"The battle of Verdun lasted ten months. It was a battle in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of fifteen miles; the battle whose aim was less to defeat the enemy than bleed him to death; the battleground whose once fertile terrain even now resembles a haunted wilderness, battered and crumbling. Alistair Horne's book is more than a chronicle of the facts of battle. It is a profoundly moving, sympathetic study of men who fought there, and shows that Verdun is a key to understanding the First World War, a key to the minds of those who waged it, to traditions that bound them, and to the world that gave them the opportunity. This unabridged edition contains a new preface and additional photographs."--Publisher's description.

Preface -- 1. La Débcle -- 2. Joffre of the Marne -- 3. Falkenhayn -- 4. Operation Gericht -- 5. The waiting machine -- 6. The first day -- 7. The fall of Colonel Driant -- 8. Breakthrough -- 9. Fort Douaumont -- 10. De Castelnau decides -- 11. Pétain -- 12. The take-over -- 13. Reappraisals -- 14. The Mort Homme -- 15. Widening horizons -- 16. In another country -- 17. The air battle -- 18. The crown prince -- 19. The triumvirate -- 20. "May Cup" -- 21. Fort Vaux -- 22. Danger signals -- 23. The secret enemies -- 24. The crisis -- 25. Falkenhayn dismissed -- 26. The counter strokes -- 27. The new leader -- 28. Aftermath -- Epilogue.