The British Army had been badly tested in the Second Boer War and adapted by improving the quality of its infantry. Those lessons contributed to highly capable troops at the beginning of the First World War. Counterinsurgency experience did not prepare the army's force structure for a peer conflict. Continental war demanded much larger volumes of artillery and machine-gun fire than the small professional force initially possessed. The army could be tactically skilled while still needing rapid wartime expansion.
Notable Point · 21:28-22:08
The Boer War sharpened troops for the wrong scale of war
Britain's army learned hard lessons in South Africa, but counterinsurgency experience did not supply the artillery and machine-gun mass needed for continental war.