Monterey’s land war goes on—and on.

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The longest battle in history—there is some debate about this topic, but most historians today point to the notorious Battle of Verdun. Indeed, it was a protracted, bloody slog.

In 1916, two years into the First World War, Kaiser Wilhelm II attacked the French fortress town of Verdun, 160 miles east of Paris along the River Meuse. Over the next 10 months, the Kaiser subjected the area to the most intensive artillery bombardment ever known.

The Kaiser’s plan made sense (within the insane logic of warfare): Rather than spread his artillery around, he concentrated all of it on the most well-fortified city in France. He was correct in predicting that this tactic would draw the entire French army to Verdun’s defense. Wilhelm hoped to wipe out his enemy’s forces in one fell swoop.

This week, we arrive back at square one.

The French and their commander, Joseph Joffre, believed fervently that Wilhelm II was an idiot for amassing his entire war-making machine in one place. They sent their armies to teach the Kaiser a lesson.

It didn’t work out the way either army hoped it would. Verdun was a disaster for both sides. There were more than 800,000 casualties, and the ground was so badly destroyed that today, 90 years later, nothing grows there. According to one description, the landscape now resembles “lunar shell-fields, crater upon crater.”