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Jul 22, 2018 at 7:16 history bounty ended Kepotx
Jul 16, 2018 at 17:53 history edited Schwern CC BY-SA 4.0
Little grammar fix.
Jul 15, 2018 at 16:15 comment added Schwern @Jasper In individual battles and sieges, of course. Not a contiguous trench line that precluded any maneuver like the Western Front. For example, you can bypass strong-points, you can surround them, you can use superior numbers to extend your lines and turn their flank. With continuous sea-to-Switzerland lines none of that was an option on the Western Front. The Iran-Iraq War demonstrates the folly of static defense in modern warfare; it allowed the Iraqis to be surrounded and destroyed piecemeal. It would happen again in the First Gulf War.
Jul 14, 2018 at 22:49 comment added Jasper The final phase of the American Civil War in Virginia during 1864-65, the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s and Ethiopia's attempt to conquer Eritrea during the late 1990s all had lengthy periods of trench warfare along extensive fronts.
Jul 13, 2018 at 14:12 comment added SJuan76 This is a good answer, but I think it needs to mention that the Allied blockade of the Central Powers did cause severe hardships for those; the Germans could not just wait because they would have starved otherwise.
Jul 13, 2018 at 11:57 vote accept Kepotx
Jul 13, 2018 at 7:06 comment added Luaan @Bregalad As with most things, it's not quite that simple. In 1917, the Russian Empire has collapsed. However, the hostilities didn't cease; the Bolsheviks continued with the war. The peace treaty was only signed on March 3rd 1918. Depending on who writes your history books, there's many possible dates to use as "the end of the Eastern front", but the simple fact is that German troops didn't move to the West until 1918 for the spring offensive.
Jul 13, 2018 at 6:36 comment added Bregalad Wasn't Russia defeateed in 1917 ?
Jul 12, 2018 at 21:39 comment added Stephan Kolassa Perfect answer. For the German side, the key is to consider the way of thinking that Germans had been steeped in from the cradle onwards, with the new German nation essentially being defined in the Befreiungskriege against Napoleon and them coming into actual being 60 years later in yet another war against France, the "Erbfeind". Winkler is superb on this.
Jul 12, 2018 at 20:11 history edited Schwern CC BY-SA 4.0
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Jul 12, 2018 at 20:03 history edited Schwern CC BY-SA 4.0
added 210 characters in body
Jul 12, 2018 at 19:50 history answered Schwern CC BY-SA 4.0