Field Marshal William 'Bill' Slim ended World War II in command of Fourteenth Army. His understanding of what motivated men in the most trying of times is well publicized. Indeed, he is most well-known for his thoughts on morale and leadership....
Field Marshall Viscount Slim holds a special place in modern military history. He soundly defeated the Imperial Japanese Army in Burma in 1945, retaking the strategically important Burma Road, and safeguarding the Chinese Theater from sure...
The purpose of this monograph is to investigate the effects of battle command on a conventional corps fighting in an unconventional environment. Battle command is a new doctrinal term describing how a commander leads his unit into an operation....
This monograph analyzes the 1944-45 Burma Campaign between the Japanese and Allied forces as a case study to evaluate current United States Army Senior Leadership doctrine in Field Manual 22-103, Leadership and Command at Senior Levels. It uses...
On 15 January 1942 the Japanese invaded Burma. Within months, the Japanese occupied the country and forced the Allied forces to conduct a brutal retreat into neighboring India. During the next three and one half years, both forces continued to...
As warfare continues to become more complex due to the advent and proliferation of new technology, blending of ethnic and cultural groups, population growth and urbanization, and tendency towards asymmetric warfare, commanders will have more...
Just as many football players have failed to become great coaches, so too have many governmental leaders, leaders of industry and military officers failed to succeed when placed at higher levels of responsibility. Understanding how to solve...
This monograph examines the role of the operational level commander in rebuilding combat effectiveness in the force. For the purpose of this monograph, the author defined combat effectiveness as the ability of an army to impose its will on enemy...
No commander can win a campaign by himself; however, campaigns are won or lost in part because of the personal strengths and weaknesses of a commander. Military theorists have long recognized an intangible quality in all victorious commanders: the...
This monograph examines the evolution and practice of operational art. The campaign for the reconquest of Burma in 1943-1945 as conducted by LTG William J. Slim while in command of Fourteenth Army is analyzed. The intent of the monograph is to...
The rise of industrialization coupled with the growth of technology have contributed to creating a complexity to modern warfare that far exceeds the primitive conditions of earlier periods. Defined as the creative use of distributed operations for...
This monograph examines the adequacy of the OOS as a framework for operational synchronization. In light of current downsizing, the U.S. military is going to have to discover ways to do more with less. The answer will not be found solely in...
This monograph analyzes two historical campaigns and current doctrine to determine what information is required of the operational commander to make decisions. It looks at the nature of the information used by the operational commander in the...
This monograph investigates the possible use of initiative by the operational commander when conducting a defense. AirLand Battle doctrine is based on securing or retaining the initiative and exercising it aggressively to accomplish the mission,...
This monograph analyzes the significance of the concept of operational vision. It uses classical theory and modern concepts to define the characteristics of operational vision and then expresses the significance of this concept in terms of the...
This monograph analyzes current theories of intuitive decision making originating from the fields of psychology, cognitive science, political science, and management science. The monograph's objective is to determine whether these theories help...
The tension between the operational functions, maneuver and sustainment, produces an interesting dynamic. As much as some may insist, maneuver at the operational level of war cannot be completely addressed without a thorough discussion of...
This study investigates the criteria an operational commander must examine to decide if he should conduct a voluntary retrograde operation. The Army's current doctrine addresses how to conduct a retrograde but not why. The aim of this study is to...
The War in Burma is all too frequently forgotten as a source of relevant military experience. Admittedly it did not have the strategic importance of other theatres such as the Pacific or North West Europe, but it did witness some of the hardest and...
This monograph explores the role of sequels in the process of operational design. The complexity and resiliency of today's armies has made the design of campaigns to achieve strategic ends an increasingly difficult undertaking. Campaign planners...