# How was trench warfare overcome? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2004, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trench-warfare-overcome/244158 "2004-05-08T07:27:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trench-warfare-overcome/244158/21 "2004-05-10T11:43:46Z")
> [@Spiny Norman](#): > > Bo > > Another reason was that high command was still locked into 19th century thinking in some respects. The British Army at one time planned to use cavalry to exploit the tank breakthroughs(!) > > . This is not so strange a sit seems to us now. Don’t forget roads and road transport in the 1914-1918 war were primitive, especially if it had been bombed. If you wanted to move hundreds of men quickly across open ground for several miles, calvary was the only way. As I recall, even in the first year of the second world war war, most war tranport in was horse driven. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trench-warfare-overcome/244158/22 "2004-05-10T13:15:34Z")
> [@Northern Piper](#): > > But was that lesson wrong? The German Army evidently agreed with it, since they avoided a direct attack on the Maginot line. Wasn’t it the implementation of that insight by the French the problem? They should have extended the Maginot line all the way to the Channel, along the borders of Belgium and the Netherlands. Besides the issue of the cost, that was a geopolitical no-no. The Belgian government was strongly opposed to such a defensive line being build along its border, since it would have likely meant that the french army would have stayed behind this line in case of German invasion instead of fighting in Belgium. They considered that such a move would have been equivalent to France publicaly announcing she wouldn’t defend Belgium. Finally, the Maginot line still served a purpose, even unachieved. Being able to block a german offensive in eastern france, it allowed to concentrate the french or allied armies along a shorter front, and limited the german options. In case this wouldn’t be clear, the german attack through Belgium didn’t came as a surprise. It was what was expected by the allies. They had massed the troops along the border, in order to rush them in as soon as Belgium would be attacked hence would renounce to its neutrality. And the germans in turn had anticipated this anticipation. That’s why they launched a first attack in northern Belgium, to atttract the allied armies into a trap. The part which took the allied off guard was the main attack in the Ardennes, west of the Maginot line, but east of the area where most of the armies were engaged . It was assumed that the terrain and poor roads didn’t allow for a significantly large attack to take place in this area. This part of the frontier was only defended by reserve troops, which didn’t have any reserve to counter attack once the defense line was pierced (since, once again, the bulk of the army had moved into Belgium). And of course, the “blitzkrieg” wasn’t expected, either, so the allied didn’t think that the german armored divisions could advance so quickly, even assuming they would successfully attack there. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trench-warfare-overcome/244158/23 "2004-05-10T13:18:49Z")
> [@Northern Piper](#): > > They should have extended the Maginot line all the way to the Channel, along the borders of Belgium and the Netherlands. Oh…and France doesn’t have a common border with the Netherlands, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2004, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trench-warfare-overcome/244158/24 "2004-05-11T03:11:26Z")
zut! Veuillez accepter mes apologies les plus profondes, je vous en prie. :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-trench-warfare-overcome/244158.md?page=1)