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The German Second Army, comprising 320,000 men, crossed into neutral Belgium in keeping to the Schlieffen Plan, with the ultimate goal of attacking France from the north. Liège was key strategically as it held a position at the head of a pass through the Ardennes , which made it the best possible route into the heart of Belgium itself.
Unprotected and often standing, wiring parties were subject to enemy flares which would expose them immediately, causing them to have to lie flat, even on the very wire they were carrying. [ 12 ] To conceal themselves as much as possible, party members left extra supplies in the trench, and only ventured out at night.
For the most part, wartime diplomacy focused on five issues: propaganda campaigns; defining and redefining the war goals, which became harsher as the war went on; luring neutral nations (Italy, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, Romania) into the coalition by offering slices of enemy territory; and encouragement by the Allies of nationalistic minority ...
Garrison's plan unleashed the fiercest battle in peacetime history over the relationship of military planning to national goals. In peacetime, War Department arsenals and Navy yards manufactured nearly all munitions that lacked civilian uses, including warships, artillery, naval guns, and shells.
The only light signals allowed were the flares for contact aircraft and the rifle grenade SOS signal. [ 82 ] On 12 June, the 2nd Guards Brigade began the march to the front line and on 15 June, the relief of 38th Division commenced and preparations were begun to cross the Yser canal, which was 23 yd (21 m) wide, empty and with deep mud in the bed.
Parachute flares offered better illumination (and were less illuminating of the airships′ positions), but they weighed in at 80 pounds (36 kg) each, making them too costly to drop unless the rough position of the enemy was already known.
A modern LUU-2B flare at 1,000 feet altitude illuminates the ground at 5 lux in a radius of 1500 feet. Burn time is 4–5 minutes. The flare is 36 inches long, 4.9 inches in diameter, and weighs about 30 pounds. A similar design called LUU-19B can provide covert illumination in the near-infrared (IR) spectrum with virtually no visual signature.
The year the United States entered World War I was marked by near disaster for the Allies on all the European fronts. A French offensive in April, with which the British cooperated, was a failure, and was followed by widespread mutinies in the French armies.