Plot: Desperate to break the stalemate on the Western Front in 1916, Germany's army chief-of-staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, conceived a diabolical plan — by attacking one of France's most symbolic towns, he would draw her army into a bloodbath, and bleed it to death. At first this seemed to be working all too well, for more than six months the battle raged, with more than three-quarters of the French army going in to defend Verdun and suffering dreadfully