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Verdun   /vˈərdən/   Listen
Verdun

noun
1.
A battle in World War I (1916); in some of the bloodiest fighting in World War I the German offensive was stopped.  Synonym: battle of Verdun.






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"Verdun" Quotes from Famous Books



... Dardanelles—a failure so glorious as to fill a man with pride that he was enabled to play a part in it. In this battle we so smashed five divisions of Bavarian guards that it was months before they got back into the trenches. Had they gone to Verdun at that time it might have meant its fall, as they were the ...
— "Over There" with the Australians • R. Hugh Knyvett

... Belgium, Flanders and France almost to the borders of Alsace-Lorraine, had been maintained for so long now that the world was momentarily expecting word that would indicate the opening of what, it was expected, would be the greatest battle of the war since Verdun. ...
— The Boy Allies with Haig in Flanders • Clair W. Hayes

... the Son of God. In the trading cities of the Moselle and the Rhine, their colonies were numerous and rich; and they enjoyed, under the protection of the emperor and the bishops, the free exercise of their religion. [36] At Verdun, Treves, Mentz, Spires, Worms, many thousands of that unhappy people were pillaged and massacred: [37] nor had they felt a more bloody stroke since the persecution of Hadrian. A remnant was saved by the firmness ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 5 • Edward Gibbon

... Europe from the heel of the Prussianized Teuton, the reign of brute force and the religion of the Moloch State. These were among the world's "check battles." Yet the flood of barbarism was only checked at the Marne, not broken; again the flood arose and pressed on to be stopped once more at Verdun—the Gateway of France—in the greatest of human conflicts ...
— Defenders of Democracy • The Militia of Mercy

... OF VERDUN.—Louis the German took the Eastern and German Franks, and Charles the Bald the Western and Latinized Franks. Lothar, who retained the imperial title, received the middle portion of the Frank territory, including Italy and a long, narrow strip of territory between the dominions ...
— Outline of Universal History • George Park Fisher

... in chase, but the opinion was that they were rapidly gaining on us. I remember coming on deck and looking out, seeing on our lee-quarter, far away through the gloom, their dark outlines as they came on in hot chase. I, saw that everybody was anxious, and I heard several of the men talking of Verdun, and the way prisoners were treated there. For the men this was bad enough, but for the officers to be made prisoners was sad work. Unless they could make their escape or get exchanged, all prospect of advancement was lost, as was the case with many; the best part of their ...
— Ben Burton - Born and Bred at Sea • W. H. G. Kingston

... out of Verdun where we'd been getting hell for three weeks on the Bras road. There was one little hill where we'd have to get out and shove every damn time, the mud was so deep, and God, it stank there with the shells turning up the ground all full of mackabbies ...
— Three Soldiers • John Dos Passos

... Frederic's disposal, so soon as all points at issue between him and Louis XI. were settled, and provided that his estates were erected into a kingdom, which should also comprise the bishoprics of Liege, Utrecht, Toul, Verdun, and the duchies of Lorraine, Savoy, and Cleves. This realm was to be a fief of the empire like Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland, and transmissible by heredity in the male and female line—a necessary recognition of a woman's ...
— Charles the Bold - Last Duke Of Burgundy, 1433-1477 • Ruth Putnam

... another show of strength at Verdun, southeast of Soissons. General Joffre immediately hurled a new force to the support of the French army at ...
— The Boy Allies in the Trenches - Midst Shot and Shell Along the Aisne • Clair Wallace Hayes

... afternoon before. The Youngster had his head over a map almost all through dinner. The Belgians were practically pushed out of all but Antwerp, and the Germans were rapidly approaching the natural defences of France running from Lille to Verdun, through Valenciennes, Mauberge, Hirson ...
— Told in a French Garden - August, 1914 • Mildred Aldrich

... to Vichy, Macon, Bourg and Geneva, situated towards the S. and S.E. Carlsruhe, Baden, Strasburg, Freiburg, Basel, Schaffhausen, Lucerne and Interlaken to the E., and Epernay, Verdun and Metz ...
— The South of France—East Half • Charles Bertram Black

