How does the term war of attrition apply to the battles fought at verdun and the somme?
A war of attrition is simply a battle/war where you try to kill enough enemy soldiers that the enemy has to give up while the enemy attempts the same. Tactics are basically abandoned. Instead it’s toe to toe the last one standing wins kind of fighting. In Verdun and the Somme it was over the top into the teeth of machine guns. Bunkers filled with gas and bombarded by artillary. The whole goal was to kill enough enemy to make a breakthrough but as neither side could achieve that they settled for just killing enemy troops. Kill enough of one side they’ll go home was the logic.
