Anticipating the Unexpected? France and Britain go to War

Before the outbreak of the First World War, France and Britain had two different mindsets. France is condemned for the so-called philosophy of ‘guerre à l’outrance’ at a time when industrialized technologies had developed to such an extent that they would make advancing across the fire-swept zone of the battlefield problematic.

The British army in comparison, was ‘lightweight’: a small, professional, long-service volunteer army with an Expeditionary Force designed for amphibious imperial wars. Were they fighting fit, as Sir James Edmonds famously claimed: ‘incomparably the best trained, best organized and best equipped British army that ever went forth to war’ – and how did they measure up against the big boys?

In this presentation, Prof William Philpott talks about the pre-war approaches at strategic, operational and tactical levels before 1914, and the consequences (and immediate adaptations) after battle was joined.