In the book "Guns of August", the first few chapters mention the "overhauls" in the British, French, Russian and German military before WWI started, but don't get very specific. In general, what changed from a personnel, tactical and war materials standpoint? And did these "overhauls" include a change in philosophical ideology toward the conduction and development of strategy?
Thanks!
The British had found during the Boer war that long-distance individual rifle fire could be deadly with new accurate smokeless podwer bolt action rifles and embarked on focusing on indivodual rifleman accuracy and skill, culiminating in the "mad minute", where a British rifleman in the regular (professional) army had to be able to hit a 12x12" target (a dark siluette at a larger cardboard placard) at 300 yards at least 9 times in a minute - including a reload. The best shots were said to be capable of 27-30 hits in one minute, which would include at least two reloads, as the Lee-Enfield rifle held 10 cartdrigdes fully loaded. This was possible not only because of high skill and rigorous training, but also that the bolt action of the Lee-Enfield was comparably short and close to the trigger, allowing the best shooters to fire with their ring finger and use their thumb, index and middle finger to operate the bolt, thus not needing to take the rifle off its target when cycling another round into the chamber.
The Germans had just before the war started introducing new ways to use their reserves. While other nations still held the notion that reservists needed weeks or even months of training and drill to be brought up to full combat efficiency, the Germans sent reserve formations straight into combat, where they did well enough. This made the German army larger at the immediate outset of the war compared to what their enemies thought they were capable of raising.
The French had introduced an extremely offensive combat doctrine, paied with their absolutely excellent 75mm mle1897 gun - with a modern recoil system and thus a higher rate of fire and a much longer range (8 500m to about 5 500m) than the British 18pdr (84mm) and the German 75mm FK96nA.
The Russians had also modernised after the Russo-Japanese war, improving their artillery, introducing the excellent 76,2mm M02, but had also vastly improved their logistics and the speed of the troops they could mobilise. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans were in for a rude wake-up at the early Russian offensives that were made much earlier, at a much higher strength and much better supplies than they had expected