[BF1] Can't wait for moments like these in Multiplayer!

I got insulted by some redditors the other day for saying WWI generals failed to adapt to modern technology in time. Creating many sad stories like this one.

They shouldn't have insulted you, but saying that they "failed to adapt in time" immediately involves a considerable amount of hindsight. For one thing, there's the "in time," which implies that they knew the future and thus were aware that the war would break out when it did, and that they failed to 'innovate before it was too late.'

Armies in Europe had already adopted machine guns, and were in the process of adopting light machine guns, and potentially semi-automatic rifles. They had motorized transport in growing quantities, as well as aircraft and radio. Training manuals in the case of infantry advised thorough reconnaissance, and securing one's flanks, before attacking with infantry in open order. Fire and movement was emphasized, and in the case of cavalry dismounted training, training with rifles, and the addition of artillery and machine guns were advocated and instituted. The biggest issue was that few of the generals in charge had any experience fighting a modern war, outside maybe the British and Russian armies, while inexperience, poor battlefield communications, and the effects of insufficient pre-war training combined to make the fighting of 1914 extremely difficult even for a skilled General like Ferdinand Foch or Bruno von Mudra. There were poor generals, one need only look at the gaggle of French generals dismissed by Joffre following the Battles of the Frontiers to see that. But blaming the disasters of the war on poor generals solely is an extremely simplistic verdict to make.

Horses and swords against machine guns.

Enough said.

I enjoyed War Horse, the play and the movie, but I can tell you that scene is ludicrously bad history. Every cavalryman was equipped with a rifle, and yet all of them have swords. They attack alone, and yet the previous scene shows Indian cavalrymen conferring with them for the attack, they have no artillery or machine gun support, nor do any of the cavalrymen dismount to give covering fire, as their training and doctrine insisted. Moreover, they attack what looks to be a company, at most a battalion, but which has at least 3-4 machine guns supporting it. 6 machine guns were issued to each German infantry regiment, which contained 3 battalions. This means that somewhere, a German regiment is minus virtually all of it's machine guns, for the support of one single unit. The whole scene is basically staged to reinforce the myth of stupid cavalry charging machine guns, as they set-up in the forest, away from camp, and then mow down every rider with the accuracy to spare the horses, despite the cavalry being only a few feet away. It makes no sense in light of unit organization, tactics and training of either army, and is proof of little more than Hollywood's willingness to not allow facts to get in the way of a good story. It is not a source, nor is it proof of anything.

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