It was better provided with field engineer units than any army in Europe—thirty-six battalions, against twenty-six French—and better trained in rapid entrenchment.111 The entrenching tool had become, by 1914, part of the equipment of the infantryman in every army. However, while the British cavalry took pride in avoiding entrenchment exercises, and the French disregarded “the most demanding notions of cover,” the German soldier had been obliged to use the spade on manoeuvre since at least 1904.
