My Years With Proust - Day 664

All he said was that since 1914 there had in reality been a series of wars, the lessons of each one influencing the conduct of the one that followed.  For example, the theory of the "break-through" had been supplemented by a new idea: that it was necessary, before breaking through, for the ground held by the enemy to be completely devastated by the artillery.  But then it had been found that on the contrary this devastation made it impossible for the infantry and the artillery to advance over ground in which thousands of shell-holes created as many obstacles.  "War," he wrote, "does not escape the laws of our old friend Hegel.  It is in a state of perpetual becoming."

Marcel Proust, Time Regained, p. 774

Marcel receives a letter from Robert, who opines on the shape of the war.  We learn that the war was really a "series of wars," each shaped by the changing conditions.  There is an old saying that the generals always fight the last war, which is why any general (Alexander the Great or Napoleon are great examples) who come up with an innovative approach are, at least initially, so successful.  World War I, because it was a war whose scope was immeasurably larger than anyone had ever considered, is a classic example of that maxim.  At the beginning the generals were basing their strategy on "the last war," that is the great infantry charges of the previous century, which were now useless and incredibly destructive because the changes in technology had given the defenses the advantage; not that this didn't stop both sides from throwing their troops into suicidal charges across no-man's land.  By World War II the French had learned their lesson from the previous war and hid behind the fortified Maginot Line, but then the Germans, throwing in that deadly innovation, used lightning war to gain the advantage while the French fought the last war.  The speed and scope of the First World War was so unprecedented that the changes, as Robert noted, came fast and furious, transforming the experience within months instead of decades or even centuries.  And thus, referencing Hegel, war was "in a state of perpetual becoming."