Between 22 February and 7 March the trucks carried 2,500 tonnes of supplies and 22,500 tonnes of ammunition into Verdun and 6,000 evacuated civilians out of the city. Although he admitted he would be unable to break through at these point on the Western Front, he argued that. ![]() In December 1915, General Erich von Falkenhayn, Chief of Staff of the German Army, decided to attack Verdun. ![]() At any given time half the available vehicles would be en route to Verdun loaded with supplies, while the other half headed away from the city loaded with wounded personnel or relieved units. At 4am on 21 February 1916 the battle began, with a massive artillery bombardment and a steady advance by troops of the German Fifth Army under Crown Prince Wilhelm. During the First World War Verdun was a fortified French garrison town on the River Meuse 200km east of Paris. The latter consisted of a wheel with bucket-like containers attached to the rim that rotated as the current filled the container the dirt road from Bar-le-Duc thus became a stylised noria with the water containers replaced with motor trucks running in a never ending stream around the clock. Richard also designed a system for deploying the vehicles dubbed noria, the French term for an industrial waterwheel. The area of Verdun near the Franco German border contained a series of defensive forts that held a sentimental place in the French national psyche. By February 1916 Major Richard had presciently assembled a fleet of 3,500 motor trucks by commandeering civilian vehicles across France – no mean feat considering that at the outbreak of war in 1914 the French Army could only muster a mere 170 vehicles. The 101st day of Verdun, the worlds greatest battle, today found the crown prince rushing into action fresh legions amid the roar of hundreds of great guns.
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