Why was it so hard to fight in the open in World War 1?

Answer 1

There were two large fronts in WWI. In the western front the land was flat and there were no real hiding spots. WWI was the first real mechanized war. They finally had guns which could fire accurately and some guns could fire many shells per minute. That was a very deadly prospect. They also had tanks and larger mortar cannons that could do great damage. They had grenades that could do tremendous damage. They had to dig trenches to have a method of hiding from the enemy. They could view the enemy from rudimentary periscopes. The war dragged on for years when both sides of the war fought over the same pieces of land over and over. In the eastern front they had trees and land that was not totally flat but despite the layout of the land the two sides ended up in a stalemate also. Eventually the French, British and Americans did overcome Germany/Hungary.