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For hundreds of years war was waged in a fairly set pattern. The belligerants lined up opposite each other, then there would be Cavalry Charges followed by infantry on foot and then hand to hand. All movements directed by the Generals with field glasses on nearby hilltops like a large and deadly game of Chess.

It all changed with the arrival of the HMG, the heavy machine gun, before WW1. When the armies arrived on the battle field they found this weapon had changed the method of war forever. There would be no more Cavalry charges, and when infantry tried to advance en- masse they were cut down by rapid-fire, high velocity 0.50 in calibre weapons. Both sides had these weapons so a stalemate quickly came into being and Trench Warfare was born. The opposing armies sat in trenches 500 mtrs apart with 'No Mans Land' between them. Men were ordered over the top to attack but it was futile, they were dead before they covered 50 mtrs. It became a war of waiting, who could afford to last longer. Even the invention of the 'Tank' by the British though it showed promise, had trouble with mud and shell craters of Flanders.

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