Original sentence: Each platoon was to be given a complete picture of the battle plan and given a specific task, rather than vague instructions from a distant general.The Canadian Corps' commanders were determined to learn from earler mistakes and spent months planning their attack.The French and British had suffered thousands of casualties in previous attempts to take it; the French alone lost 150,000 men in 1915.This approach came from the French experience at the Battle of Verdun in 1916
Edited sentence: Each platoon was to be given a complete picture of the battle plan and given a specific task, rather than vague instructions from an absent general.The Canadian Corps' commanders were determined to learn from the mistakes of the French and British and spent months planning their attack.The French and British  had suffered thousands of casualties in previous attempts to take it; the French alone lost 150,000 men  in 1915.This new approach in battle planning, a departure from generations of British military protocol, came from the French experience at the Battle of Verdun in 1916