 Complete the following phrase:  When he arrived in Europe, Pershing had openly scorned the slow trench warfare of the previous three years on the Western Front, believing that American soldiers skill with the rifle would enable them to avoid costly and senseless fighting over a small area of no-mans land. This was regarded as unrealistic by British and French commanders, and privately by a number of Americans such as Army Chief of Staff General Tasker Bliss and even Liggett. Even German generals were negative, with Ludendorff dismissing Pershings strategic efforts in the Meuse-Argonne offensive by recalling how the attacks of the youthful American troops broke down with the heaviest losses. The AEF had performed well in the relatively open warfare of the Second Battle of the Marne, but the eventual American casualties against German defensive positions in the Argonne roughly 120,000 American casualties in six weeks, against 35 or 40 German divisions were not noticeably better than those of the Franco-British 