Breaching the Line: How Can the British Army Reverse Defence Supremacy?

The British Army has always sought contemporary lessons to better prepare for future war. Military observers were dispatched to the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) to compile thousands of pages and multiple volumes related to tactical and technical details from both sides. Their observations of trench warfare, barbed wire and the devastation of artillery barrages were prescient of what was shortly to consume a generation along the Western Front in the First World War.2 Similarly, many today champion the innovations and adaptions on Ukraine’s battlefields; however, despite four years of the Russo-Ukrainian War, neither side is close to an operational breakthrough nor strategic victory. Both are unable to exploit tactical success, consolidate meaningful operational gains and force the other to the negotiating table.