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By Root 1550 0

which entailed the first attackers bypassing enemy strongholds for reduction by follow-on troops. In the last German offensives of the war these methods proved effective, but not war winning. By 1918, the British developed combined arms tactics which coordinated tanks, artillery, aircraft, and infantry into a team that crashed in unison through the defensive trench networks. Thereafter, they effectively followed up the assault with reserves, achieving deep penetrations into enemy territory. The British tactics were war winning. These combined arms assaults moved the front miles each day instead of yards. Unfortunately, the new techniques were discovered in 1918, which was far too late for most of the men.

There was a collective condemnation of the war at the time, even before the fighting ended. “We saved the world,” proclaimed the Allied generals; however, the surviving troops and grieving families thought otherwise. WWI destroyed the world rather than saved it, and the public knew it. Civilian governments discovered the generals had lied about casualties and the effects of the Allied frontal assaults on Germany. When the war’s trivial causes surfaced an antiwar movement arose condemning the diplomats, government leaders, and generals directing the Western Democracies into such a futile, murderous, and destructive war, and then refusing to end it.

This historical survey adopts the old view that Europe’s leadership was hollow. In defense of this older view, please take note of one fact: On the very last day of the war, after the armistice was signed, with fewer than three hours to go before the war’s end, the Allied generals ordered an attack on German positions causing casualties in excess of ten thousand men. The generals, and the men, knew the war was ending at eleven o’clock that day, but the Allied leaders ordered the assaults to begin at 9:00 AM. German positions scheduled for surrender to the Allies the next day were the targets. The men went forward, as ordered, dying for nothing. The explanation given? Germany’s utter defeat must be proven to them; thus, the large scale assaults had to be made to prove to them they were totally defeated. This is irrational to say the least. The tired, battered, hungry Germans on the front lines needed no additional proof of defeat. Why attack them? Some Germans at home, far beyond the reach of Allied guns, thought defeat came through traitors at home. How was this attack going to convince those Germans of defeat? The fact that a general even contemplated such an assault, much less carried it out, is mind boggling. Of course, the generals safely relaxed miles away as bullets ruptured their soldier’s bodies. This is the proof that the historians new view of the generals is mistaken in the extreme.

These incompetent generals were murderers. Each of these “hero” generals needed a swift hanging. Because such men go unpunished (except by historians) those following them often remain callous towards the lives of their troops. Until their last days on earth, these generals contended they saved the world for democracy, obviously believing their own vapid propaganda.

The Russian Front

In August 1914, the Germans on the Eastern Front faced the realization that the Russians were able to mobilize faster than anyone thought possible. Two massive Russian armies advanced to the frontier while thin lines of Germans maneuvered to stop them. In carrying out the terms of the alliance with France, the Tsar launched an instant offensive against Germany and her partner Austria–Hungary. The German staff received nervous calls for help and, anxious about the unexpected swiftness of the Russian attack, pulled units from the west, consequently reducing German combat power in the advance on Paris. The Germans experienced serious problems in the east for a while, but a new set of German generals arrived and turned the tide. Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff became the team eventually giving the Germans victory over Russia. The costly conquest came with new infiltration methods of assaulting the enemy