Vlim,
I don't think that you understand he horrific conditions that soldier in WW1 fought under. I agree that tactics changed on both sides of the battle fields starting in 1916 when both sides of the battle fields were literally running out of bodies to send into battle and mutinies in all the armies were increasing.
But in 1914-1915, fighting was horrific. Adolf Hitler got his first taste of heroism when he was one of eleven men from his company to survive a large battle that he was in. What was a company in those days? Maybe 200-300 men. More than 180-250,000 men on each of the two sides were casualties in those few days. (I thing it was Verdon, but I'm not certain). Thats maybe about a half a million human beings. And that was only one of the many battles fought. In those days, tens of thousands and, sometimes, hundreds of thousands of men would lose their lives in the matter of a few days.
When a large artillery shell had a direct hit on a trench, the goal was to rapidly repair the damage. Sacks were quickly filled with sand, mud , stone and human body parts. The body parts were not separated from the other muck that was thrown in those bags. The work was frequently done while under fire from the enemy. The men doing that work were pretty thick skinned about death and they had to work fast for their own survival.
Then there were the long foot marches from one battle field to another, sometimes with out much food or clean cloths. American soldiers only had one fatigue uniform. Equipment not considered essential by the individual soldier was frequently tossed. After all, they could always salvage more off of dead solders on the battle field that they were going to.
Now, with that in mind, if you see a couple of thousand enemy soldiers marching toward your position with bayonets on their rifles and machine gun bullets flying all around you, do you really think that the individual soldier is worried about whether or not he has written permission to individualize his equipment? Or do you think that that half a minute or more to remove that stock cup on a holster that he found in an over run machine gun nest was a lifetime on or near a battlefield? Remember, you have a bolt action rifle and a semi auto pistol and all of them will be empty before you engage in hand to hand to hand combat and your rifle becomes a club.
As a side note to "individualizing" equipment. Many American soldiers that fought after D-day during WW2 fought in hot summer weather. They customized their boots by cutting the tips of their boots off, which made them cooler. Many didn't have a chance to replace their boots just before the "Battle of the Bulge", which was fought during the winter. As a result, many men were taken out of action because their feet were frost bitten.
I could recommend any number of books regarding the terrible conditions that solders fought under in WW1. Its little wonder that many soldiers never thought that they would ever come out of it alive.
Big Norm
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