... cried, angrily. "Nothing from the lgionnaire! But, in the name of God, cannot one expect more than this from the man who wears the medaille militaire, the grand cross of the legion, who won a colonelcy in Champagne, a brigade at Verdun, a division at the Chemin des Dames, and who, as all know, should have had an army corps after the Balkan campaign? From such a man as that, from him, ...
— Louisiana Lou • William West Winter

... buildings of the depot have been built in the open fields but heavily ambushed by fine old trees. Near by is a river picturesquely winding and darkly shaded. Here I saw a number of eclopes fishing as calmly as if the roar of the guns that came down the wind from Verdun were but the precursor ...
— The Living Present • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

... too," said Frank. "It's lighter than the sound of the cannon, but it seems to be just about as steady. And to think that that's going on, all the way from here to the Swiss border nearly! They're fighting here and near Verdun, and in the ...
— The Boy Scouts on the Trail • George Durston

... possible difficulty in making her realize that we were only hearing a very small part of a battle, which, judging by the movements which had preceded it, was possibly extending from here to the vicinity of Verdun, where the Crown Prince was said to be vainly endeavoring to break through, his army acting as a sort of a pivot on which the great advance had swung. I could not help wondering if, as often happens in the game of "snap the whip," von Kluck's right wing ...
— On the Edge of the War Zone - From the Battle of the Marne to the Entrance of the Stars and Stripes • Mildred Aldrich

... cage has been accredited to Jean la Balue, Bishop of Angers, and also to the Bishop of Verdun. Perhaps both of these devout churchmen had a hand in the work, as fate, with a dash of irony, and the fine impartiality of the mother who whipped both of her boys because she could not find out which one had eaten the plums, clapped them both into ...
— In Chteau Land • Anne Hollingsworth Wharton

... however, an unsatisfactory title, as it is too cumbersome and not comprehensive enough, for Fere Champenoise was only the most intense and critical point in a series of actions extending from Chantilly to Verdun, over a varied and winding front of about one hundred and ninety miles. We have no means of knowing how far the Germans have been driven back, but they are across the Aisne and other Attaches tell us that frightful ...
— The Note-Book of an Attache - Seven Months in the War Zone • Eric Fisher Wood

... appalling horrors of the front line. Ever since that fateful 22nd of April, 1915, that day of tragedy and of glory for the Canadian army, and for the Canadian people, the Ypres salient, the point of honour on the western front from Dixmude to Verdun, had been given into the keeping of the Canadian army. During those long and terrible months, in the face of a continued bombardment and of successive counter-attacks, with the line growing thinner, ...
— The Sky Pilot in No Man's Land • Ralph Connor

... my left the red fire-glow of Rheims and passing over the sleepy lights of Valny. Within an hour I was over the great black stretch of the Argonne Forest, and crossing the Meuse, a long line of fog with Verdun 7000 feet below. The engine was working well, throwing back the miles at about 60 per hour. A glow of lights to the right showed Metz next to a streak of grey, the Moselle River; and as the dawn-light ...
— The Sequel - What the Great War will mean to Australia • George A. Taylor

... is that there was no poison; but the severe cutlass and arquebus wounds, and the extreme cold, were the cause why so many died. The King wrote to M. the Marshal de Saint Andre, who was his Lieutenant at Verdun, to find means to get me into Metz, whatever way was possible. MM. the Marshal de Saint Andre, and the Marshal de Vielleville, won over an Italian captain, who promised to get me into the place, which he did (and for this he had fifteen hundred crowns). The King having heard the promise that the ...
— The Harvard Classics Volume 38 - Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology) • Various

... The storm of the Tuileries on the Tenth of August, as we have already said, was the response to Brunswick's proclamation. The bloody days of September were the reaction of panic at the capture of Longwy and Verdun by the Prussians. The surrender of Cambrai provoked the execution of Marie Antoinette. The defeat of Aix-la-Chapelle produced the abortive insurrection of the Tenth of March; and the treason of Dumouriez, the reverses ...
— Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 1 of 3) - Essay 1: Robespierre • John Morley

