<P> There were also countermeasures to these artillery tactics: by aiming a counter barrage directly behind an enemy's creeping barrage, one could target the infantry that was following the creeping barrage . Microphones (Sound ranging) were used to triangulate the position of enemy guns and engage in counter-battery fire . Muzzle flashes of guns could also be spotted and used to target enemy artillery . </P> <P> Railways dominated in this war as in no other . Men and material could get to the front at an unprecedented rate by rail, but trains were vulnerable at the front itself . Thus, armies could only advance at the pace that they could build or rebuild a railway, e.g. the British advance across Sinai . Motorized transport was only extensively used in the last two years of World War I. After the rail head, troops moved the last mile on foot, and guns and supplies were drawn by horses and trench railways . The German strategy was known beforehand by the Allies simply because of the vast marshaling yards on the Belgian border that had no other purpose than to deliver the mobilized German army to its start point . The German mobilization plan was little more than a vast detailed railway timetable . Railways lacked the flexibility of motor transport and this lack of flexibility percolated through into the conduct of the war . </P> <P> All countries involved in the war applied the full force of industrial mass - production to the manufacture of weapons and ammunition, especially artillery shells . Women on the home - front played a crucial role in this by working in munitions factories . This complete mobilization of a nation's resources, or "total war" meant that not only the armies, but also the economies of the warring nations were in competition . </P> <P> For a time, in 1914--1915, some hoped that the war could be won through an attrition of materiel--that the enemy's supply of artillery shells could be exhausted in futile exchanges . But production was ramped up on both sides and hopes proved futile . In Britain the Shell Crisis of 1915 brought down the British government, and led to the building of HM Factory, Gretna, a huge munitions factory on the English - Scottish border . </P>

Which of the following technologies was important to warfare at sea during wwi