Editing Battle of Verdun (section)

====6–11 March====

[[File:Mort Homme and Cote 304, Verdun, 1917.png|thumb|{{centre|[[Mort Homme]] and Côte 304}}]]
Before the offensive, Falkenhayn had expected that French artillery on the west bank would be suppressed by counter-battery fire but this had failed. The Germans set up a specialist artillery force to counter French artillery fire from the west bank but this also failed to reduce German infantry casualties. The 5th Army asked for more troops in late February but Falkenhayn refused, due to the rapid advance already achieved on the east bank and because he needed the rest of the OHL reserve for an offensive elsewhere, once the attack at Verdun had attracted and consumed French reserves. The pause in the German advance on 27 February led Falkenhayn to have second thoughts to decide between terminating the offensive or reinforcing it. On 29 February, Knobelsdorf, the 5th Army Chief of Staff, prised two divisions from the OHL reserve, with the assurance that once the heights on the west bank had been occupied, the offensive on the east bank could be completed. The VI Reserve Corps was reinforced with the X Reserve Corps, to capture a line from the south of [[Avocourt]] to Côte 304 north of Esnes, [[Le Mort Homme]], Bois des Cumières and Côte 205, from which the French artillery on the west bank could be destroyed.{{sfn|Foley|2007|p=223}}

The artillery of the two-corps assault group on the west bank was reinforced by {{nowrap|25 heavy}} artillery batteries, artillery command was centralised under one officer and arrangements were made for the artillery on the east bank to fire in support. The attack was planned by General [[Heinrich von Gossler]] in two parts, on Mort-Homme and Côte 265 on 6 March, followed by attacks on Avocourt and Côte 304 on 9 March. The German bombardment reduced the top of Côte 304 from a height of {{cvt|304|m|order=flip}} to {{cvt|300|m|order=flip}}; Mort-Homme sheltered batteries of French field guns, which hindered German progress towards Verdun on the right bank; the hills also provided commanding views of the left bank.{{sfn|Foley|2007|pp=224–225}} After storming the {{lang|fr|Bois des Corbeaux}} and then losing it to a French counter-attack, the Germans launched another assault on Mort-Homme on 9 March, from the direction of [[Béthincourt]] to the north-west. {{lang|fr|Bois des Corbeaux}} was captured again at great cost in casualties, before the Germans took parts of Mort-Homme, Côte 304, Cumières and [[Chattancourt]] on 14 March.{{sfn|Foley|2007|pp=225–226}}