How could World War One have still occurred, yet the Western Front never results in trench warfare? Would technological changes have been necessary?
Could trench warfare be prevented without a quick German victory? Or perhaps a sparser war is fought in central France, south of Paris?Have the Germans do a lot better in their initial invasion of France and Belgium so that they quickly win in the West before Trench Warfare sets in.
Could trench warfare be prevented without a quick German victory? Or perhaps a sparser war is fought in central France, south of Paris?
If military's were fielding tanks by 1914 would there have been trench warfare?
Could trench warfare be prevented without a quick German victory? Or perhaps a sparser war is fought in central France, south of Paris?
Massive artillery build up pre war - plausible, light and medium artillery struggled to break trench lines, but heavy artillery would have been sufficient to prevent the build up of trench lines.
As the RN invented armoured cars and tanks, have the RN create a mobile invasion force that doesn’t use horses (no army would come up with this as machines frighten the horses) and this force is landed 90 miles from Berlin on the Pomeranian coast.
The American Civil War reverted to an early trench warfare in some theatres by the end, so it was not a new phenomenon.
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Indeed, perhaps someone was paying attention to the imbalance between offensive and defensive power?The American Civil War reverted to an early trench warfare in some theatres by the end, so it was not a new phenomenon.
Heavy tube artillery of the time was difficult to move. Maybe rocket batteries?Breaking the trench lines before they can be established
Massive artillery build up pre war - plausible, light and medium artillery struggled to break trench lines, but heavy artillery would have been sufficient to prevent the build up of trench lines.
A horse flu, in the manner of ‘The Great Epizootic of 1872’ would be possible but would basically stop the war due to the dependence on horses for logistics.Tanks - I can’t see a reason they would have been built up pre war unless something changed with regards to availability of horses. I guess a horrifying horse flu a decade earlier might have led to a need to replace ‘heavy’ cavalry with some sort of armoured tractor and lots of off road capable vehicles?
In 1872 life in North America was severely effected by a plague, but not one that infected humans. ‘The Great Epizootic of 1872’ was an outbreak of horse flu on a huge scale, effecting about 97% of horses and mules in North America. It left animals ill for several weeks, and killed about 3% overall (~400,000 animals).
Given the reliance on animal power the effect on travel and transport was enormous, and catastrophic. Huge backups in freight occurred all over the US and Canada; even canals (which employed horses to pull barges) and some railways (where horse transport delivered coal) were idle.
A fire in Boston was exacerbated by the lack of horses to pull the fire-fighting appliances. The US Cavalry became infantry. The US government effectively shut down. Cities suffered shortages of everything from milk to beer and rubbish piled up in the streets.
The outbreak began in Ontario in early October and spread rapidly reaching Detroit on the 10th, New York and Boston on the 22nd, Chicago on the 23rd, Washington on the 28th, New Orleans on the 27th of November and Havana on the 7th of December.
A fair point! I was making the assumption that part of the problem was massed bombardment with artillery that was not heavy enough was churning up the ground but not the trenches. I also assumed that if one side had enough of heavy artillery ready to go it could be used before the trenches became a feature of an area, that may be unrealistic though.Would it? IOTL, massive artillery bombardment facilitated trench warfare because it assured that the attacking force, even if it broke the enemy line, would not be able to move quickly enough over the enemy rear areas (which had been so badly pulverized by the heavy artillery), so that the defending force would always have time to bring up reserves and prevent a breakthrough.
A fair point! I was making the assumption that part of the problem was massed bombardment with artillery that was not heavy enough was churning up the ground but not the trenches. I also assumed that if one side had enough of heavy artillery ready to go it could be used before the trenches became a feature of an area, that may be unrealistic though.