ABSTRACT
To understand the processes by which the war was eventually won we need to unravel the processes by which the German Army was defeated and how one of the fundamental problems of the First World War for the high command, the need to integrate new technology and to shape doctrine in the light of technological capabilities, was solved by 1918. The First World War was shaped by dramatic developments in communications, transportation, and weapons technology and by the impact of that new technology upon tactics. The war on the Western Front, often portrayed as a mindless slugging match, was actually surprisingly dynamic at the tactical level. The failure to conduct significant manoeuvre at the tactical level was the root cause of the inability of armies to achieve strategic success during the First World War. Successful operational manoeuvre depended directly on success at the tactical level, specifically conduct of tactical manoeuvre. Much of the war was spent searching for the means to restore mobility to the battlefield and to smash the enemy’s ever-more complex defences. To do this the British pursued several learning curves.
