[jpsb]

The French were horribly lead in WW1, frontal charges into machine guns. However there was nothing wrong were the french fighting man. Dido English and German troops. WW1 is a classic study in bad generalship.

[Reily]

An interesting book to read is “The Myths of The Great War”.
It compares the fighting effectiveness of the major powers.
As I remember the book, it argues that the French started out bad, learned from their mistakes and were most effective of the Allied powers in infantry combat. The French main problem was mediocre equipment. The Germans remained in class by themselves of superior effectiveness almost to the end. The authored rated the British least effective of the Western Allies. Almost entirely due to because of bad leadership, almost as well equipped as the Germans but saddled with leadership that couldn't or wouldn't adjust. He rates the US as almost as good as the French, but we were newbie and made newbie mistakes. He says we had a very good officer corps. We were mostly well lead from top to the junior officers. Interestingly he says the AEF was prepared for combat primarily by the French. The Russians and the Austro-Hungarians bad from beginning to end.