After the catastrophe on the Somme in 1917, General Ludendorff was persuaded by a group of his junior staff officers to withdraw to a line running north-south behind the Canal du Nord between the Somme and the Scarpe River. By this move he saved his troops from a second Somme and shortened his line. More important, he gained the opportunity to prepare on virgin ground and far away from hostilities for defensive tactics which his bright young men, notably Colonel Fritz von Lossberg, had evolved for divisions after observing the French use for smaller...
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