Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ORIGIN AND NATURE OF POSITION WARFARE The prime importance of the initial success upon the entire course of a campaign, as illustrated by the wars of the 19th Century, which generally ran a rapid course, led Germany to rapidly assume positions in readiness at the outbreak of war and to simultaneously insert all available forces. Strategic reserves were discarded. They consisted of troops (new organizations) condemned to a slow mobilization, or of allies who entered the war later on. If neither of the opponents has sufficient forces to break the other's resistance, position warfare results. It lies in the very nature of the offensive war that, after relentlessly gathering the fruits of the initial success, the heavy expenditure of strength forces the victor to a halt, also, in order to protect what he has gained. Such a culmination of victory is shown in the World War by the first battle on the Marne with the resulting retreat and defense, which was fought against a strong superiority of the Entente. In the subsequent course of the World War, which developed for the Central Powers into the most magnificent operation of all times on interior lines, the situation forced them upon the defensive on one front in order to beat the enemy by an offensive on another. The length of the lines was so extensive that the disadvantages of a central location were of no importance. A favorable railroad net made it possible to shift the forces from one to the other theater of war. Thus position warfare had its origin in the East and in the West. Military history shows that only by inserting fresh forces, or by voluntarily abandoning a large part of the position followed by an offensive against the pursuing enemy, is the inertia of position warfare overcome and mobile warfare resumed. The ef...