For educational purposes<br /><br />This was the hellish, protracted siege known to many as 'The Mincer'. <br /><br />The fanatical French defence of the three forts – which had enormous psychological value to the whole nation.<br /><br />Cost hundreds of thousands of lives and was, in part, the reason the Battle of the Somme was fought during the same year. <br /><br />The battle ebbed and flowed throughout the year and the forts were captured and recaptured many times before finally the fighting eased in December 1916. <br /><br />Unfortunately by this time almost 700,000 French and German troops had been killed or wounded trying to take or defend the city.[
