During the war, he rose to the lofty position of Supreme Allied Commander despite never enduring the horrors of fighting in World War I. General Eisenhower was well known for his extraordinary military career during World War II. 1911)Ĭourtesy of the Eisenhower Presidential Library This meant that when the German counter-attack was launched, instead of finding a mass of exhausted and disorganised men at the limit of the Allied advance, they would find a well organised defensive line still in range of supporting artillery.A young Dwight Eisenhower as a cadet at West Point (ca. It meant that British soldiers did not move beyond where they could be supported. In addition, they were aided by more and better aircraft carrying out air defence, artillery observation and ground-attack sorties. Using this tactic became possible when more artillery was deployed, thanks partly to the ground drying out between late August and September. The original attackers would then consolidate the ground they had taken, and become the new reserve for future advances. At this point they would dig in, and another wave of attacking troops would pass through them to attack the next objective. The advancing troops would stop once they had penetrated 1,500 yards into the German lines. This would be heavily shelled and then assaulted in strength. With the British Army's earlier attempts to break through on a wide front having been halted by the deep German defence system, Plumer instead selected for attack a small part of the German front line. The Battle of the Menin Road (20-25 September 1917) witnessed the first use of General Herbert Plumer’s ‘bite and hold’ strategy as the British tried to regain the initiative.
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