1917

[Mennonite]

Cool pic, Cheater5.

Originally Posted by gblowfish

British lost 17,000 men in one battle in ONE DAY, the first battle of Ypres. Just like the American Civil War, the Generals in WWI were using antiquated battle tactics when the weaponry has far outpaced those tactics. Sending wave after wave of men headlong into interlocking machine gun fire was not only criminially stupid, but went on for a couple years during trench warfare after it had become painfully clear that was no way to try an offensive. The shelling turned the entire trench front into a moonscape of dead people, animals, barbed wire and muck. Hell on Earth. People call the French pussies, but if you look at WWI, they lost an entire generation of young men in three short years.

Yeah, it's nuts. You're dead on about the tech. The last episode I watched was about Verdun. This is apparently the battle where the Germans started using flamethrowers. Not a good day to be on the front lines.

In another battle, who's name escapes me, the British decided to start using poison gas. They had the foresight to give their troops rudimentary gas masks, but apparently they didn't give them enough training. As they charged into battle they became short of breath, assumed they had been poisoned, and ripped their masks off...only to then have the wind change direction and blow the gas back on them.

The point you made about sending waves of men into oncoming machine gun fire is a good one. It seems like every battle involves this strategy so far. In one of the first battles the Germans sent their guys in tight formations with lines of men directly behind one another. The British machine gunner they interviewed said he could basically kill two men with every bullet he fired.