... their backs to the wall. The French repeated their Verdun watchword, "No thoroughfare," and the Americans began to come up. The Allies were driven finally to what they had always realized to be necessary, but had never consented to—a unified command. They put all their destinies into the ...
— The Cup of Fury - A Novel of Cities and Shipyards • Rupert Hughes

... was telling me of something like that that happened at Verdun," said Frank. 'Two Frenchmen were carrying a wounded German officer on a stretcher to the hospital. The officer got out his revolver and shot the first stretcher ...
— Army Boys in the French Trenches • Homer Randall

... all been so quietly done! Yet it is really a great moment. The store of man power which Great Britain possesses is beginning to take practical effect. The French, who held the long lines at the beginning of war, who stood before Verdun and threw their legions on the road to Peronne, are now being freed for work elsewhere. They have "carried on" till Great Britain was ready, and now ...
— Towards The Goal • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... Hood." "The Germans were beginning their attack on Haumont. Their front-line skirmishers, to throw us into confusion, had donned caps which were a faint imitation of our own, and also provided themselves with Red Cross brassards" (The Battle of Verdun. H. Dugard). Not to be tedious on this point, which really does not require to be laboured, let me finish with one quotation from a vivid series of war-pictures. Boyd Cable is writing of men in the trenches: "Civilised ...
— Science and Morals and Other Essays • Bertram Coghill Alan Windle

... but an important railroad center from which troop trains were re-routed to various points on the front line. Our division was ordered to proceed to Riccicourt, a deserted and partly destroyed village about twelve miles west of Verdun and about five miles south of Avoncourt, where our boys went "over the top." The women canteen workers, much to their disappointment, were ordered by the colonel to remain at Ravigny, where they could get accommodations and be saved the danger and ...
— The Fight for the Argonne - Personal Experiences of a 'Y' Man • William Benjamin West

... not yet fifteen, King Charles XI, his stern-faced father, suddenly died, and the boy king succeeded to the throne as absolute lord of "Sweden and Finland, of Livonia, Carelia, Ingria, Wismar, Wibourg, the islands of Rugen and Oesel, of Pomerania, and the duchies of Bremen and Verdun"—one of the finest possessions to which a young king ever succeeded, and representing what is now Sweden, Western Russia, and a ...
— The Junior Classics • Various

... the provinces. Pellisson and Dr. Pecquet were sent to the Bastille; Guenegaud lost half his fortune; the Bishop of Avranches had to pay twelve thousand francs; Gourville fled to England; Pomponne was ordered to reside at Verdun. Fouquet's papers were examined in the presence of the King. Letters were there from persons in every class of life,—a very large number from women, for the prisoner had charms which the fair sex have always found it difficult ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 13, No. 78, April, 1864 • Various

... were aloft with Lieutenant Guyon, who, owing to heart troubles, fainted while at a high altitude, and the boys brought the machine down safely. Thereafter, the lieutenant was their constant friend, and when the corps moved to Verdun they were regularly enrolled as members, and subsequently became engaged in many exciting flights. While on a scouting operation with their friend, several German machines appeared and a battle followed in which the machine ...
— The Boy Volunteers with the Submarine Fleet • Kenneth Ward

... oeuvre and was used as a storehouse for hospital supplies and as headquarters for Alexina when business brought her to this part of the Marne valley. She had been here several times during the siege of Verdun in nineteen-sixteen when her bed had quivered all night, and once a big gun had been trained on the city and a shell had fallen near the headquarters of the staff. Last night she had lain awake wondering if she did not miss ...
— The Sisters-In-Law • Gertrude Atherton

... prosperously until the fugitives reached Varennes, a village in the frontier district not more than 15 miles from Verdun, where Bouille had a strong garrison. At this point the scheme broke down. Bouille should have been able to place a large cavalry escort about the King's carriage at Varennes, but his arrangements were defective and ...
— The French Revolution - A Short History • R. M. Johnston

... had a lot of trouble with spies at Verdun, where my brother is. Why, would you believe it, the Germans have come right inside the French and English lines in broad daylight to do their spying! One bold ruse they worked, just once was to rig up one of their automobiles ...
— Shelled by an Unseen Foe • James Fiske

