They were already digging a lot, why didn't they just dig

>>2872956
aside from being a slow and expesnive process it would mean that if your enemy detected it they could simply collapse that tunnel with explosives and kill all the soldiers

>>2872956
You have to get past the enemy trench lines to do that, and they were fighting tunnel battles in WW1.

>>2872979
I meant, make a fucking tunnel UNDER enemy trenches while they were too busy sitting on a trench thinking the main force is on the other side of the gas cloud.

>>2872974
As expensive as dragging the war for 4 years and wasting shells, and ammo to hit nothing?

Also, the ground would be shaking all fucking day because of shells, who the fuck would figure a tunnel was being excavated a hundred meters below them?

>>2872956

The fucking British tried it and failed miserably.

OP, what do you think a small breakthrough would accomplish on a front that extends from the English Channel all the way down to switzerland?

After one breakthrough the allies will start to build counter tunnels. Anyway a counter attack will retake the little progress made.
The best you can do is blow up the enemy trench and go
>we won vimy and shit

>>2873126
Gee, i don't know. Kill everyone at the capital and force them out of the war perhaps?

>>2873183
Why do you think a localized breakthrough, which occurred during just about every offensive on the Western Front, would lead to the entire front collapsing?

>>2872991
>As expensive as dragging the war for 4 years and wasting shells, and ammo to hit nothing?

Yes, tunneling isnt cheap. It is also very expensive in the sense of opportunity cost to divert the resources and manpower to construct such a tunnel - which at the time would have been the longest tunnel ever constructed on top of having to be constructed in secrecy and quickly.

>Also, the ground would be shaking all fucking day because of shells, who the fuck would figure a tunnel was being excavated a hundred meters below them?

Perhaps if it was one of those dicky single man tunnels but a tunnel big enough to transport entire divisions of soldiers (ie enough to be able to make a difference) could not be done quietly and quickly.

It's hilarious that someone would think digging a tunnel for 100km from the front to Paris would be in any way even remotely possible

>>2873223
Whats impossible about expecting Germans in being able to build the longest tunnel in human history in complete secrecy using only technology available in 1910s?

>>2873209
How about making a dicky single man tunnel, fill it with shells and blow up the trench?

>>2872956
They were already flying a lot, why didn't they just fly all the way to paris?

>>2873278
>How about making a dicky single man tunnel, fill it with shells and blow up the trench?

Moderately successful as demonstrated by the Brits but that was the limit of its effectiveness.