BITE AND HOLD

By 1917, the war on the Western Front had changed radically. Weapons and equipment had changed, but tactics had been revolutionised. One of the biggest changes was the devolution of command down to junior officers and even NCOs, making command decisions based on ‘man on the spot’ principles. Captains and those ranked below them now had much more say over the course of an action, as the armies matured into modern fighting forces within combined arms operations.

Alex Sotheran

Allied high command had realised that German army had to be ground down in order to destroy its fighting capabilities. Short advances under the protection of artillery were planned, to capture small chunks of the opposition's lines in ‘bite and hold’ operations. Given the limitations in moving heavy artillery pieces forward across shattered battlefields, attacking units were given realistic objectives: this would gradually push the Allied line forward a few hundred yards – it was tortuous, slow and cost many lives. The German defensive doctrine developed to counter this, moving from heavily-manned frontline trenches to defence in depth. Lightly held outposts were pushed out in front of the lines, with a series of interlocking lines behind them, all occupied by men of the Stellungsdivision (trench defensive formations). This would draw…

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Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy (Digital) - 1 Issue, WSS 134

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