there actually are. So please, just stop it. Everyone should be able to read the article comfortably, regardless of if they have a phone, a computer or whatever else. Frodnirdon (talk) 09:58, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

@Frodnirdon: Oh yes you did. Keith-264 (talk) 10:03, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

Count the number of people who said they support the bullets or who said they'd be ok with using bullets. They outnumber those who are categorically against any markers to help distinguish. Please stop already. Once again, everyone should be able to view the list comfortably. And by everyone I mean everyone. Every single reader, no exceptions. Frodnirdon (talk) 10:07, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

Do stop moaning.Keith-264 (talk) 14:57, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

I won't. And you start being civil yourself, otherwise you're a hipocrite. Frodnirdon (talk) 19:38, 29 April 2026 (UTC)

Are you all right? Keith-264 (talk) 21:24, 29 April 2026 (UTC)

@Military history RUS: Thanks for that, your Wiki mojo is powerful. Keith-264 (talk) 06:03, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

Nothing special. Stay strong Military history RUS (talk) 06:23, 30 April 2026 (UTC)