PBS: Monday 8 July at 8.40pm

Verdun, The Battle of the Great War

This probing documentary looks at the battle that was to become the bloodiest chapter of the First World War. From February to December 1916, French and German forces waged one of the Great War’s most devastating battles to take the hills around Verdun.

There were 11 months of fighting, over 2 million soldiers mobilised and 300,000 dead. Today, the massacre seems senseless. But in 1916, soldiers on both sides accepted the orders to go into battle.

Looking back through the personal archives of veterans, using historical re-enactments and numerous computer-generated images, this film revisits France’s last great victory over Germany. A battle that would become the symbol of folly and age-old hostility between 2 two nations.