In this story, published in 1903, Wells describes how a trench stalemate is broken by armoured vehicles. He obviously draws on the recent South African conflict for inspiration for his war between "Townsmen" and "Countrymen". The use of entrenchments had been a feature of the Boer War but was by no means new, having been seen in both the Crimea and American Civil War.
"What would you do if you were the enemy?" said the war correspondent, suddenly.
"If I had men like I've got now?"
"Yes."
"Take these trenches."
"How?"
"Oh-dodges! Crawl out half-way at night before moonrise and get into touch with the chaps we send out. Blaze at 'em if they tried to shift, and so bag some of 'em in the daylight. Learn that patch of ground by heart, lie all day in squatty holes, and come on nearer next night. There's a bit over there, lumpy ground, where they could get across to rushing distance-easy. In a night or so.. It would be a mere game for our fellows; it's what they're made for. . . .Guns? Shrapnel and stuff wouldn't stop good men who meant business."
"Why don't they do that?"
"Their men aren't brutes enough; that's the trouble. They're a crowd of devitalized townsmen, and that's the truth of the matter."
Here a character describes the same "Hutier" or "Stormtrooper" infiltration tactics that
the Germans would use successfully in the latter part of World War One. Attacks by stealth
and infiltration were by no means new, but Wells clearly spells out how these might be used
in the context of trench warfare.
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