Total War and the Coming War of Attrition

The Great War was to bring the world into the realities of modern warfare. Although many wars had been fought previous to this, they were limited in time, place, men and material by comparison. Never before had entire economies become controlled by the needs of war on such a large scale. In addition to economies becoming entwined with military activities, developments in science were quickly used for war. Science was able to develop and contribute new weapons to the war effort that the military then struggled to utilize on the battlefield.

Total war required that all elements of a nation be mobilized for war. Women became essential to the war effort far beyond any traditional roles held before. Propaganda was used extensively to motivate the people to sacrifice at greater levels. Civilians themselves became targets of military operations.

Upon the battlefields of Europe and around the world, the harsh new realities of modern warfare were becoming evident. Generals in the Great War were trained in the weapons and tactics of previous wars. This led to great misunderstandings, problems and needless sacrifice of men. The main problem was the size of armies in the field. All generals lacked an understanding of moving, supplying and fighting with the millions of men soon to be in uniform. New technology created problems for older generals who preferred the glory of the sword, lance, and horse. The defensive potential of the machine gun for example, was not understood and led to the slaughter of thousands of men.

Commanders who were unable to come to grips with this new type of warfare developed the concept of attrition. The idea was to defeat the enemy by destroying more men and equipment, than the enemy was able to destroy of your own. The side with the most men and equipment left at the end of a battle would then be declared the winner. Attrition of enemy soldiers and equipment became a goal of generals to prove that they were actually doing something successful.