World War I - The industrial war.

I heard somewhere that World War I was caused by the booming industries of the fighting nations. I think they ment that Industry was the reason for the horrors of war. Well, Let's talk about The first modern War.

Machine guns: Deadly.

These new weapons could mow down entire battalions if placed right. The old fashion charges of the 19th and early centuries were haulted or completely wiped out. New tactics would have to be devised, but not many leaders wanted to get rid of tradition. Mostly on the Western front, though. On the Eastern front, wait, what Easter front? The russians didn't put up to much of a fight. And then there was that whole revolution thing which eventually knocked them out of the war. So, let's talk about the Eastern front for awhile, or just a few hours. I don't know much about it during WW I. The horrors of the Western front Eclipsed it.

 

Some will say that the US Civil War and the Crimean War were the first of the modern wars.

The locomotive was first put to use. Armored ships, rifles (small arms and artillery), brass cased cartridges, Gatling gun, repeating firearms, trenches, aircraft (balloon), and a real submarine were all used during this time.

WW1 was the dawn of serious mass production and reliable chemical weapons. It was also the war of mechanization.

 

Yeah, but in the Civil War, you still had people lineing up in formations. That's not modern, just stupid. No offense meant. They stopped that in World War I.

 

What about all those lines of soldiers charging across the open field? Not much difference.

The same blunders occured. Tactics were far out paced by technology.

 

Armies in Western Europe never moved more than around 40 miles during the entire First World War. Lines were static and men still stood in formation against one another, though with a bunch of dirt in front of and behind them. If anything, this was a step backwards in the evolution of war. Granted, the war fought against Germany and Czarist Russia was much different, but many of their tactics and strategies were similiar to those used in the US Civil War and the Crimea. Battles in the Civil War were rarely decisive, they did involve a lot of flanking, envelopments, quick troop movements and efficient interaction with supporting artillery. The US Civil War was a war of attack; WWI was largely a war of defense.

And to line formations being stupid, it was a practical necessity at the time. Armies of the mid-1800's were still equipped almost exclusively with muzzle-loading rifles. A trained shooter can reload such a weapon 3-4 times a minute, and is a waste of space and a vunerable target during reloading. When a man in the front gets injured or killed, another moves up to fill his space with a loaded rifle. Disciplined and well-equipped lines act like a steamroller and, if successful, like a trap. The line formation, with sufficient ranks, is a formidable fighting unit; it is one of the most time-tried too.

 

The first 'modern' war is often quoted as being the Russian-Japanese war of 1905. Modern weaponry employed, and the first known war where morre soldiers died from battle than from disease.

 

The Boer War - khaki uniforms, armoured cars...

It's funny that we're actually bickering about what was the first modern war. The question is, what is a modern war? The tactics that greased war once more in the late 1930s were ages old in principle if not in technological means. One might say the ancient Romans fought "modern" wars in terms of their tactics and strategies, but many modern countries never did.

The tactics used in World War I were not so much stupid as they were helpless. In the technology and the way of war of the age, the defender held a massive advantage which could not be easily overcome by any method known to traditional European military thinking.

 

You could quite easily define 'modern' war as one where disciplined soldiers no longer fought and manouvered in strict formations.

Which would include WW1, but not the American Civil war.

 

I think most folks think of "modern war" as those that have similarities to our own "modern times" in equipment, technology, and logistics.