Originally posted by: BeauJangles
Originally posted by: irishScott
Originally posted by: BeauJangles
Originally posted by: irishScott
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
WW2.
I just bought a book on WW1 because I know almost zero about it. That might be a good subject for another Band of Brothers type thing.
Had to study WWI extensively for my intro to military history course.
Aside from a few technological innovations, it was basically the war of stupid. Especially on the French side. Even Pershing was something of a moron.
110% disagree. It was an example of where technology and strategy were so far out of whack to begin with that it took two years to figure everything out. To call the men involved idiots is not only short-sighted but it precludes any attempt to explain why the war unfolded the way it did.
Case in point: Pershing. Pershing had the idea that we were going to "win the war through marksmanship". Thus American recruits were trained to shoot targets hundreds of yards away to the neglect of more useful training, when more often than not the distance between opposing trenches was a few hundred feet. This was after the war had been going on for years. If that's not simple ignorance I don't know what is.
And that's just one example. Don't even get me started on Joffre.
Joffre was replaced in 1916, the year the war moved away from the battles of the Somme and going "over the top" and became a war of rolling artillery barrages, counterbattery fire coordinated by forward observers, and the simple understanding that an offensive war is difficult to conduct when your primary weapons are giant artillery pieces and guns that require a crew of eight to operate and weigh close to 75 lbs.
The Great War is always characterized as senseless slaughter and, to some extent it was. It is difficult to discuss American strategy during the Great War because, truthfully, they entered it late and had little understanding of modern warfare in any meaningful capacity during the beginning of the 20th century. The US Army was basically a skeleton crew, dismantled by Congress and left with few resources, few officers, and few clues about how to actually fight a war. American strategic issues are compounded by the fact that the small officer corps was extremely proud and bullheaded. They didn't want to be bossed around or told how to fight by anyone. Hence, their entry into the war was, for the most part, blind.
Without getting into a lengthy discussion off the bat, here's why I think it is deeply foolish to write off the Great War as a war run by morons. The war opens in 1914 with the Schlieffen Plan which, until the First Battle of the Marne was a brilliant operation that worked exactly how the Germans expected it to. This opening phase of the war was characterized by a relatively freedom of operation, a fast-paced tempo, and proof that offensive maneuvers carry the day. Again, to keep this brief, the war becomes a war of foolishness with some (albeit little) innovation. As 1916 rolls around, new technology and a new wave of leadership (your man Joffre is gone) bring the beginnings of a new type of war. By 1917, casualties are down dramatically and new strategies are actually starting to shift the lines more than ever before. 1918 is another improvement. The Spring Offensive is the culmination of WW1 and its an offensive that bears little (no) resemblance to the battles of the Somme or Marne or Ypres. It is an offensive of fast-moving shock troops supported by captured tanks, artillery, and aircraft designed to create holes in the French and British lines through which German infantry can move and advance. Sound familiar?