Falkingham served in China from 1896 to 1903 and participated in the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance.

In 1913, he became Prussian Minister of War (the equivalent of the German Minister of Defense). He did not initially advocate German involvement in a full-scale war, but he soon changed his position and urged Kaiser Wilhelm II to declare war on Britain and France, and was one of the initiators of the First World War.

On July 23, Austria-Hungary, with the support of Germany, issued an ultimatum to Belgrade with a time limit of 48 hours, the content of which was extremely harsh, including the conditions of stopping all anti-Austrian activities, punishing officials and civilians who carried out anti-Austrian propaganda, and jointly trying the perpetrators of the Sarajevo incident. In the last 10 minutes before the deadline, the Serbian prime minister replied with all but three of the above, but Austria-Hungary was still dissatisfied, broke off diplomatic relations with Serbia on the same day, and declared war on July 28. The Kaiser believed that "this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" and expressed his firm support; Russia, on the other hand, supported Serbia and announced a national mobilization. Since then, the world powers have been drawn into great wars one after another. On July 28, 1914, Germany declared war on Serbia and the war began. The two sides of the war were the Central Powers led by Germany and Austria-Hungary and the Entente camps on the part of Britain, France, and Serbia. Italy, which had been a member of the Central Powers, turned to the side of the Allies and joined the side of the Allies after the war. From the perspective of the participating countries and the areas where the flames of war burned, this war was no longer a local war, but the first large-scale war in the world in human history. The first war in history was the defeat of Germany, due to the emergence of Li Ming, history also changed Germany and China is a cooperative country, Kaiser Wilhelm II through General Wadsey, like the Chinese ** 50,000 rear loading bayonet new rifles, 92 infantry artillery heavy artillery, mortars, 10,000 light and heavy machine guns, **, 10,000 pistols, 300 fighters, the Southern Military Factory received an order to work overtime, three months can be rushed out to send over.

Beginning in January 1916, Falkingham quietly gathered troops to prepare for the attack on Verdun, and at the same time, Germany brazenly increased its troops to Cimbéni and made a gesture of launching an offensive in Chambény. The commander-in-chief of the French army, Xia Fei, was really fooled. After the Germans were unable to capture Verdun in 1914 and shifted the direction of their attack, the French considered the fortress of Verdun to be obsolete, and Xia Fei stopped strengthening the fortress in 1915. At this time, the movement of the German army towards Cimbène made Xia Fei extremely vigilant, and he believed that the German army would attack Chambéni and march to Paris from here.

The Germans were continuing to quietly gather forces in the direction of Verdun. As the signs of the assembly became apparent and exposed, the Anglo-French forces finally figured out the true intentions of the German army. Xia Fei panicked and quickly ordered more troops to Verdun. But by February 21, only two divisions had reached Verdun. And on this day, the Germans began to attack Verdun. The German artillery regiment bombarded the fortress of Verdun with heavy artillery fire, and then launched a charge. The prelude to the Battle of Verdun began. The 1,000 cannons of the German army bombarded like thunder, and the charges rose higher and higher. Verdun

The commander of the fortress, Pétain, commanded the defenders and the troops that came in to put up a desperate resistance. However, since only two divisions of reinforcements arrived, plus his own two divisions, there were only four divisions in total, and the Germans advanced 6 kilometers on the first day. But he finally stabilized his position.

The battle was hard for the French. The Germans had 27 divisions and 1,000 artillery pieces, while the French had only 110,000 men and 270 artillery pieces. But it managed to withstand the German attack. When French reinforcements arrived, a tug-of-war began. The Germans did not take Verdun in one fell swoop the day before, they had already lost their fighters, and both sides were increasing their troops to Verdun and set up a decisive battle formation. By April, the French were on par with the Germans. The Germans were in a hurry, and the crown prince himself enlisted and used poison gas bombs for the first time. However, the French still stopped the German offensive in front of the fortress again and again. In July, the Germans launched their last offensive**, but they were still held back by the French, and by the autumn the French army began a counteroffensive. At the beginning of 1916, the German high command planned to defend on the Eastern Front and concentrate its forces on the Verdun salient of the French Army on the Western Front to carry out a surprise attack in order to contain and deplete the main French army and force France to surrender. The unit under the offensive mission was the 5th Army under the command of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany (under the jurisdiction of 7 armies, a total of 17 divisions, 1,204 artillery pieces, including 683 heavy artillery pieces, 168 aircraft; Later, it increased to 50 divisions, accounting for about 1/2 of the total strength of the German army on the Western Front).

Verdun was a strategic stronghold on the northeastern border of France, the eastern gateway to Paris, and the support point of the entire front of the French army, and the French high command also attached great importance to the defense of this strategic point. The Verdun fortification area was 112 kilometers wide on the front and was defended by the French Third Army (commanded by General El with 11 divisions and 632 artillery pieces). The fortified area consists of four defensive positions, with a total depth of 15-18 kilometers. Three of them were field defensive positions. The fourth line of defense consisted of the permanent fortifications of the Verdun fortress and two fortresses.

In February 1916, the German crown prince personally led 210,000 German troops to launch a frenzied attack on Verdun. Verdun was weaker defended, but the German offensive was delayed due to poor weather conditions, giving time for the French to mobilize reinforcements, which mobilized two divisions into the area.