France 1917

Countless British and French attacks came to grief in front of the German trenches and machines guns all along the Western Front which stretched from the Swiss border to the English Channel. A new way forward had to be found… and by 1917 that way had appeared with the appearance a year earlier of the first tanks!

Just as British troops had adapted their uniforms… their equipment… and their tactics since 1914 so had their Imperial German Army opponents.

By 1917 the typical German “Soldaten” was wearing the by now famous “coal-scuttle” steel helmet and a much simpler, more practical uniform. Many had even adopted the cloth leggings called “puttees” from the British troops in preference to their own traditional jackboots.

Their fighting skills however were just as deadly and efficient as before perhaps even improved by three hard years of battlefield experience.