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re: Apocalypse WWI: debating the tactics
Posted on 2/5/16 at 11:17 pm to Darth_Vader
Posted on 2/5/16 at 11:17 pm to Darth_Vader
I think he was just pointing out the failure to adapt to evolving ware fare by the generals and throwing away hundreds of thousands of lives in pointless experiments
2
Posted on 2/5/16 at 11:36 pm to athenslife101
quote:
I think he was just pointing out the failure to adapt to evolving ware fare by the generals and throwing away hundreds of thousands of lives in pointless experiments
That's a bit of a misnomer. Both sides started with plans to engage in maneuver warfare, but machine guns, and especially artillery, made it necessary to dig in. Defensive technology outpaced the offence for a while. Both sides recognized that they had to innovate to break the stalemate, but it took time, and trial and error, and practice. By mid 1917 both sides had figured out how to engage in combined-arms operations, and by 1918, the armies were out in the open and on the move again.
Posted on 2/5/16 at 11:37 pm to athenslife101
quote:
I think he was just pointing out the failure to adapt to evolving ware fare by the generals and throwing away hundreds of thousands of lives in pointless experiments
This goes back to what I was just saying. You cannot accurately judge the performance of WWI generals with the benefit of hindsight. The war they were fighting was completely new. There was no manual to tell them what to do. There had been no training before the war to let them know what to expect. Before the war everyone on both sides assumed things like modern artillery and machine guns would actually shorten the war by allowing one side to totally defeat the other in one huge battle similar to what had been see at Waterloo almost a century before or Sedan 44 years before. The one conflict the could have looked at and seen a preview of what they'd face in WWI was the Petersburg Campaign in the American Civil War almost 50 years before.
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