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Aside from the use of smokeless powder and barbed wire which waited until the Japanese attacks against Russia, there was powerful evidence from the Civil War on the strength of the defense.

Between the Civil War and WWI were two wars by Germany against Austria and France. The key battle against Austria was won because of the Dreyse needle gun, which permitted German infantry to hold off Austrian attacks using muzzle loaders, though outnumbered by over 10 to 1. That ability to stop Austria allowed German concentration on the battlefield and maneuver to Austrian flanks and rear. The later battles against France pitted the Germans against the French with the Chassepot rifle, largely superior to the needle gun, but Germans were able to exploit a superiority in rapid fire light artillery. It was a time of rapid innovation, and a strength in one conflict was likely to be a weakness in the next. Von Moltke (the great) managed to find an advantage and through use of telegraph and rail, was able to communicate his will to subordinates and give them the means to implement his will.

Von Moltke the later and lesser first watered down the key right flank units, and then he lost control of them, creating the weakness exploited by the BEF before Paris.

The Germans had a superior rifle, the famed Mauser, from which the U.S.Army would develop the Springfield .30. caliber.Actually the first rapid fire artillery piece was the French 75mm. WW1 began with the Belgians and the French relying on forts, whose lines of sight(where their guns were trained) faced east towards the German border. It was these forts that the German General staff knew would be an impediment to their implementation of the Schlieffen(sp) Plan, a feint into (neutral) Belgium to lure in and tie down the main Anglo-French armies while the main attack would be to the south to Sedan, cross the Meuse, and wheel north towards Paris , trapping the Anglo-French from the rear. As history shows the Germans were unable to do this in WW1. However, we know how it turned out some 20 years later. As to fortifications General Patton observed’’No hole in the ground, anywhere, has ever been successfully defended’’.