Battle of the Somme

[Okeefenokee]

Every aspect of air war was invented in WW1. Everything since has been evolution. WW1 invented all of it. There was no such thing as air war before. Since then, there have been no wars that didn't involve the creations of the Great War.

[Hastur]

On the development of infantry tactics in WWI.

[Smitty-48]

Radar must have changed tactics in a large way though, and that was not available in WWI, especially when it came to aerial and naval warfare.

Radar doesn't make all that much of a difference in the Second World War, there are some campaigns where it plays a significant role, the Battle of Britain most famously, but for most part, battles in WWII are fought without significant radar coverage, the Mk.1 Eyeball is still the dominant sensor in the Second World War, radar at this point is quite rudimentary.

The UK had the Chain Home early warning network, but that wasn't something that was being deployed in most theatres. Towards the end of the war, Night Fighters get radars, but Night Fighters weren't really an arm of decision. At sea, there was no over the horizon radar, you couldn't detect and track targets at long range, it could be used for gun aiming, but most gunnery relied on just putting up a lot of fire and saturating a target more often than not.

The reality is, at the tactical level, World War Two was still very much as World War One was when it ended in 1918, it was only 21 years between the wars, not that much had changed, World War One was the exponential change agent, from Napoleonic warfare to Modern warfare as we know it, in just four years, World War Two was more a series of tweaks of the exponential innovations of World War One.

If you took a (Napoleonic) soldier from 1914 and dropped him in 1939, his mind would indeed be boggled by the changes, but if you took a (Modern) soldier from 1918 and dropped him in 1939, he wouldn't notice much difference at all.

The 24 months between 1916 and 1918, was the most rapid and dynamic change event, in the history of human conflict, by many orders of magnitude. You can invoke the nuclear weapon, but without the 24 months between 1916 and 1918, the nuclear weapon would never have been invented, there would be no path to a nuclear weapon, without the complete reordering of the very nature of warfare, in the wake of the Somme.

Like I say, World War One is such a fundamental change agent, it literally alters the path of human history for all time and changes the nature of the universe for humankind, if Britain hadn't entered the war, and Germany had been able to defeat France and then force the Russians to capitulate, I would submit, we'd be living in a world right now, which still resembled the 1920's, nothing much would have changed, in a hundred years.

For all intents and purposes, history is everything before the Great War, and then everything after the Great War. The Great War will go down as the most significant event in human history, it already is.

A thousand years from now, when they are sailing through the void to Delta Pavonis at 99% of the speed of light, they will be able to trace that all the way back to 1914, and Belgian Neutrality.

[jbird4049]

Yeah looking at all the fabulous innovations does not change the human costs of it. An entire generation of men especially British, French, and German. Four empires gone. Much of the accumulated wealth of the previous century burnt up. Followed by the idiotic Treaty of Versailles, and just as stupid reorganization of the Middle East in such a way to guarantee strife.

Rly? You're purity spiralling over World War One?

You're a walking cliche, bro, I get it that you're young, but that's still no reason to get your personality from a gumball machine in the college dorm.

And that machismo of yours is nice too.

Being hopped up on all the interesting changes, does not change all the bad changes that occurred too.

[StCapps]

WWI wasn't the war to end all wars, but it was the war to change all wars.

[Smitty-48]

And that machismo of yours is nice too.

I'm not macho, you clearly don't even know what the word means, caballerismo maybe, but machismo, that ain't me, clearly, you got stung by the truth, so now you're just grasping from the SJW approved list of stock labels, again, you're just showing your immaturity and total lack of any pesonality of your own, other than what you pick up hanging around the college dorm.

It's not subtle; your need to try to insert virtue signalling into every conversation without cause; is the hallmark of your generation, but it's really just a placeholder to fill the void where a fully formed personality would normally be, more pathological than it is virtuous, but I suppose you're just a product of your environment in the end, maybe you'll grow out of it someday.

[Smitty-48]

WWI wasn't the war to end all wars, but it was the war to change all wars.

Changed more than just war, completely reordered society from the bottom up, even these SJW's, are really just amplified echoes of the populism which exploded in the wake of the First World War, the First World War is where the bourgeoisie come to rule the world, aristocrats and warrior castes are thrown aside, in favour of a world run by foppish dilettantes and grievance farmers.

It's like Arthur Currie, the greatest military commander in Canadian history, one of the greatest in world history, when he arrives back from the war, he is immediately attacked by the posturing self righteous SJW's of the day, this SJW shit is not actually new, was born in the wake of the First World War, and these are the fops who then cherry picked the history of the war to fit their narrative, which became the dominant narrative, as those who actually fought the war died off.

