Way before the outbreak of the first world war the major belligerents of the war had made plans in case such a war happened. The German's, Schlieffen plan had first been tabled in 1905, the French plan XV11 in 1887. These plans did not take into account the advancing technologies that would,

'Impose their autocratic will on the character of the fighting'#

Traditional warfare of the time was one of mobility but the first world war turned into a static war, particularly on the western front. That it was the innate conservatism of the military and naval leaders and their contempt of technology that led to the underestimation of the significance of the changes that technology was bringing that led to the first world war lasting four years rather than being over by christmas.# Instead the first world war was to be a war of annihilation and would be the first to be considered a 'total war' involving all sectors of society in the war effort.

This essay is going to show that although the countries had similar motivations and plans for the war that because they did not take into account lessons learnt from previous experien

This was shown in Haig's handling of the Battle of the Somme. He believed that a short bombardment of five to six hours of the German trenches over a wide area would get the break through. The commander of the IV corps, Sir Henry Rawlinson believed that a strategy of 'bite and hold', which was a limited step-by-step advance, would be more effective. His plan would be to bombard the trenches over four to five days on a limited area to neutralise the defences.# The final plan for The Battle of the Somme was the bite and hold of Sir Henry Rawlinson mixed with Haig's wider aspirations,

The Battle of the Marne was a victory for the British and the French and led to the Germans falling back to the line of Aisne with the British and the French following carefully. Here the German army was,

'probably did more damage at the Somme than in any other battle in the Great War'#

The expectations of the politicians and soldiers for the war being over by christmas showed a profound failure to understand the changes in warfare, which was happening in the mid-to late nineteenth century.# Those who made the plans stuck to

Some topics in this essay:
Russians Tannenberg, Force BEF, German's Schlieffen, Lorraine Britain, Ypres April, Sea Swiss, U-boats German, South African, Drake Kyler, Henry Rawlinson, world war, war movement, war short, submarine warfare, british french, unrestricted submarine warfare, unrestricted submarine, technical advances communications, front line, war static, advances communications, # technical, # technical advances, sir henry rawlinson,