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It was originally planned by the German Chief of General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn to secure victory for Germany on the Western Front. The aim was to crush the French army before the Allies grew in strength through the full deployment of British forces.

Erich von Falkenhayn (1861-1922) was a Prussian General of the Infantry, Prussian Minister of War (1913-1915) and Chief of Staff (1914-1916). Falkenhayn came from a West-Prussian Junker family, where the military played a dominant role; one of his brothers, Eugen von Falkenhayn (1853-1934), was also a general.

Erich von Falkenhayn was strongly criticised for his tactics at the Battle of Verdun. Once the war was over, he defended what he had done by writing an article to explain his decisions. Verdun was one of the most costly battles in World War One in terms of lives lost, with many historians arguing that it ‘bled the French Army to death’.

In 1916 Germany’s military chief, Erich von Falkenhayn, thought he could take Verdun swiftly with superior artillery, to secure railway lines and distract French forces from the Somme. Both ...

In late-1915, German General Erich von Falkenhayn wrote a memorandum to Kaiser Wilhelm II in which he argued that the war would only be won by inflicting mass casualties on the French army and...

Erich von Falkenhayn is most associated with the Battle of Verdun in 1916 – one of World War One’s bloodiest battles. Falkenhayn was criticised for his tactics at Verdun and after the war he tried to justify the tactics that he used – that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of German soldiers. Falkenhayn was born in 1861 in West Prussia.

Erich von Falkenhayn (11 September 1861 – 8 April 1922) was a German soldier and Chief of the General Staff during the first two years of World War I. He became a military writer after World War I. Contents 1 Early life 2 Chief of Staff 3 Later career 4 Assessment 5 Decorations and awards 6 See also 7 External links 8 References Early life