If you want to trace where Justin Zoolander Trudeau's Canada came from, it comes from the backlash in the wake of the First World War.

It's not the soldiers who fought the war who farm the grievance, it's entirely a product of people who did not fight, but the DNA of all contemporary greivance farming, comes from the dillettantes of the Post First World War Zeitgeist.

Except for Italy and Germany of course, there the grievance farming takes on the form of "Stabbed in the back by the November Criminals", but here in Canada, the soldiers just quietly went about their business, and they still do, even when stabbed in back, the Canadian soldier has always had a reserve of serenity, which has prevented us from ever having a fascist backlash against the bourgeoisie.

Mind you, we've never lost a war, so who knows what would happen, if we ever do suffer a catastrophic defeat in the field, maybe we'd hang the SJW's from the lampposts then.

[jbird4049]

And that machismo of yours is nice too.

I'm not macho, you clearly don't even know what the word means, caballerismo maybe, but machismo, that ain't me, clearly, you got stung by the truth, so now you're just grasping from the SJW approved list of stock labels, again, you're just showing your immaturity and total lack of any pesonality of your own, other than what you pick up hanging around the college dorm.

It's not subtle; your need to try to insert virtue signalling into every conversation without cause; is the hallmark of your generation, but it's really just a placeholder to fill the void where a fully formed personality would normally be, more pathological than it is virtuous, but I suppose you're just a product of your environment in the end, maybe you'll grow out of it someday.

Hmm, this continuous description of what I say as virtue signaling seems to me the same as crying racism, or Marxist in order to shut down the conversation, or score points. If you disagree with something I said, that's fine. Say so, and if you want to offer a correction, go ahead. Or you could just keep debating with the strawman.

[Smitty-48]

Hmm, this continuous description of what I say as virtue signaling seems to me the same as crying racism, or Marxist in order to shut down the conversation, or score points. If you disagree with something I said, that's fine. Say so, and if you want offer a correction, go ahead. Or you could just keep debating with the strawman.

Meh, I've summed you up, bro, there's nothing you can do about it now, and this sort of cliche comeback here ^ ; is just proving my point for me.

Newsflash; it's actually you who is succumbing to mashismo here, your manly pride is stung, so you just keep coming back for more, even after you've been schooled.

Nobody is trying to "shut you down", simply by pointing out that you are purity spiralling ad nauseam in every thread, that's the strawman fallacy here, and it is quite clearly coming from you, although, ultimately, as I said, originating from the gumball machine in the college dorm, where the rest of your non-persona comes from.

Cliche compounded upon cliche, from a stockpile of pedestrian cliches, but you're free to be as vacuous as you want to be, it's no skin off my teeth, but to say that it is a "strawman" simply to point you out as you are, that in of itself, is just another tiresome internet cliche.

Nobody is trying to "shut you down", simply by saying "you're making a fool of yourself, kid", but you can take it or leave it of course, no need to bother trying to play the "opression" card on top of all the other fatuous college dorm cliches you propagate.

[jbird4049]

Hmm, this continuous description of what I say as virtue signaling seems to me the same as crying racism, or Marxist in order to shut down the conversation, or score points. If you disagree with something I said, that's fine. Say so, and if you want offer a correction, go ahead. Or you could just keep debating with the strawman.

Meh, I've summed you up, bro, there's nothing you can do about it now, and this sort of cliche comeback here ^ ; is just proving my point for me.

Newsflash; it's actually you who is succumbing to mashismo here, your manly pride is stung, so you just keep coming back for more, even after you've been schooled.

Nobody is trying to "shut you down", simply by pointing out that you are purity spiralling ad nauseam in every thread, that's the strawman fallacy here, and it is quite clearly coming from you, although, ultimately, as I said, originating from the gumball machine in the college dorm, where the rest of your non-persona comes from.

Cliche compounded upon cliche, from a stockpile of pedestrian cliches, but you're free to be as vacuous as you want to be, it's no skin off my teeth, but to say that it is a "strawman" simply to point you out as you are, that in of itself, is just another tiresome internet cliche.

Nobody is trying to "shut you down", simply by saying "you're making a fool of yourself, kid", but you can take it or leave it of course, no need to bother trying to play the "opression" card on top of all the other fatuous college dorm cliches you propagate.

Saying you are trying to shut me down might have been too strong.

I will still say the prolonged sneering at someone because of an unoriginal, and cliched, remarks that are that because they are true is...I'm not sure what...in bad taste, maybe? Anyways, that the First World War was also transformative is something that should be brought up, and I do enjoy learning more, but the seemingly good cheer of such a war is still to me off putting.