WORLD WAR I

World War I: Why Every Attack Could Break In and None Could Break Out, What the Guns Could Actually Reach, and Why the Railway Always Won This concise yet rigorous examination of the First World War cuts through decades of political blame and romantic myth to focus on the relentless mechanics of the conflict. Grounded in equipment specifications, logistics, and arithmetic, the book explains why tactical break-ins were consistently achievable while strategic breakthroughs remained impossible for years. From the railway timetables that locked Europe into war in July 1914 to the devastating artillery challenges of wire, mud, and fuses, this account demonstrates how modern industrial conflict was governed by a harsh race between a walking infantryman and a railway train. Discover why the machine gun was secondary to artillery, how counter-battery science and instantaneous fuses eventually shifted the balance, and why the ultimate defeat of the German armies in 1918 came not from trying to break out, but from mastering the limits of the guns. Cornelis van Houte