Introduction

According to an old adage, soldiers always train to fight the last war. When preparing for future conflicts, generals allow the previous conflict to dictate the terms of equipment and strategy. This predicament is epitomized by the generation of military officers who were active in the years following the First World War. That conflict – its revolutionary character, its technological innovations, its unsurpassed lethality, and the constraints it placed on each country’s economic and industrial infrastructure – transformed the way field commanders and staff officers thought about war.