Effective in terms of improving the chances of breaking through on the Western Front, or in terms of in terms of preserving manpower (using troops more effectively) on either fronts.
Less well-known things would be greatly appreciated...
Thank you in advance!
Hi there!
Without knowing what you would consider 'well known', it's a little hard to come up with examples. Where one might consider the 'creeping barrage' to be common knowledge, another might have only learned it by chance.
Anyways, AskHistorians typically takes a while to come up with a well thought-out answer, and to avoid re-inventing the wheel, let me show you a few past discussions that might be exactly what you're looking for.
Here's one that I think answers the main meat of your question. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/37epxy/i_kept_hearing_about_significant_infantry_combat/crm3z5r/?context=3
Complimenting that, here's a discussion on infantry charges and the logic behind them. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/t77wz/we_have_all_heard_of_the_mass_infantary_charges/c4k7e10/
Here's another piece, regarding technological breakthroughs and military breakthroughs, pun intended. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2sggut/in_ww1_how_did_the_innovations_of_tanks_planes/cnpbdig/
All of these came out of our lovely FAQ section, specifically the Trench Warfare part, here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/wwi#wiki_trench_warfare
Paging /u/NMW.
Cheers.