Here are a couple exam questions that drove my students nuts on exams:
Why were the casualty rates so horrific in WWI?
Name three new technologies that affected the shaping of the battlefield and strategy in WWI. Discuss each in detail.
Certainly the "new" technologies of Machineguns, tanks and aircraft affected the battlefield in a large way, but the lack of a strategic response to them was what caused the horrific casualty rates in WWI. Both sides insisted on the same strategies as had been used in olden times where these technologies either didn't exist or didn't exist in numbers large enough to be effectual. Specifically, charging an entrenched defensive position defended with machineguns is much worse than even charging one primarily defended with muskets-as was done at Gettysburg.
