The losses were appalling, for a gain in conquered territories nil. After 10 months of atrocious suffering for both sides, the battle will have cost 378,000 men (62,000 killed, more than 101,000 missing, and more than 215,000 wounded, often disabled) to the French, 337,000 to the Germans, 22 million shells , of which at least a quarter did not explode [ref. necessary]. The men showed the worst savagery for ten long months. They endured rain, cold, snow, fire and iron. Many are those who have testified that alone in the face of death, they felt reduced to the state of beasts. All this for nothing? All this for a few square kilometers of land that has become dead and lifeless.
This battle alone could symbolize all the absurdity of this war, all the absurdity and waste of all wars. 90 years after the battle of Verdun, if the forest has grown back, we can see that the aftermath of the war is far from being resolved. The soils of the red zone are polluted, and for a long time.