Falkingham, chief of the German general staff and maker of the Verdun meat grinder, launched the Battle of Verdun not to defeat France, but to destroy France and shed the blood of the French. He believed that with the revolutionary changes in the rapid supply of railways, it had become impossible to completely defeat the enemy on the battlefield, and he planned to attack some important French military strongholds, so that the French had to rush to the rescue, and he used his cannons to form a fire cover network, so that the French people continued to enter the bombing circle of the German army, which was the meat grinder strategy. Falkingham set the strategic target of his attack on Verdun, the gateway through which the Germans would attack Paris. The Germans preemptively attacked northwestern France with a part of their forces, while the main force took advantage of the mountainous, tree-filled, and hazy winter days in the Verdun region to quickly assemble near Verdun and take advantage of the opportunity.
But his strategy was to eliminate the french forces near Verdun, not to cross the Meuse River to occupy the entire fortress and then threaten Paris. At that time, Falkingham had 300,000 troops in his hands, and the French defense on the west bank of the Meuse River was very weak, and Falkingham's generals advised the commanders to quickly occupy the verdun fortress, but Falkingham had no intention of doing so, he was worried that after capturing the fortress, the French would surrender, and even the war would end, so his goal of releasing the enemy's blood would be blind. Such a strategic plan deprived Falkingham of the best opportunity to seize the Fortress of Verdun. Conversely, after the Germans occupied the Verdun Fortress, they could further formulate a battle plan with the elimination of the French living forces as the core. The death of Verdun without lightning also became an important reason for Falkingham's dismissal.
The French did fall into the artillery traps that Falkingham had devised for them, with 23,000 French casualties in the first month, compared to only 2,000 German casualties. The Morale of the French army was depressed, and at this time, Falkingham did not mobilize reinforcements to quickly occupy the fortress, and the French Pétain troops had begun to reinforce Verdun, and Falkingham once again missed the opportunity. The German ammunition depot was actually arranged within the range of French artillery fire, and 450,000 shells were reimbursed instantly, resulting in a shortage of German ammunition.
Falkingham's biggest mistake was that he did not take advantage of the artillery fire and cut off the Only Dijk Road, the only supply line of the French army, at that time, the German army had the air superiority over the long-range artillery and Verdean, and was capable of destroying the French supply line, which enabled Pétain to mobilize 3500 trucks throughout the country to continuously provide logistical supplies for the French army, quickly reversing the passive situation.