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2. In most cases the
principal aim of trench warfare operations
involved:
a) Gaining control of the high ground or salients in any area, the most
important being the Ypres salient. If you look closely at World War
1 photographs you will see a wasteland devoid of buildings and
vegetation. This condition made control of the high ground
particularly important;
b) Winning a war of attrition that would eventually, due to American
intervention, be critical in Germany’s defeat; and
c) Developing new technologies to win the trench war stalemate.
While new weapons like the tank made some impression on the
final result, time was required for both sides to master the new
weapons and cope with the war’s change from “horse power to
technology power”, as British historian Tony Robinson’s quote
demonstrates. New weapons like very heavy artillery and shrapnel
made the war a terrible experience not only for man but also his
horse.
3. The
main tactics
that were actually used over the entire 1914-18 period
was to attack the opposition en mass over a series of battles over open
ground. The attacks normally began at sunrise after heavy artillery fire
that hopefully caused many enemy casualties and disrupted
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