[mrustow]

I had never heard of Plevna, so I googled, and found the following article, which supports Patton's argument about the foolishness of digging in, and building a fortified position.

Plevna is a striking example of the futility of the purely passive defence, which is doomed to failure however tenaciously carried out. Osman Pasha repelled three Russian attacks and practically held the whole Russian army. It remained for the other Turkish forces in the field to take the offensive and by a vigorous counterstroke to reap the fruits of his successes.

Brittanica article on the 1877 Battle of Plevna

[archy]

I had never heard of Plevna, so I googled, and found the following article, which supports Patton's argument about the foolishness of digging in, and building a fortified position.

But even more so of the foolhardiness of attacking said prepared opositions, particularly after having received intelligence reports that the defenders have augmented their long-range single-shot rifles with new Winchester repeating rifles.

The Russians gclosed to within a couple hundred meters of the final firing positions, and then the real slaughter began. For days.

-archy-/-