World War I (1)

World War I (Armed Forces) (3)

Armed Forces.

All the major European powers except Britain had conscript armies by 1914. The German army was by far the best trained and equipped, and it was directed by a highly efficient general staff. In the wake of the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War, the other European countries had also attempted to develop efficient staff systems. Moreover, all these general staffs had prepared war and mobilization plans to meet all possible combinations of opponents. The French, whose army was ranked second only to the Germans in overall efficiency, had one basic deficiency, their war plans and all of their military training were focused on the offensive to the total neglect of defensive tactics. The Austrian and Russian army systems were, in general, poor copies of the German and French, respectively. Britain's small volunteer army was well trained, but British war strategy focused on the Royal Navy, the largest sea force in the world.