Cult of The Offensive - World War I

World War I

Cult of the offensive was the dominant theory among many military and political leaders before World War I. Those leaders argued in favor of declaring war and launching an offensive, believing they could cripple their opponents, and fearing that if they waited, they in turn would be defeated. The dominance of this line of thought significantly contributed to the escalation of hostilities, and is seen as one of the causes of World War I.

Military theorists of the time generally held that seizing the offensive was of crucial importance, hence belligerents were encouraged to strike first in order to gain the advantage. Most planners wanted to begin mobilization as quickly as possible to avoid being caught on the defensive. This was complicated as mobilizations were expensive, and their schedules were so rigid that they could not be canceled without massive disruption of the country and military disorganization. Thus, the window for diplomacy was shortened by this attitude, and once the mobilizations had begun diplomacy had the added difficulty of having to justify canceling the mobilizations. This phenomenon was also referred to as "war by timetable".

The German Schlieffen Plan is a notable example of the cult of the offensive. Supported by pro-offensive officers such as Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, it was executed to near victory in the first month of the war; however, a French counterattack on the outskirts of Paris, the Battle of the Marne (combined with surprisingly speedy Russian offensives), ended the German offensive and resulted in years of trench warfare. It was not only Germany who followed the cult of the offensive; the French army, among others, was also driven very strongly by this doctrine, where its supporters included Ferdinand Foch, Joseph Joffre and Loyzeaux de Grandmaison. Officers of that period were indoctrinated that "The French Army, returning unto its traditions, no longer knows any law other than the offensive". This is thought to be the military reason behind the French Conscription Law in July 1913, following the passing of a similar bill in Germany six months earlier: the offensive "guerre à outrance" to swiftly seize German Alsace-Lorraine was felt by military planners to require an additional 200,000 conscripts with respect to the defensive war for which the army was prepared.

In the hindsight, World War I ultimately favored defensive strategies; cult of the offensive led to heavy losses during the fighting on the Western Front. The forces that expected attack prepared elaborate defense positions (trenches with artillery, rifles and machine guns), which were commonly able to weather attacking artillery and inflict heavy losses on attacking infantry. It would not be until World War II that offensive strategies such as blitzkrieg were shown to be highly efficient. However, due to the "military leaders preparing to fight the last war", much of military thought was influenced by the fact that cult of the offensive. Hence the military leaders, particularly among the Western Allies in the early phase of the war, tried to avoid offensive at all cost (what became known as the cult of the defensive, see Phony War).