ABSTRACT
The shock of the conflict of 1914-18 was compounded by the fact that it was a new kind of war and no one was prepared for, or had even anticipated, the enormous demands it would make on the nation and its people. The traditional form of warfare involved men and tactics, marches and battles, but modern total war primarily involves machines and economic production. The First World War proved to be a contest, not of which side could outshoot and outmanoeuvre the other, but which side could out-produce, out-supply, and simply out-survive, the other. There had been hints in the nineteenth century, such as the American Civil War, of the direction warfare was taking, but these went unnoticed or ignored. In any event, modern military equipment and techniques replaced the old forms only fairly slowly in the First World War. Many lorries were being used for military purposes by the end of the war, but in the earlier stages long distance transport was by railway, and the traditional load-carrier, the horse, was also used a great deal. Telephones and radios could be used to transmit military information and orders, but they were still unreliable in field conditions and human messengers were more dependable.
