I’ve heard it said that the defining technology of World War 1 was barbed wire.
That stopped horse based cavalry from advancing and led to entrenched positions.
That stalemate lasted until the invention of the tank later in the war.
That stopped horse based cavalry from advancing and led to entrenched positions.
That stalemate lasted until the invention of the tank later in the war.
On the topic i recently watched an interesting documentary on the problems at the battle of the Somme in WW1 https://youtu.be/CbkJS5cLLOQ?list=PLhMDlPcDRBKQuhPC9Ifj2IL8L... ( ~15min segment)
A short summary is the British assumption that massive artillery barrage would destroy the German defenses and allow for British troops to walk through easily. Unfortunately they used shrapnel shot which did very little to the defenses and worse, left the barbed wire installations untouched. Advancing troops then got stuck and were mowed down
But the real story of WWI (IMHO) was artillery. Here's a story I heard: at the start of WWI, Russia produced 35,000 artillery shells per month and was using 25,000 a day. By 1917, there were battles on the Western Front where between both sides over a million artillery shells were fired in a matter of hours.
As for tanks, this was clearly a huge development. It really nullified machine guns and small arms fire. But the writing was already on the wall for trench warfare. Artillery accuracy and tactics had improved (eg the creeping barrage became possible) and tactics in trench assault (on both sides) were improving.
Meanwhile more tonnes of oats and hay for horses were shipped from the UK to France than munitions.
EDIT: People tend to see the Wehrmacht as this fully mechanized beast of an army. Truth is the vast majority of soldiers walked into battle, with animal drawn carriage for their stuff from food to field guns.
Quite fascinating topic, horses in WW2. I'll have to some more research on this.
There’s a new book on cavalry in WW2 being published soon look out for it.