1917 in France

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 52. Chapters: Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, Battle of Arras (1917), Battle of Cambrai (1917), Battle of Hill 70, Battle of the Hills, Battle of Vimy Ridge, Étaples Mutiny, French Army Mutinies (1917), List of French films of 1917, Nivelle Offensive, Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment, Second Battle of the Aisne, Tactical development on the Western Front in 1917. Excerpt: In 1917 the armies on the Western Front continued to change their fighting methods due to the consequences of increases in fire-power, greater numbers of automatic weapons, the decentralisation of authority and the integration of specialised branches, equipment and techniques into the traditional structures of infantry, artillery and cavalry. Tanks, railways, aircraft, lorries, chemicals, concrete and steel, photography, wireless and advances in medical science increased in importance in all of the armies, as did the influence of the material constraints of geography, climate, demography and economics. All of the armies encountered growing manpower shortages, caused by the need to replace the losses of 1916 and by the competing demands for labour of civilian industry and agriculture. The consequences of dwindling manpower were particularly marked in the German and French armies, which made considerable changes in their methods during the year, with the object of simultaneously pursuing military-strategic objectives and limiting casualties. The French army began the year with a return to the strategy of decisive battle, using the methods pioneered at the Battle of Verdun in December 1916, to break through the German defences on the Western front and return to manoeuvre warfare () but ended the year recovering from the disastrous result. The German army attempted to avoid the high infantry losses of 1916 by withdrawing to new deeper and dispersed defences. Defence in depth was intended to nullify the Allies' growing material strength (particularly in artillery) and succeeded in slowing the growth of Anglo-French battlefield superiority. The British army continued its evolution into a mass army capable of imposing itself on a continental power, took on much of the military burden, borne by the French and Russian armies since 1914 and left the German army resorting to expedients, to counter the development of its increasingly skillful use of fire-power and technology. D