6. The Germans seized a crucial French fort without resistance.
On February 25th, German forces approached Fort Douaumont, 5 miles away from Verdun and the most fortified of the 40 French forts in the region. The fort was designed to accommodate 635 soldiers and plenty of heavy artillery. But by 1914 the number was reduced to just a single artillery company and artillery and engineers, so just under 500 men. However as the war progressed the French saw how similar Belgian forts were not able to hold up to the German offensive. This coupled with the need to send soldiers and artillery to main battle at Verdun, left the the number of soldiers at Douaumont to about 56 elderly gunners.
A small party of Germans led by Lt. Eugen Radtke on February 25th, 1916 was able to wander its subterranean chambers and round up French defenders one after the other. They soon captured the entire garrison without firing a single shot and suffering any casualty or resistance. News of Douaumont’s fall was not reported in local Parisian newspapers (which actually reported everything was going well), but it came as a severe blow to the morale of the French soldiers. It would take eight months and tens of thousands of casualties before the French were able to recapture Douaumont in October of 1916. Today the fort still stands and features a memorial to those lost during the Battle of Verdun, including the more than 650 German soldiers who died due to a munitions explosion on May 8th, 1916.