Erich von Falkenhayn's plan for the battle of Verdun was force the French to defend ground where German artillery could bleed the French army to death. Yet, French and German forces both suffered comparable casualties. What went wrong?

There is a big debate over Falkenhayns actual goals for the battle of Verdun. There is no evidence that the plan "to bleed the french white" actually existed. In more recent discoveries, it looks much more like Falkenhayn claimed that bleeding the french white was the plan as a justification and therefore making it look like the battle was not a failure. Falkenhayn refered to a memorandum to Kaiser Wilhelm II. were he stated his plan. This memorandum was never found and after the destruction of the german war archive in the second world war is probably gone forever (if it ever existed).

Some historians suggest, that his goal was to force the entente into a rushed counter offensive with the intent to take some steem of the french in Verdun. This offensive would then be parried therefore leading to even greater losses for the entente. This is supported by the orders given to the troops which are targeted at capturing ground from the french in Verdun. In this scenario, the goal of the battle would be to take the heights on the shore of the Maas to bring the artillery into a dominant position.

Source: Holger Afflerbach: Falkenhayn. Politisches Denken und Handeln im Kaiserreich. Oldenbourg, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-486-56184-7