... we will say, at Verdun, and the British advanced at Ypres, even if they were hundreds of miles apart it would still ...
— Danger! and Other Stories • Arthur Conan Doyle

... if the British had destroyed the German fleet the victory would have been priceless. As Jervis remarked at Cape St. Vincent, "A victory is very essential to England at this hour." The spring of 1916 was an ebb point in Allied prospects. The Verdun offensive was not halted, the Somme drive had not yet begun, the Russians were beaten far back in their own territory, the Italians had retreated, and there was rebellion in Ireland. The annihilation of ...
— A History of Sea Power • William Oliver Stevens and Allan Westcott

... on to speak of how "the heroic fighting at Suvla Bay, and even the valorous defence of Verdun, fades into insignificance side by side in Dublin by the Citizen Army, and describes how Liberty Hall is being guarded by day and by night," and then goes on to point out the danger which such open disregard of ...
— Six days of the Irish Republic - A Narrative and Critical Account of the Latest Phase of Irish Politics • Louis Redmond-Howard

... the command of the army falls to General Dumouriez. Brunswick with his Prussians and emigrants, Clairfait with his Austrians, are now in France; advancing upon Paris. They take Longwy and Verdun; try to take Thonville and Lille, but cannot; and find Dumouriez and his sansculottes, there in the passes of Argonne, the "Thermopylae of France," an unexpectedly hard nut to crack. In fact, the nut is not to be cracked at all: Dumouriez, " more ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 3 • Madame D'Arblay

... off to-night for a six-days trip, two days of which are to be spent in the train, to the Verdun sector. ...
— The Diary of a U-boat Commander • Anon

... now. Claude has fallen before Verdun, Benoit was killed on the Oise, and George has ...
— With Those Who Wait • Frances Wilson Huard

... thought it advisable to proceed to Verdun now that the Germans were so close on the flank of such a movement. He preferred to assemble his forces at Metz, in a position which he rightly ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. X. • Kuno Francke

... unprincipled fellows. I believe he was never aware of the villany they carried on, or they would have met with his severest displeasure in being removed from office, as was the case with Wirion at Verdun.[49] ...
— After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819 • Major W. E Frye

... following the line of fortresses for which Napoleon had staked and lost his crown, and reached the Rhine by Verdun, Metz, and Mayence; thence to Aix-la-Chapelle, Lille, and Brussels, which had by the Treaty of Paris, in May, been ceded with the whole of ...
— Before and after Waterloo - Letters from Edward Stanley, sometime Bishop of Norwich (1802;1814;1814) • Edward Stanley

... for example, read with tears in their eyes, in the Memoires sur les Prisons, what the author relates of the fourteen girls of Verdun? "Of those girls," he said, "of unparalleled fairness, and who appeared like young virgins dressed for a public fete. They disappeared," added Riouffe, "all at once, and were mowed down in the spring of life. The court occupied ...
— Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men • Francois Arago

... eldest, had been designated as emperor and ruled over Italy and the district lying between the possessions of the younger brothers. Charles and Louis promptly combined to resist the attempts of Lothaire to assert his superiority as emperor, and defeated him at Fontenay (841). The treaty of Verdun, which followed, is one of the most memorable in the ...
— An Introduction to the History of Western Europe • James Harvey Robinson

... journey is this when we look forward to the glad meeting with friends who knew the horrors of the World War and whom a kind Providence permitted to return to their native land. During those awful days spent in the halls of suffering and death near Verdun there were found many golden chains of friendship, ...
— See America First • Orville O. Hiestand

... you were of the Crown Prince's personal service," he said, "I have been devoured with curiosity to know what you were doing before you came to England. Were you at Metz with his Imperial Highness? Did you see the assault at Verdun? Were you present at the capture ...
— Okewood of the Secret Service • Valentine Williams



Words linked to "Verdun" :   World War I, pitched battle, French Republic, Great War, First World War, World War 1, France, battle of Verdun, War to End War



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