Is it true that in the Franco-Prussian war Prussian tactics were not innovative?
I've been reading Geoffrey Wawro's book about the Franco-Prussian war and he argues that Prussian tactics of basically swarming French positions were wasteful and not innovative. I am somewhat suspicious that he argues from an assumed conclusion that puts all the blame on bad French generals (Bazaine!) and low morale of the French troops and concedes very little to the Prussians. Every battle description is basically the Prussians attack, get wiped out by French chassepot and mitrailleuse fire but then feckless French generals and dispirited French infantry refuse to counter-attack and sit around waiting until the Prussian artillery gets into range and blasts them away, then the cowardly Frenchmen drop all their kit and run away. I don't know it seems a bit cartoonish. I gather that he's trying to explain that the unearned self-confidence of the Germans (and other countries who studied at the time the Franco-Prussian war) led to the catastrophe of WW1 and it's probably correct at some level but still seems to discount a very creditable performance by the Prussians in the war of 1870.