Dimitri’s Reviews > The Great War Generals On The Western Front, 1914-1918 > Status Update

#2 "Millions of casualties"becomes a game of numbers and percentages in the hands of the accuser. Usually wounded, sick & civilians are thrown in with the Killed in Action. Officially, the British Army in all theatres lost 900.000 soldiers , with another 1.5 million wounded survivors.

Neillands tackles the 60's myths right out of the gate #1 the majority of the 'château generals' didn't hail from a cavalry background, that arm didn't become the dominant path to a career until 1900. Engineers & artillery had been the Petri dish of the Victorian army whose career officers served as generals in 1914. 224 'impervious' brigade commanders or higher would fall during the war.

"If commanders of the Great War had enjoyed the use of battlefield radios or walkie-talkies, casualties in their actions might well have been halved. behind the front line the communication network worked after a fashion, but for much of the war was frequently unreliable and always slow. At the sharp end, the situation was much worse. beyond those trenches, there was no reliable means of communication at all."