Operation Gericht

Operation Gericht was the code name for the German military plan at Verdun during World War I. It was designed by German General Erich von Falkenhayn. The Battle of Verdun was one of the two greatest infantry battles of the war, an exclusively Franco-German struggle lasting 10 months and tallying over 700,000 casualties between both sides. The primary goal of this operation was not to acquire territory; instead, it was to lure the French army into defending the old medieval French fortress and town of Verdun, and to eliminate as many French soldiers as possible.

By 1915, the German Schlieffen Plan for the invasion of France had failed to deliver the knockout punch that was needed to eliminate France before the Russian military could mobilize in the East. Part of Alfred von Schlieffen's planning also concluded that attacking in the south of France was impractical with German military strength at the time he drafted his war plan in 1895. One of the successive reasons why German war planners did not attack in the south of France was the existence of strong, old fortresses at Nancy, Verdun, and Toulouse. The capture of Verdun under Operation Gericht would have a dual effect; it would hamper French morale if this ancient landmark fortress were to be captured, and as such, the French were rightly calculated to rush to its defense. Herein lies the second component of Operation Gericht: Falkenhayn's plan was to pull the French into defending the city, and as he is quoted saying, 'bleed the French army white'.

Operation Gericht epitomizes the 'materialschlact' or attritional battle. Operational and tactical miscalculations during the early summer of 1916 led to the German loss rate only being slightly less than that of the French, thus rendering Verdun a strategic defeat for the Germans, albeit one that had serious impacts upon the French Army and national psyche for many years