My biggest question on WWI is; that in a war where technological advances rendered neither side powerful enough to reinitiate maneuver warfare by going forward; why no one on either side thought to do so by falling rapidly rearward, and then launching powerful assaults through the flanks of the salient they had created, and into the enemy rear (while closing the bag on the then cut off attacking force in their own rear.
I think its because both sides were far too commited to protecting every inch of the hard earned ground they had, so that they could only think about how to go forward.
One thing that the Civil War and WWI had in common is both were dominated by tragic tactics, executed by generals fighting the war they were trained to fight rather than the war they were in.
There's actually a lot of that going around in the history of warfare. Recent history as well.
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