In recent years a plethora of comments have appeared praising the impressive combat effectiveness of the pre-1945 German Army. Many of these comments have attributed a large measure of the Germans' tactical success to the concept now referred to as...
The trend in the employment of U.S. forces in contingency operations suggests that the National Command Authority favors air centric responses to military operations. When this trend is coupled with the decreasing likelihood of large-scale armored...
This monograph concerns the adequacy of heavy brigade doctrine for meeting engagements. Specifically, it discusses how well FM 71-3, Armored and Mechanized Infantry Brigade, provides guidance for the preparation for and conduct of meeting...
The authors of AirLand battle doctrine, realizing the importance of decentralized command and control on the modern battlefield, incorporated Auftragstaktik in US Army doctrine to deal with the uncertainty of war. Despite the importance of...
Wargames have long been used to educate soldiers in the art of war. Today, diminishing resources and expanding technologies have made the games an indispensable feature of the US Army's formal training and education system. Much has been written...
This study examines the extensive experiences of the Soviet Army as it struggled to master the night. Driven by necessity to operate in the relative safety of darkness, the Soviet Army in World War II learned to capitalize on night operations and...
This monograph examines the effectiveness of intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB) at battalion level. The U.S. Army's current warfighting doctrine, AirLand Battle, relies heavily on intelligence. For more than a decade, IPB has been...
This study examines current obstacle planning procedures to determine their adequacy for supporting the conduct of war at the operational level of war. The major premise of the paper is that obstacles can have a significant impact on military...
This study examines what the key issues are governing the creation and employment of operational reserves by AFCENT in its defense against a no or short notice Warsaw Pact attack. The theoretical notion of operational reserves as discussed by...
This monograph explores the truism that "No plan survives first contact with the enemy". Why do commanders and staff officers continue to plan in great detail when the results of the Combat Training Centers and other events continue to reinforce...
Col. John Boyd, USAF (Ret),famous for developing the OODA (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act) loop model, spent most of his adult life trying to convince the U.S. military establishment of the merits of his theory for maneuver warfare later called the Boyd...
This study is concerned only with the landing of airborne fighting forces in an area occupied or controlled by an enemy and with the subsequent tactical commitment of those forces in conventional ground combat. Contents include German airborne...
The following study is a composite of the opinions, ideas, and memories of five German officers who helped shape the course of the war in the West- three from OB West, one from OKW, and one from A Gp B. There are commentaries by Bodo Zimmerman,...
The German General Staff launched Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 assuming the eastern campaign would last only three months. However, within six months after the initiation of hostilities the Red Army blunted the Wehrmacht’s attack outside the...
In late 1943, the British army ordered the veteran 7th Armored, 51st (Highland), and 50th (Northumbrian) Divisions to return to the Great Britain to provide combat experienced troops for the invasion of northwest Europe. On D-Day, the 50th Division...
This study is an historical analysis of the background and demonstrated leadership attributes of 332 World War II German corps commanders on the Eastern, Italian, and Western Fronts. Overall characteristics are determined based on each officer's...
The thesis that air operations at night are evolving as doctrinal employment of air power for counterinsurgency is founded basically on the history of night air operations in Vietnam during the period 1962 through 1964. It became evident early in...