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Question: How does the term ' war of attrition' apply to the battles fought at verdun and the somme!?
How does the term ' war of attrition' apply to the battles fought at verdun and the somme!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


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A war of attrition is simply a battle/war where you try to kill enough enemy soldiers that the enemy has to give up while the enemy attempts the same!. Tactics are basically abandoned!. Instead it's toe to toe the last one standing wins kind of fighting!.

In Verdun and the Somme it was over the top into the teeth of machine guns!. Bunkers filled with gas and bombarded by artillary!. The whole goal was to kill enough enemy to make a breakthrough but as neither side could achieve that they settled for just killing enemy troops!. Kill enough of one side they'll go home was the logic!.
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"Battles are won by slaughter and manoeuvre!. The greater the general, the more he contributes in manoeuvre, the less he demands in slaughter" Winston churchill!. By slaughter we mean attrition, it simply means if we keep pelting them with men and bombs we're bound to win somehow! It is now the opposite of what modern tacticians call manoeuvre warfare theory!. How attrition applies to Verdun and the Somme, their names are synonymous with wholesale slaughter!Www@QuestionHome@Com

A war of attrition is where there are no major advantages or breakthroughs on either side!. The battle consists the two sides fighting hard and long to wear each other down!. This certainly applies to the stalemate of The Somme in WWI!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

both battles displayed the simple wearing down of the enemy which is the key element, or really the whole point of war of attrition!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Those battles are classic examples of a war of attrition: Constant and relentless grinding down of the enemy!.Www@QuestionHome@Com