Abstract
Why, in fact, attack there at all? Since October 1914 the Germans had dominated the plateau of Soissons, about 100 kilometres from Paris, unable to move any closer; Verdun, at 300 kilometres, offered no gateway to the capital or the heartland or to much else, pace later legend.\n But the miseries of Verdun united them, and French poilus and German Feldgrauen displayed at times compassion for each other, and disgust at the xenophobic gore peddled by the newspapers and music halls of their homelands.