Battle of Verdun

A German attempt to bleed out the Entente by engaging it in a prolonged battle ends poorly.

The battles of year 1915 proved that no easy and good way of breaching the trench lines exist. There was - for now - no way of returning to the war of maneouvers, in which Germans excelled during 1914. Because of that, an alternative plan had to be drafted.   With Entente countries lacking high quality troops in the same number as Central Powers (at least in the west, since Russian manpower was nigh limitless), the idea was to draw them into battle from which they couldn't withdraw (hence, Verdun, a major fortress which capture would open the way for German Empire towards Paris). What followed, was a nine month long massacre with more than a half million soldiers falling in battle.   French Republic ultimately succeeded in defending the fortress, but the casualties were tremendous and led to continued drop in war support in the Entente (both among civilian population and soldiers).