The Battle of Verdun took place in World War I from February 21, 1916, to December 18, 1916. Falkenhayn believed that a big defeat on the Western Front would compel the Allies to declare a peace since the French army was inferior to the British. The main German communication lines were in jeopardy because of the French fortress of Verdun and its surrounding defenses along the Meuse River, which is why the Battle of Verdun took place when it occurred. The core of the concept was a continuous series of minor advances that would draw the French forces into the German artillery's mincing equipment. A potent artillery bombardment that was brief to prevent discovery but made up for its short length with the amount of weapons and the speed with which they fired was to be used to defend each of these breakthroughs. While the French defense was being rebuilt, the Germans captured the undefended Fort Douaumont, unquestionably the most potent of the command posts around Verdun. Gen. Charles Mangin presented a proposal in September to liberate the Verdun region. After Nivelle delivered the order, the attack started on October 21 with an aircraft bombardment along a broad front. The French also took 9,000 detainees and destroyed 115 weapons in addition to seizing them. On December 18, this struggle, which came to be known as the Battle of Louvemont, ended with the recapture of Chambrettes and the capture of more than 11,000 German prisoners. At this moment, the Verdun Battle was over. Over the course of ten months in 1916, the two forces at Verdun suffered around 700,000 casualties, including about 300,000 dead. The agricultural landscape surrounding the city had been irreparably changed, and nine settlements had been destroyed. Bomb-clearing crews were still removing more than 40 tons of unexploded ordnance from the region every year in the twenty-first century.